ARABS and PHENICIENS

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The
Algerian navy was not invented by
the four Barberousse brothers.
Two millenia before, Libyphéniciens
, interbreeding the Berber ones and of Phéniciens had been the Masters
of the Mediterranean during centuries. Ora
Maritima de Festus Avienus mention that theBerber ones " had
people and cities with the délà of the Pillars of
Hercules ". The Berber sailors and phenicians of this
time, were going to seek tin to the borders of British
Isles.
Arabic was very good navigators. Inter
alia inventions related to the marine world, one allots in particular those
to them of the rudder and the compass. It is the Arab navigator Ibn Rachid
who carried out the marine of Portugal
through the seas as far as India.

At the time Europeans who made a great
use of the incense, the canelle one, gingembre and pepper, coveted gold,
the ivory, spices and the silk trade of the East.
The Maghreb
between the XI° and the XVI° century delivered itself to the search of the
richnesses at sea, by interposed piracy. Roger II of Sicily in
repressailles to the repeated attacks of Zirides against the Christian
coasts, had armed some ÓO ships. The towns of Djidjell, Sfax, Djerba and Tripoli were attacked
(1143). Roger II ends up seizing all the cities of the Maghrébine.Il coast
made add the title of king d' Ifriqiya to that of king of Deux-Siciles which
was it his. This domination lasted only a few years.

One feared the four Barberousse brothers in the Mediterranean, where they
made their appearance towards the end of the fifteenth century. For their
statute enviable at the time, gangsters of the seas.
Algerian made their mercenaries of
them. A time. Before ainé of Barberousse, Aroudj, is not made invest Sultan
of Algiers
instead of Selim Al-Toumi which it had just strangled in its bath.

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With the Museum
of Topkapi

SELIM I°, the emperor of Turkish, had just conquered Syria,
Arabia and Egypt.
After the Spanish reconquista and the catch of Grenade in 1492, a series began
from attacks of Spain
against North
Africa.
MELILA was taken in 1497.
El-kebir SEAS in October 1505.
ORANin May 1509.
CANDLE in January 1510.
TUNIS and TRIPOLI also underwent the yoke of Spanish who thus extended their
domination to the whole of the Maghreb.
While Turkish granted the majority of the countries of the East
arabo-Moslem.
It is quite naturally that Algerian
drew up itself to fight against the permanent danger which the Spanish
armies along their coasts constituted. The Spanish infantrymen and sailors
more and more aguerris on ground and sea, wanted to seize Algiers.

Considering the business too risked, Spanish
was satisfied to set up an observation post in the heart of bay of Algiers, Pénon. From where they
supervised the city, by filtering of Algiers
navigation.

The letter written by the notable
inhabitants of Algiers who delegated Abou
Have-Abbas Ahmed BELKADI in Turkey
appears under N° 6456 in
the files of the museum of Topkapi in Istanbul.
It is written in Turkish language. Abou Al-Abbas Ahmed BELKADI is quoted
there on several occasions, as Noble, Savant, Professor and Moudjahid.

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The
same letter summarizes the intolerable situation lived by the inhabitants
of Algiers dice the beginning of the XVI° century:
" After having taken Oran,
Candle and Tripoli, the goal of inaccurate was to unload on our premises to
occupy us to disperse us and subject to us. Aroudj Bey arrived to us from Tunis with an aim of
taking again Bougie with inaccurate and of returning to the Moslems the
prosperity of their city. When they arrived at the citadel of Candle, they
(Turkish) encircled it with the moudjahid virtuous the jurisconsult Abou Al
Abbas Ahmed IBN Al QADI. they shook their bases and shaved the walls ".

The sailors Turkish helped by the
infantrymen kabyles ordered by Abou Al-Abbas Ahmed BELKADI, assisted from Algiers.

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SIDI ABDERRAHMANE Al-tha' ALIBI
patron saint of Algiers
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An old
text called of Ahmed BELKADI:
" the mountain of Couco
had towards 1515 its king from which the capacity extended on Has Yahia,
Has Bouchaib and Fraoucen Has them. This character nommaît BEN EL QADI. The
Arab sheik And-Toumi (Salim Al-Toumi, Salim Ben Eddin de Marmol) head of
Aoulad Thaleba of the stock of Makil were his relative and when this last
had been killed by Barberousse, Ahmed Ben Al-Qadi declared enemy Turkish,
his hatred was moderated by political interests ".

The Spanish author Marmol known as of
Abou Have-Abbas Ahmed BELKADI:
" hombre noble there of linaje
of Selim Ben Tomi sênor of Argel ".
From this famous family was born
patron saint from Algiers,
Sidi Abderrahmane Al-Ta' alibi.

