Rise of Islam in Algeria
Unlike the invasions of previous religions and cultures, the coming of
Islam, which was spread by
Arabs, was to have pervasive and long-lasting effects on the
Maghrib. The new faith, in its various forms, would penetrate nearly all segments of society, bringing with it armies, learned men, and fervent mystics, and in large part replacing tribal practices and loyalties with new social norms and political idioms.
Nonetheless, the Islamization and Arabization of the region were complicated and lengthy processes. Whereas nomadic
Berbers were quick to convert and assist the Arab invaders, not until the twelfth century under the Almohad Dynasty did the
Christian and
Jewish communities become totally marginalized.
The first Arab military expeditions into the Maghrib, between
642 and
669, resulted in the spread of Islam. These early forays from a base in
Egypt occurred under local initiative rather than under orders from the central
caliphate. When the seat of the caliphate moved from
Medina to
Damascus, however, the
Umayyads (a Muslim dynasty ruling from 661 to 750) recognized that the strategic necessity of dominating the Mediterranean dictated a concerted military effort on the North African front. In 670, therefore, an Arab army under
Uqba ibn Nafi established the town of
Al Qayrawan about 160 kilometers south of present-day
Tunis and used it as a base for further operations.
Abu al Muhajir Dinar, Uqba's successor, pushed westward into Algeria and eventually worked out a modus vivendi with
Kusayla, the ruler of an extensive confederation of Christian Berbers. Kusayla, who had been based in Tilimsan (
Tlemcen), became a Muslim and moved his headquarters to Takirwan, near Al Qayrawan.
This harmony was short-lived, however. Arab and Berber forces controlled the region in turn until
697. By
711 Umayyad forces helped by Berber converts to Islam had conquered all of North Africa. Governors appointed by the Umayyad caliphs ruled from Al Qayrawan, capital of the new wilaya (province) of
Ifriqiya, which covered
Tripolitania (the western part of present-day Libya),
Tunisia, and eastern Algeria.
Paradoxically, the spread of Islam among the Berbers did not guarantee their support for the Arab-dominated caliphate. The ruling Arabs alienated the Berbers by taxing them heavily; treating converts as second-class Muslims; and, at worst, by enslaving them. As a result, widespread opposition took the form of open revolt in 739-40 under the banner of
Kharijite Islam. The Kharijites objected to
Ali, the fourth caliph, making peace with the Umayyads in 657 and left Ali's camp (khariji means "those who leave"). The Kharijites had been fighting
Umayyad rule in the East, and many Berbers were attracted by the sect's egalitarian precepts. For example, according to Kharijism, any suitable Muslim candidate could be elected caliph without regard to race, station, or descent from the Prophet
Muhammad.
After the revolt, Kharijites established a number of theocratic tribal kingdoms, most of which had short and troubled histories. Others, however, like
Sijilmasa and
Tilimsan, which straddled the principal trade routes, proved more viable and prospered. In 750 the
Abbasids, who succeeded the Umayyads as Muslim rulers, moved the caliphate to
Baghdad and reestablished caliphal authority in Ifriqiya, appointing
Ibrahim ibn al Aghlab as governor in Al Qayrawan. Although nominally serving at the caliph's pleasure, Al Aghlab and his successors, the
Aghlabids, ruled independently until 909, presiding over a court that became a center for learning and culture.
Just to the west of Aghlabid lands,
Abd ar Rahman ibn Rustam ruled most of the central Maghrib from
Tahert, southwest of
Algiers. The rulers of the
Rustamid imamate, which lasted from 761 to 909, each an
Ibadi Kharijite
imam, were elected by leading citizens. The imams gained a reputation for honesty, piety, and justice. The court at Tahert was noted for its support of scholarship in mathematics, astronomy, and astrology, as well as theology and law. The Rustamid imams, however, failed, by choice or by neglect, to organize a reliable standing army. This important factor, accompanied by the dynasty's eventual collapse into decadence, opened the way for Tahert's demise under the assault of the
Fatimids.
