page_title: Kingdom of Ait Abbas
section_title: 17th and 18th centuries
hierarchical_section_title: Kingdom of Ait Abbas / History 1510-1830 / 17th and 18th centuries
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Généalogie de Mokrani, Royaume Ait Abbas, Kabylie du XVI ème au XIX ème siècle.
context_page_description: The Kingdom of the Ait Abbas or Sultanate of the Beni Abbas, was a Berber state of North Africa, then a fief and a principality, controlling Lesser Kabylie and its surroundings from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century. It is referred to in the Spanish historiography as "reino de Labes"; sometimes more commonly referred to by its ruling family, the Mokrani, in Berber At Muqran. Its capital was the Kalâa of Ait Abbas, an impregnable citadel in the Biban mountain range.
  Founded by last Hafsid dynasty emirs of Bejaia, the kingdom was for a long time a bastion of resistance to the Spaniards, then to the regency of Algiers. Strategically located on the road from Algiers to Constantine and from the Mediterranean Sea to the Sahara, its capital Kalâa of Ait Abbas attracted Andalusians, Christians and Jews in the sixteenth century, fleeing Spain or Algiers. Their know-how enriched a local industrial fabric whose legacy is the handicraft of the Ait Abbas tribe. The surrounding tribes were also home to intense intellectual activity and a literary tradition that rivalled those of other Maghreb cities.
context_section_description: In 1600, Ahmed Amokrane marched against the forces of Soliman Veneziano, Pasha of Algiers, which were trying to enter Kabylie. He defeated them and destroyed Borj Hamza, built in 1595 at Bouira, but he died during the fighting. He left as his legacy the family name "Amokrane" (meaning 'great' or 'leader" in kabyle) which was later Arabised as "Mokrani", to his descendants.
  His successor was Sidi Naceur Mokrani, who was very religious and surrounded himself with scholars and students of Islam, neglecting the affairs of his kingdom. This provoked the anger of his military commanders and of the merchants of Aït Abbas. Sidi Naceur was ambushed and assassinated in 1620. His children survived however, and his oldest son, Betka Mokrani, was taken in by the Hashemite tribe and raised among them. They helped him regain his princely rank by marrying him to the daughter of the chief of the Ouled Madi.
  Si Betka took part in the battle of Guidjel on 20 September 1638), at which the tribes fought together with the armies of Constantine against the Pasha of Algiers. This led to the Beys of Constantine becoming effectively independent of Ottoman rule from Algiers. Si Betka Mokrani simply never recognised the authority of Algiers, and managed to reconquer the lands of his grandfather. However, instead of styling himself  "Sultan of the Kalâa" he assumed the title "Sheikh of the Medjana'". He defeated the Aït Abbas tribe several times, but refused to return to his ancestral seat at the Kalaa. He died in 1680 at his fortress of "Borj Medjana", leaving four sons – Bouzid, Abdallah, Aziz and Mohammed-el-Gandouz.
  The oldest son, Bouzid Mokrani, known as sultan Bouzid, who ruled from 1680 to 1735 on the same terms as his father, entirely free from the authority of Algiers. After a period of dissent from hs brothers, he managed to maintain family stability. He twice fought against the Regency of Algiers, which wanted him to allow its armies to cross his territory in order to link Algiers with Constantine, particularly through the strategic pass known as "the iron gates" in the Biban mountains. Having defeated Algiers, he reinstituted the "ouadia", a system which required Algiers to pay him if it wished to move its troops across his land. This arrangement remained in place until the fall of the Regency of Algiers in 1830. The origins of the ouadia lay in the victory of the Aït Abbas over the Turks in 1553 and 1554, which had effectively made the Mokranis lords of the Hodna and the Bibans.
  Despite this arrangement, the Mokranis refused to allow passage Algerian troops to cross their land when the French attacked the coast in 1664 during the Djidjelli Expedition. Ali, king of Kuku likewise refused passage to the armies of Algiers. Nevertheless, they did join a jihad with Algiers and Constantine to repel the duke of Beaufort, Louis XIV's commander.
  The Berbers sought to negotiate with the duke of Beaufort, who was dug in around Djidjelli, but he rejected their peace proposals. The expedition ended with victory for the Berbers and Turks and a major defeat for Louis XIV, whose armies abandoned their artillery. The Mokranis took the cannon away to the Kalaa as trophies, with their fleur de lys decorations. Other French-type cannons were also found at the Kalaa later, most probably these date from the time of Louis XII, and were presented by Francis I of France to Tunis as part of his alliance with the Ottoman Empire. They were then captured by emperor a Charles V when he took Tunis in 1535, and transported to Béjaïa, which was a Spanish possession until 1555. From there, it appears that they were passed on to the Aït Abbas when they were Spanish allies. A smaller cannon, also found in the Kalaa, indicates that there was a local foundry for small-bore guns, operated by a Spanish renegade.
caption: Family tree of the Amokrane (or Mokrani) according to Louis Rinn (c.1891)
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