Badreddine Necer

The Casbah of Algiers is founded on the ruins of old Icosium. It was a mid-sized city which, built on a hill, goes down towards the sea, divided in two: the High city and the Low city. One finds there masonries and mosques of the 17th century; Ketchaoua Mosque (built in 1794 by the Dey Baba Hassan) flanked of two minarets, Djama’a al-Djedid (1660, at the time of the ottomans) with its large finished ovoid cupola points some and its four coupolettes, Djamaâ el Kebir (oldest of the mosques, it was built by Almoravid ruler Yusuf ibn Tashfin), Ali Bitchin Mosque (Raïs, 1623). The casbah also contained several palaces, including Dar Aziza, Dar Mustapha Pacha, Palace of the Dey, and Dar Hassan Pacha which was built in 1791 to house the Pasha, who lived there for eight years.[4]

As the French occupation begun, in 1839, the French governor moved into Dar Hassan Pacha. In 1860, Napoleon III and Eugénie de Montijo visited.[4] Before the French occupation, the casbah contained around 13 Jama Masjids, 109 mosques, 32 mausoleums and 12 Zawiyas, total of 166 religious-related buildings. However, the majority of these religious buildings were destroyed during the occupation. In 1862, there were only 9 Jamaa Masjids, 19 mosques, 15 mausoleums and 5 Zawiyas left. Many mosques such as Ketchauoua Mosque and Berrani Mosque were converted into building with non-Islamic purposes, such as military barracks and churches.[5]

The Casbah played a central role during the Algerian struggle for independence (1954–1962). The Casbah was the epicenter of the insurgency planning of the National Liberation Front (FLN) and gave them a safe haven to plan and execute attacks against French citizens and law enforcement agents in Algeria at the time. In order to counter their efforts, the French had to focus specifically on the Casbah.