Fatimids
In the closing decades of the ninth century, missionaries of the
Ismaili sect of
Shia Islam converted the
Kutama Berbers of what was later known as the
Petite Kabylie region and led them in battle against the
Sunni rulers of
Ifriqiya. Al Qayrawan fell to them in
909. The Ismaili imam, Ubaydallah, declared himself caliph and established Mahdia as his capital. Ubaydallah initiated the
Fatimid Dynasty, named after Fatima, daughter of Muhammad and wife of Ali, from whom the caliph claimed descent.
The
Fatimids turned westward in
911, destroying the imamate of
Tahert and conquering
Sijilmasa in
Morocco.
Ibadi Kharijite refugees from Tahert fled south to the oasis at
Ouargla beyond the
Atlas Mountains, whence in the eleventh century they moved southwest to Oued
Mzab. Maintaining their cohesion and beliefs over the centuries, Ibadi religious leaders have dominated public life in the region to this day.
For many years, the Fatimids posed a threat to
Morocco, but their deepest ambition was to rule the East, the Mashriq, which included
Egypt and Muslim lands beyond. By
969 they had conquered Egypt. In
972 the Fatimid ruler
Al Muizz established the new city of
Cairo as his capital. The Fatimids left the rule of Ifriqiya and most of Algeria to the Zirids (
972-
1148). This
Berber dynasty, which had founded the towns of
Miliana,
Médéa, and
Algiers and centered significant local power in Algeria for the first time, turned over its domain west of Ifriqiya to the
Banu Hammad branch of its family. The Hammadids ruled from
1011 to
1151, during which time Bejaïa became the most important port in the
Maghrib.
This period was marked by constant conflict, political instability, and economic decline. The
Hammadids, by rejecting the Ismaili doctrine for Sunni orthodoxy and renouncing submission to the Fatimids, initiated chronic conflict with the
Zirids. Two great Berber confederationsengaged in an epic struggle. The fiercely brave, camelborne nomads of the western desert and steppe as well as the sedentary farmers of the Kabylie to the east swore allegiance to the Sanhaja. Their traditional enemies, the
Zenata, were tough, resourceful horsemen from the cold plateau of the northern interior of Morocco and the western Tell in
Algeria.
In addition, raiders from
Genoa,
Pisa, and
Norman Sicily attacked ports and disrupted coastal trade. Trans-Saharan trade shifted to Fatimid Egypt and to routes in the west leading to Spanish markets. The countryside was being overtaxed by growing cities.
Contributing to these political and economic dislocations was a large incursion of Arab beduin from Egypt starting in the first half of the eleventh century. Part of this movement was an invasion by the
Banu Hilal and
Banu Sulaym tribes, apparently sent by the Fatimids to weaken the Zirids. These Arab beduin overcame the Zirids and Hammadids and in
1057 sacked Al Qayrawan. They sent farmers fleeing from the fertile plains to the mountains and left cities and towns in ruin.
For the first time, the extensive use of
Arabic spread to the countryside. Sedentary Berbers who sought protection from the Hilalians were gradually Arabized.
Almoravids
The
Almoravid movement developed early in the
eleventh century among the Sanhaja of the western Sahara, whose control of trans-Saharan trade routes was under pressure from the Zenata Berbers in the north and the state of Ghana in the south.
Yahya ibn Ibrahim al Jaddali, a leader of the
Lamtuna tribe of the Sanhaja confederation, decided to raise the level of Islamic knowledge and practice among his people. To accomplish this, on his return from the
hajj (Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) in
1048â€"
1049, he brought with him
Abd Allah ibn Yasin al Juzuli, a Moroccan scholar. In the early years of the movement, the scholar was concerned only with imposing moral discipline and a strict adherence to Islamic principles among his followers. Abd Allah ibn Yasin also became known as one of the marabouts, or holy persons (from
al murabitun, "those who have made a religious retreat").
The Almoravid movement shifted from promoting religious reform to engaging in military conquest after 1054 and was led by
Lamtuna leaders: first
Yahya, then his brother
Abu Bakr, and then his cousin
Yusuf ibn Tashfin. With Marrakech as their capital, the
Almoravids had conquered
Morocco, the Maghrib as far east as
Algiers, and
Spain up to the Ebro River by 1106. Under the Almoravids, the Maghrib and Spain acknowledged the spiritual authority of the
Abbasid caliphate in
Baghdad, reuniting them temporarily with the Islamic community in the Mashriq.
