When Muslim Arabs arrived in Algeria in the mid-7th century,
a large number of locals converted to the new faith. After the fall of the
Umayyad Arab Dynasty in 751, numerous local Berber dynasties emerged. Amongst
those dynasties were the Aghlabids, Almohads, Abdalwadid, Zirids, Rustamids,
Hammadids, Almoravids and the Fatimids. The Berber people controlled much of
the Maghreb region throughout the Middle Ages. The Berbers were made up of
several tribes. The two main branches were the Botr and Barnès tribes, who were
themselves divided into tribes, and again into sub-tribes. Each region of the
Maghreb contained several tribes. All these tribes were independent and made territorial
decisions.
In the early 16th century, Spain constructed fortified
outposts on or near the Algerian coast. Spain took control of Mers el Kebir in
1505, Oran in 1509, and Tlemcen, Mostaganem, and Ténès, 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.
In 1516 the Muslim privateer brothers Aruj and Hayreddin
Barbarossa, who operated successfully under the Hafsids, moved their base of
operations to Algiers. When Aruj was killed in 1518 during his invasion of
Tlemcen, Hayreddin succeeded him as military commander of Algiers. The Ottoman
sultan gave him the title of beylerbey and a contingent of some 2,000
janissaries. With the aid of this force, Hayreddin subdued the coastal region
between Constantine and Oran (although the city of Oran remained in Spanish
hands until 1791).