Another
author of old Spain,
indicates Abou Have-Abbas Ahmed Belkadi under the name of Seranath Ben
El Cadi .
It is about a phonetic corruption of
Sid Ahmed BEN EL KADI.

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KOUKOU
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This high place of the knowledge and seat of the dynasty founded by
the soufi Abou Al-Abbas Ahmed BELKADI in 1511, in response to
the catch of Bedjaïa by the Spanish troops, is nowadays only one obscure
hamlet of Djurdjura, among tens of others. Located at a few ten kilometers
of Aïn Al-Hammam, the locality of Koukou is more occupied only by a few
hundreds of inhabitants.

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Geographical situation of Koukou
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" A the time of its splendour, tells us G
DEVAUX ( kebaïles will djerdjera, Algiers 1859 page 274 and following ), Koukou was surrounded by bastionnées walls
of a development of 2000
meters approximately. Its walls were going to be
pressed on a rock à.pic, natural fortification, named Azrou N Qelaa. Three
doors give access in the place in the interior of the enclosure and to a
hundred meters of large of the village, are two Djemaâs: one known as
korraba Al-kadi contains the remainders of a famous head, whose descendants
still exist. Other Djemaâ called El-kebira is of style sarrazin. It is
rather vast and supported by two pillars and two columns (...) an antique
nine meters length cistern on four broad is noticed with the northern part
of the village ".

B LECLERC which
made an archaeological incursion with Koukou on November 17, 1857 wrote:
"It
is still a monument of the old splendour of koukou, it is a beautiful
bronze gun, of average gauge, being two meters long and assembled on a
mounting ".
One
is unaware of what became this gun.

BREST (Brittany, France) ARABS and PHENICIENS Clip_image019

But there is one precede, because an immense mouth with fire which was
used for defense of Regency of Algiers under
Turkish, was enmenée in France,
at the beginning of the years 1830.
This baptized weapon " Merzoug
Baba " by the inhabitants of Algiers,
true head of work of the kind, and which could draw with an inconceivable
range for the time, was set up vertically inside the Arsenal of Brest in Brittany,
until our days.

When the
olive-trees find their green and robust branches, and that the doves will fly
away without fearing the greenhouses of the vultures, let us guarantee that
our so courteous president Bouteflika will be able to bring back this
prestigious national piece of artillery for us, of which will enorgueillira
itself
our Museum of the navy in Algiers.
With the rebirth of the Algerian entity,
little by little will reconstitute the puzzle of our national heritage, one
of préstigieux of the basin méditérranéen, which remains sparse throughout
the Western world and elsewhere, in the cellars of the museums and the
private collections.

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CERVANTES
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In one of its books, the author Miguel CERVANTES of Saavedra
(1547/1616), the father of Gift Quichote, which was slave in Algiers of 1575
to 1580 before being released against the payment of a strong ransom, made
say to King de Koukou who had fallen in love with his character, beautiful
Arlaxa:
" It can increase the sunlight
by lending the glare of its eyes to him
" .
CERVANTES, wrote a great number of
dramas inspired of its captivity in Algiers
En soaking its feather in the stupre and the blood of the crusades.

Among its works:

" life in Algiers",

"bagnes of Algiers",
"the prisoner",
"large the sultana",
"Zara and Zaraide",
or "valiant Spanish ".
As many works of the Spanish writer
which remain ignored general public until our days. Including in
Spain.

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IBN KHALDOUN ARABS and PHENICIENS Clip_image022

The historian and sociologist IBN Khaldoun, that several countries
maghrébins dispute nationality, written in connection with the Berber
confederation of Zouawas - tribes of high Kabylie - and of the
mountain where the ramparts of koukou were set up:
" the mountain of Beni FRAOUCEN
and Beni IRATEN is one the their retirements most difficult to approach and
easiest to defend ".

That explains the stronghold chosen by Belkadi to raise their
extremely impregnable castle, and which is complétement ruined at our time.

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ARMADA KABYLE
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The Spanish author medieval Marmol y Carvajal gives an idea of the
military power of the king If Amar BELKADI which reigned in Koukou
meadows one century old after the death of Abou Al-Abbas Ahmed BELKADI:
" It (the king) had 5000
arquebusiers and 1500 horses, without counting several other people armed the
made-to-order of the country, all brave men and experts in the weapons ".

The permanence of the memory of this
very animated period of the Algerian history is still long-lived in Kabylie,
particularly at the old subjects. Even if the versions differ from one
testimony to another. Tradition and oral memory oblige.

