A DESCRIPTION OF ALGIERS – Corsairs & Captives

In 1835, the Reverend Michael Russell published a book on North Africa titled History and Present Condition of the Barbary States. Algiers is one of the many places he describes.

Russell was writing at the end of the era of Barbary corsairs. The French had captured Algiers five years before the publication of the History and Present Condition of the Barbary States, putting an end to that city’s existence as a corsair capital. The other corsair cities followed suit. All of Europe was triumphant about this development. As Russell puts it in the Preface:

“The wars which, from time to time, were waged against the rovers of Tunis, Salé, and Algiers, from the days of the Emperor Charles the Fifth down to the late invasion by the French, are full of incident and adventure; presenting, in the most vivid colors, the triumph of educated man over the rude strength of the barbarian, coupled with the inefficacy of all negotiation which rested on national faith or honor. The records of piracy, which, not many years ago, filled the whole of Christendom with terror and indignation, may now be perused with feelings of complacency, arising from the conviction that the power of the marauders has been broken, and their ravages finally checked. Algiers, after striking its flag to the fleets of Britain, was compelled to obey the soldiers of France—an event that may be said to constitute a new era in the policy of the Moors, and seems to hold forth a prospect, however indistinct, of civilization, industry, and the dominion of law over brutal force and passion.”

By modern standards, of course, this sort of ethnocentric triumphalism is a little distasteful, but people are products of the time and place in which they live, and Europe had suffered through three centuries of predation, so perhaps they can be excused for indulging in a little self-congratulatory boasting.

One of the strange things about Algiers is that it seems to have existed almost in a kind of time warp: for several hundred years the city didn’t seem to change. Writers from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries all describe essentially the same place. Russell’s description is no exception, and though he may have been writing in the early nineteenth century, his portrayal of Algiers can apply to the city anytime from the late sixteenth century onwards.

So here is Russell’s description of Algiers, taken from the History and Present Condition of the Barbary States. His European triumphalism creeps in now and again, but, in general, his depiction of the city is reliable.

The name “Algiers” literally signifies “the Island” and was derived from the original construction of its harbor, one part of which was separated from the land. A variety of circumstances have contributed to bestow great celebrity on this capital, some of which reflect as little honor on the policy of European states as on the character of its own rulers and the piratical pursuits of its inhabitants.

The city of Algiers rises in the form of an amphitheater at the extremity of a fortified anchoring ground. The tops of the houses are all over white, being flat and covered with lime and sand, as floors. The upper part of the town is not so broad as the lower part, and, therefore, from the sea it looks just like the top-sail of a ship. It is a very strong place, and well fortified with castles and guns. There are seven castles without the walls, and two tiers of guns in most of them. But in the greatest castle, which is on the mole, the rock jetty which projects into the harbor, there are three tiers of guns, many of them of an extraordinary length, carrying fifty, sixty, yea eighty pound shot. Besides all these castles, there is at the higher end of the town, within the walls, another castle with many guns. And, moreover, on many places towards the sea are great guns planted.

Algiers is well walled, and surrounded with a great trench. It has five gates, and some of these have two, some three, other gates within them, and some of them are plated all over with thick iron. Thus the place is made strong and convenient for being what it is—a nest of pirates.

When viewed from the sea, the city is quite striking. The white buildings rising in successive terraces have an imposing effect, while the numerous country mansions scattered over a circle of hills, amid groves of olive, citron, and banana trees, present a peaceful and rural landscape very opposite in its character to that of a nation of pirates.

Upon entering the city, however, the charm entirely dissolves. The streets are so extremely narrow that in some of them three persons can scarcely walk abreast, and when you meet a person on horseback, you are obliged to stand close by the houses to escape from being trampled underfoot. This strange style of building is adopted on account of its affording better shade from the fierce rays of the sun, and more protection in case of earthquakes, by one of which Algiers suffered severely in 1717.

There are nine great mosques and fifty smaller ones within the walls ; three principal schools, and several bazaars. Its finest public buildings are those of the five cassarias, which serve as barracks for the soldiery. The Dey’s palace has two fine courts, surrounded with spacious galleries, surmounted by two rows of marble columns; its internal ornaments consist chiefly of mirrors, clocks, and carpets. There are sundry taverns kept in the city by Christian slaves, which are often frequented even by the Turks and the Moors. The population has been variously estimated, but the city seems to contain about 2,000 Christian slaves, 15,000 Jews, and 100,000 Mohammedans.

Though there are taverns in Algiers, there is no convenience in them for sleeping, so those who enter it from the country are obliged to lodge with some friend, while European merchants hire apartments in the houses of Jews.

The immediate vicinity of the town is understood to contain about twenty thousand vineyards and gardens, the beauty of these environs being in no respect inferior to those of Richmond, Chantilly, or Fiesole. Its effect, however, is much lessened when we reflect on the people into whose possession so fine a country has fallen. The landscape is truly delightful if viewed only with a passing and rapid glance, but when the eye rests more closely upon it, the barrenness and aridity of many spots are disclosed, showing the contempt of its barbarous inhabitants for agriculture, the place of which they endeavor to supply by dedicating themselves to war and plunder.

The port is of an oblong figure, 130 fathoms in length and eighty broad. The Round Castle at the mouth of the harbor, built by the Spaniards when they were masters of the island, and the two large batteries, are said to be bomb proof, and each of them has their lower embrasures furnished with thirty-six pounders. The guns are of brass, and their carriages and other appendages in good order. The battery of the Mole Gate, upon the eastern angle of the city, is mounted with several long pieces of ordnance, one of which has seven cylinders three inches in diameter. Half a furlong to the south-west of the harbor is the battery of the Fishers’ Gate, which, consisting of a double row of cannon, commands the entrance into the port and the roadstead before it.

It has already been remarked that this barbaric metropolis does not correspond to the impression made upon the eye of a voyager who approaches it from the sea. In fact, everything is contrary to its fine appearance from a distance. The narrow streets are dirty and dark, and full of rubbish. The buildings are all of stone, as well as the tops and floors of the houses, with very little wood. Every four or five tenements are bound together by arches, and they have but very small windows. This city, therefore, could never be burned by rockets; shells are the surest means for its destruction.

The following view, created by an eminent French artist gives a good idea of the general appearance of the edifices in Algiers, and some notion of the manner in which the native architects construct their dwellings.

The above description of Algiers is taken from Michael Russell’s History and Present Condition of the Barbary States: Comprehending a View of their Civil Institutions, Antiquities, Arts, Religion, Literature, Commerce, Agriculture, and Natural Productions, pp. 314 – 324. As is my habit with books such as this, I have lightly abridged and edited the original to make it more readable.