Although it was not an entirely peaceful time, North Africa benefited economically and culturally during the Almoravid period, which lasted until 1147. Muslim Spain (Andalus in Arabic) was a great source of artistic and intellectual inspiration. The most famous writers of Andalus worked in the Almoravid court, and the builders of the
Grand Mosque of Tilimsan, completed in
1136, used as a model the
Grand Mosque of Córdoba.
Almohads
Like the Almoravids, the
Almohads found their initial inspiration in Islamic reform. Their spiritual leader, the Moroccan
Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Tumart, sought to reform Almoravid decadence. Rejected in Marrakech and other cities, he turned to his Masmuda tribe in the Atlas Mountains for support. Because of their emphasis on the unity of
God, his followers were known as
Al Muwahhidun (unitarians, or Almohads).
Although declaring himself
mahdi,
imam, and
masum (infallible leader sent by God), Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Tumart consulted with a council of ten of his oldest disciples. Influenced by the Berber tradition of representative government, he later added an assembly composed of fifty leaders from various tribes. The Almohad rebellion began in
1125 with attacks on Moroccan cities, including
Sus and
Marrakech.
Upon Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Tumart's death in 1130, his successor
Abd al Mumin took the title of caliph and placed members of his own family in power, converting the system into a traditional monarchy. The Almohads entered Spain at the invitation of the Andalusian amirs, who had risen against the Almoravids there. Abd al Mumin forced the submission of the amirs and reestablished the
caliphate of Córdoba, giving the Almohad sultan supreme religious as well as political authority within his domains. The Almohads took control of Morocco in
1146, captured Algiers around
1151, and by
1160 had completed the conquest of the central Maghrib and advanced to Tripolitania. Nonetheless, pockets of Almoravid resistance continued to hold out in the Kabylie for at least fifty years.
After Abd al Mumin's death in 1163, his son
Abu Yaqub Yusuf (r. 1163-84) and grandson
Yaqub al Mansur (r. 1184-99) presided over the zenith of Almohad power. For the first time, the Maghrib was united under a local regime, and although the empire was troubled by conflict on its fringes, handcrafts and agriculture flourished at its center and an efficient bureaucracy filled the tax coffers. In
1229 the Almohad court renounced the teachings of
Muhammad ibn Tumart, opting instead for greater tolerance and a return to the
Maliki school of law. As evidence of this change, the Almohads hosted two of the greatest thinkers of Andalus:
Abu Bakr ibn Tufayl and
Ibn Rushd (Averroes).
The Almohads shared the crusading instincts of their
Castilian adversaries, but the continuing wars in Spain overtaxed their resources. In the Maghrib, the Almohad position was compromised by factional strife and was challenged by a renewal of tribal warfare. The
Bani Merin (Zenata Berbers) took advantage of declining Almohad power to establish a tribal state in Morocco, initiating nearly sixty years of warfare there that concluded with their capture of Marrakech, the last Almohad stronghold, in 1271. Despite repeated efforts to subjugate the central Maghrib, however, the Marinids were never able to restore the frontiers of the
Almohad Empire.
Zayyanids
From its capital at
Tunis, the
Hafsid dynasty made good its claim to be the legitimate successor of the Almohads in
Ifriqiya, while, in the central Maghrib, the
Zayyanids founded a dynasty at
Tlemcen. Based on a Zenata tribe, the
Bani Abd el Wad, which had been settled in the region by Abd al Mumin, the Zayyanids also emphasized their links with the Almohads.
For more than 300 years, until the region came under Ottoman suzerainty in the sixteenth century, the Zayyanids kept a tenuous hold in the central Maghrib. The regime, which depended on the administrative skills of Andalusians, was plagued by frequent rebellions but learned to survive as the vassal of the
Marinids or Hafsids or later as an ally of
Spain.
Many coastal cities defied the ruling dynasties and asserted their autonomy as municipal republics. They were governed by their merchant oligarchies, by tribal chieftains from the surrounding countryside, or by the
privateers who operated out of their ports.