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OFFICIAL GENEALOGY ARABS and PHENICIENS Clip_image025

The author Mustafa Ben Hussain -Hussayni said "Djennabi"
who lived into 999 of Hégire (1590 of
J-c) written:

" Among
princes Zouaouas who controlled the surroundings of Algiers there was the dynasty of IBN
Al-kadi. The first of them was Ahmed known under the name of IBN Al-kadi.
Erudite man and piles to which the population was subjected and which reigned
approximately three years. It with its death was replaced by his brother
Mohammed Ben Have-Kadi who controlled about thirty years and which with its
death was replaced by its nephew Ahmed Ben Ahmed, of which the government
lasted ten years and who died into 991 H (January 25, 1583). It had as a
successor his son Mohammed Ben Ahmed known under the name of Ibn Have-Kadi.
These heads had as a principal city Koukou which was a vast strong castle in
a very strong position ".

This genealogy
given by Djennabi is not exact, because on June 16, 1598 the sultan Amar
BELKADI who reigned at this time on the principality of Koukou, in his letter
addressed to king d' Espagne PHILIPPE III and currently to the files of the
Spanish Ministry of the Foreign Affairs with Simancas, wrote:
«Escrive Homar, hizo de homar, hizo
de hamed, hizo de Mamed ,hizo de hamed, hizo Del Cadi rey de Cuco».
Autrement
dit:
«Omar, fils de
Omar, fils de Ahmed, fils de Mohammed, fils de Ahmed, fils de AI Kadi roi de
Koukou».
Donc
, à cette date du 16 juin 1598 , c'est à dire au moment où le roi Amar
BELKADI écrivait sa lettre au roi d'Espagne PHILIPPE II , cinq personnages de
cette famille avaient succédé à Abou Al-Abbas Ahmed BELKADI, roi
d’Alger et fondateur de la dynastie de Koukou , pour régner en ligne directe,
dans la seigneurie de Koukou sur une grande portion de la Kabylie. Dont la Kabylie Maritime
et le port de Azeffoun. Ce dernier fut édifié par Abou Al-Abbas Ahmed
BELKADI pour contrecarrer la puissance des turcs dans cette
portion du littoral algérien.
Il
y eut d'autres rois à Koukou, avant la scission de la famille BELKADI en deux
branches princières et l'extinction définitive du royaume vers 1750.

Une
légende relative au pic de Tamgouth , voisin de l'Azrou N Thor, muraille
rocheuse culminant à 1884 m
à l'est de Tîrourda dans le massif du Djurdjura, dit qu'un certain personnage
parmi les ancêtres des BELKADI, et père d'un jeune garçon, périt
assassiné.
Sa
veuve issue des rois Hafsides de Tunis craignant de voir son enfant subir le
même sort, se réfugia sur le Tamgouth où, pendant quelques temps ses ennemis
la tinrent assiégée.

Un soir à la faveur de l'obscurité de la nuit elle trouva le
moyen de tromper la vigilance des assiégeants pour fuir la Kabylie avec son
enfant. A la cour de Tunis elle fut accueillie par sa famille, auprès
de qui elle ne cessa de solliciter le châtiment des meurtriers de son
mari.

Il s'agit de Aïcha
BELKADI que les archives espagnoles mentionnent, sous le titre «El Reina del
Cuco (la reine de Kouko)». Qui , profitant de la
correspondance que son mari échangeait avec le roi Philippe III d'Espagne, se
permettait de demander de menus cadeaux pour son usage personnel, à la reine
d'Espagne:

"Unas pocas de perlas, un poco de blonda, un poco de
cambray, un poco de terclopelo brocatelado, un poco de almizcie. Que dice son
cosas que no las ay en su tierra" .
"Un
peu de perles fines, un peu de dentelle de la toile de Cambrai, un peu de
velours de brocard, un peu de musc, toutes choses que l'on ne trouve pas dans
mon pays".

Devenu adolescent vers 1632/33 , le fils
posthume de Amar BELKADI , Sidi Hend BELKADI appelé «Ahmed
Tounsi» par les historiens, revint en Kabylie à la tête d'une troupe de
soldats mis à sa disposition par le Sultan Hafside de Tunis. Il reprit
le pouvoir et s'installa à Aourir At Ghobri.

Ce Hend -Hend étant la contraction kabyle du prénom
Ahmed- Tounsi était né vers 1618/19 et il mourut vers 1696/97, date à
laquelle lui succéda son fils Ali BELKADI .
Le
souvenir de ce surnom d'emprunt «Tounsi» finira par disparaître au sein
de cette famille BELKADI, dont nous aimerions tant recueillir la mémoire
collective.