Casbah of Algiers
Mahieddine Bachtarzi was born on 15 December 1897 in the Casbah of Algiers, Algeria into a wealthy family of Turkish origin. Attending Islamic studies at the Medersa Ben Osman Sheikh, at the age of fifteen he was entrusted, due to the exceptional quality of his voice, as a reciter of the Qur'an at the Great Mosque of Algiers. However, preferring the limelight to the austerity of the prayer hall, he quickly abandoned the mosque to focus exclusively on singing.