Tlemcen prospered as a commercial center and was called the "pearl of the Maghrib." Situated at the head of the Imperial Road through the strategic
Taza Gap to
Marrakech, the city controlled the caravan route to
Sijilmasa, gateway for the gold and slave trade with the western Sudan.
Aragon came to control commerce between Tlemcen's port,
Oran, and Europe beginning about
1250. An outbreak of privateering out of
Aragon, however, severely disrupted this trade after about
1420.
Marabouts
The successor dynasties in the Maghrib—Marinids, Zayanids, and Hasfids—did not base their power on a program of religious reform as their predecessors had done. Of necessity they compromised with rural
cults that had survived the triumph of puritanical
orthodoxy in the twelfth century despite the efforts of the Almoravids and Almohads to stamp them out.
The aridity of official Islam had little appeal outside the mosques and schools of the cities. In the countryside, wandering
marabouts, or holy people, drew a large and devoted following. These men and women were believed to possess divine grace (baraka) or to be able to channel it to others. In life, the marabouts offered spiritual guidance, arbitrated disputes, and often wielded political power. After death, their cultserected domed tombs that became sites of pilgrimage.
Many tribes claimed descent from marabouts. In addition, small, autonomous republics led by holy men became a common form of government in the Maghrib. In Algeria, the influence of the marabouts continued through much of the Ottoman period, when the authorities would grant political and financial favors to these leaders to prevent tribal uprisings.
The final triumph of the 700-year
Christian reconquest of Spain, marked by the fall of
Granada in
1492, was accompanied by the forced conversion of Spanish Muslims (Moriscos). As a result of the
Inquisition, thousands of
Jews fled or were deported to the Maghrib, where many gained influence in government and commerce.
Without much difficulty, Christian Spain imposed its influence on the Maghrib coast by constructing fortified outposts (
presidios) and collecting tribute during the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. On or near the Algerian coast, Spain took control of
Mers el Kebir in
1505, Oran in 1509, and Tlemcen, Mostaganem, and Ténès, all west of
Algiers, in
1510. In the same year, the merchants of Algiers handed over one of the rocky islets in their harbor, where the Spaniards built a fort. The presidios in North Africa turned out to be a costly and largely ineffective military endeavor that did not guarantee access for Spain's merchant fleet. Indeed, most trade seemed to be transacted in the numerous free ports. Moreover, from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, sailing superior ships and hammering out shrewd concessions, merchants from
England,
Portugal, the
Netherlands,
France, and
Italy, as well as
Spain, dominated
Mediterranean trade.
Why Spain did not extend its North African conquests much beyond a few modest enclaves has puzzled historians. Some suggest that Spain held back because it was preoccupied with maintaining its territory in
Italy; others that Spain's energies were absorbed in obtaining the riches of the
New World. Still another possibility is that Spain was more intent on projecting its force on the high seas than on risking defeat in the forbidding interior of Africa.
Privateering was an age-old practice in the
Mediterranean. North African rulers engaged in it increasingly in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century because it was so lucrative, and because their merchant vessels, formerly a major source of income, were not permitted to enter
European ports. Although the methods varied, privateering generally involved private vessels raiding the ships of an enemy in peacetime under the authority of a ruler. Its purposes were to disrupt an opponent's trade and to reap rewards from the captives and cargo.
Privateering was a highly disciplined affair conducted under the command of the
rais (captain) of the fleets. Several captains became heroes in Algerian lore for their bravery and skill. The captains of the corsairs banded together in a self-regulating taifa (community) to protect and further the corporate interests of their trade. The
taifa came to be ethnically mixed, incorporating those captured Europeans who agreed to convert to Islam and supply information useful for future raids. The taifa also gained prestige and political influence because of its role in fighting the infidel and providing the merchants and rulers of Algiers with a major source of income. Algiers became the privateering city-state par excellence, especially between
1560 and
1620. And it was two privateer brothers who were instrumental in extending Ottoman influence in Algeria.
*
Second Barbary War*
History of Islam*
Islam in Algeria*Original text:
Library of Congress Country Study of Algeria
