page_title: Kingdom of Ait Abbas
section_title: Collapse of Mokrani authority
hierarchical_section_title: Kingdom of Ait Abbas / The fall of the Mokranis, 1830-1872 / Collapse of Mokrani authority
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Mohamed El Mokrani, héros de la résistance algérienne à la colonisation française
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: The title "bachagha" (Turkish: başağa, chief commander) was a creation of the French authorities, denoting an intermediate status between "caid" and "khalifa". The "khalifas", still of major importance, was later suppressed. The French continued to appoint "caids" and commanders for the tribes previously assigned to Ahmed Mokrani.
  In 1858, he was obliged to turn over some fines which he had collected in his own name to the French treasury. The zakat tax, already paid in kind to the Mokranis, was introduced in the Bordj Bou Arreridj region. The Hachem tribe was also obliged to pay the "achour" (tithe), and eventually, the Mokrani themselves were brought under the cash payment system. In 1858 and 1859 they were granted an exemption, however, ostensibly because of poor harvests, but in fact in order to accommodate them politically.
  Finally, the "oukil" or local agents of the Mokrani were replaced by caïds or sheikhs appointed directly by the colonial administration. 1859 and 1860 saw the suppression of the right of feudal lords to administer and the right to the "khedma", which traditionally allowed the beneficiary to claim a fee in return for bearing letters or orders from the administration (formerly, on behalf of the Bey). These measures provoked discontent among the traditional chiefs allied to France, but they still sought to avoid armed conflict and hoped that the French would continue to bed them to administer the territory. The reassuring official statements from the French governmen5 and from Napoleon III about the role of the Algerian feudal nobility were unconvincing and unsupported by deeds. The transfer from military to civilian rule prompted Mohamed Mokrani to resign from his position as bachagha, and by 1870 he had begun to seriously consider rebellion.
  In parallel with the political situation, the years 1865 and 1866 were a social disaster for Algeria, where they were commonly referred to as "am ech cher" (the years of misery). A plague of locusts followed by a drought plunged the country into famine, followed by epidemics of cholera and typhus. The traditional leaders emptied their personal granaries to feed their people, and once these were exhausted, borrowed to keep them supplied.  These loans were later to place Mohamed Mokrani in difficulties.
  On 15 March 1871 Mohamed Mokrani joined the revolt of the spahis in eastern Algeria. He sent 6000 men to attack Bordj Bou Arreridj, which he besieged and burned. On 8 April he was joined in revolt by the Rahmaniyya brotherhood under its leader Sheikh Aheddad. The whole of eastern Algeria now rose, from the outskirts of Algiers itself to Collo, with 150,000 Kabylies under arms at the height of the rebellion. However, divisions between feudal and religious leaders, as well as mistrust between tribes, meant that these forces could not be mobilised to strike decisively against the French.  Even with much inferior forces, the better-armed French were able to relieve towns under siege. Mohamed Mokrani died on 5 May 1871 at Oued Soufflat, near Bouira,  during a battle against a French army, and his body was immediately to the Kalâa of Ait Abbas. The Kalaa itself, impregnable since the 16th century, surrendered on 22 July 1871. Boumezrag Mokrani, brother and successor of Mohamed Mokrani, struggled to pursue the rebellion in Kabylie, and then in the Hodna. Seeking to escape with his followers to Tunisia, he was finally arrested at Ouargla on 20 January 1872. the suppression and expropriation of the Mokranis marked the final extinction of their political role and their dominion over the region.
caption: Portrait of the bachagha Mohamed Mokrani.
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