Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

Mediterranean against the Habsburg Empire, which then fell to the Spanish
king Charles V, and Algiers could serve as an advanced strategic post from
which he could counter the Christian powers in the western Mediterranean. 71
Consequently, Selim I named Khayreddin Beylerbey or province
governor of the newly-created Beylerbeylik of Algiers and bestowed on him the
title of Pasha. 72
Algiers then became the capital and center of Ottoman
authority in the Maghrib from which a vast coastal region extending from
Tlemcen in the west to Derna on the boundary with Egypt in the east was won
for the Ottoman Empire. 73
More, the Sultan provided him with arms,
ammunitions, and 2,000 soldiers recruited exclusively in Turkey—the
Janissaries; those were the nucleus of the Algerian army. 74 That way Algiers
acquired a strong and efficient army, disciplined, and trained in the modern
forms of welfare. 75 Added to the already available naval mastership of the freelance
corsairs who had arrived earlier, Algiers constructed a fine military
power that permitted it to emerge as a promising modern state. That combined
force of janissaries and corsairs turned out to be the undisputable pillar of the
71 Tal Shuval, “The Ottoman Algerian Elite and its Ideology,” International Journal of Middle East
Studies, 32: 3 (Aug., 2000), p. 326; Hess, Forgotten Frontier, pp. 9-10.
72 For Turkish rulers of Algiers see Kaddache, L’Algérie Ottoman, pp. 58, 87, 100, 117.
73 During the 16 th century, the political and geographical map of the Beylerbeylik of Algiers, or
‘Cezayir-i Garp’ as it was officially called, encompassed the costal areas of North Africa extending
from Tlemcen (in contemporary Algeria) to Derna (in contemporary Libya) with the city of Algiers as
administrative center. That area roughly corresponds with what the westerners call the Barbary Coast—
excluding Morocco which was an independent sultanate. Tripolitania and Tunis were established as
independent Turkish provinces in 1554 and 1574 respectively and Algiers remained in control of a
territory corresponding to the northern part of contemporary Algeria until 1830. Therefore, in the
context of this work, ‘Algiers’ refers to both the Turkish province and capital city of that province as
they existed between 1519 and 1830.
74 Shuval, “Ottoman Algerian Elite,’ p. 325.
75 Daniel Panzac, Les corsaires barbaresques: La fin d’une épopée, 1800-1820 (Paris: CNRS Editions,
1999), p. 12.
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