The Thaaliba () were a sub-tribe of the

Maqil The Banu Ma'qil ( ar, بنو معقل) was an Arab nomadic tribe that originated in South Arabia. The tribe emigrated to the Maghreb region of North Africa with the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym tribes in the 11th century. They mainly settled in and ...

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

s, descended from Tha`lab ibn `Ali ibn Bakr ibn Saghir ibn Maqil. They settled the

Mitidja Mitidja, (Arabic: , Berber: Mettijet ⵎⴻⵜⵙⵉⵛⵝ) is a plain stretching along the outskirts of Algiers in northern Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , ...

plain in the medieval period, and came to rule

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

and the towns around it from 1204 to 1516. The Thaaliba first reached the Mitidja plain from the

Titteri The Titteri ( ar, جبل التيطري, ber, Tittri) is a historical region in Algeria. It is located in the mountainous area of the southern Tell Atlas in the Atlas Mountains. Geography The Titteri was a former administrative division of the R ...

region to its south. Their leadership was in the hands of the sons of Siba` ibn Tha`lab ibn `Ali ibn Bakr ibn Saghir, who had hosted

Ibn Tumart Abu Abd Allah Amghar Ibn Tumart (Berber: ''Amghar ibn Tumert'', ar, أبو عبد الله امغار ابن تومرت, ca. 1080–1130 or 1128) was a Muslim Berber religious scholar, teacher and political leader, from the Sous in southern Mor ...

and thus secured a good position. Later on, the

Merinid The Marinid Sultanate was a Berber Muslim empire from the mid-13th to the 15th century which controlled present-day Morocco and, intermittently, other parts of North Africa (Algeria and Tunisia) and of the southern Iberian Peninsula (Spain) ...

sultan Abu al-Hasan appointed Abu al-Hamalat ibn `A'id ibn Thabit as their leader; he died in the plague of 1347/1348. He was succeeded by Ibrahim ibn Nasr, followed by his son Salim. In 1438 the people of Algiers assassinated their new king and placed themselves under the protection of the Thaaliba, who at that point ruled most of the Mitidja plain. The city then made Shaykh

Abd al-Rahman al-Tha'alibi Abdul-Rahman al-Tha'alibi ( ar, أبو زيد عـبـد الـرحـمـن بن مـخـلـوف الـثـعـالـبـي, Abū Zayd ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Makhlūf ath-Tha‘ālibī) (1384 CE/785 Hijri year, AH – 1479 CE/875 Hijri year, ...

, a noted religious scholar, head of their city council (''jama`ah''). Thaaliba influence also extended to smaller towns of the region, such as Isser and

Dellys Dellys ( ar, دلّس, Berber: Delles) is a small Mediterranean town in northern Algeria's coastal Boumerdès Province, almost due north of Tizi-Ouzou and just east of the Sebaou River. It is the district seat of the daïra of Dellys. The town ...

. After his death in 1479,

's tomb became an important site of popular devotion, still visited to this day. In 1510, Spain imposed tribute payments on Algiers and fortified the island in its harbour, the Peñon. To expel the Spanish troops, the Thaaliba leader Salim al-Tumi and the notables of Algiers invited in two Ottoman corsair brothers,

Oruç Reis Oruç Reis ( ota, عروج ريس; es, Aruj; 1474 – 1518) was an Ottoman corsair who became Sultan of Algiers. The elder brother of the famous Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa, he was born on the Ottoman island of Midilli (Lesbos i ...

and

Hayreddin Barbarossa Hayreddin Barbarossa ( ar, خير الدين بربروس, Khayr al-Din Barbarus, original name: Khiḍr; tr, Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa), also known as Hızır Hayrettin Pasha, and simply Hızır Reis (c. 1466/1478 – 4 July 1546), was an Ot ...

. Before doing so, they decided to make their authority more secure by assassinating Salim al-Tumi in his bath in 1516. He thus became the last Thaaliba ruler of Algiers, which passed into the hands of Oruç and Hayreddin before joining the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. Several notable Islamic religious figures emerged from the Thaaliba, most famously including

(1384-1479), but also the scholar and mystic Sidi Yahya al-Tadallisi al-Tha`alibi (d. 1461/1462), the first imam of

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; french: Tombouctou; Koyra Chiini: ); tmh, label=Tuareg, script=Tfng, ⵜⵏⴱⴾⵜ, Tin Buqt a city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. The town is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrativ ...

's eponymous

Sidi Yahya Mosque The Sidi Yahya Mosque (), also known as the Mosque of Muhammad-n-Allah, is a mosque and madrasa of Timbuktu in Mali. The construction of the mosque began in 1400 under the leadership of Sheikh el-Mokhtar Hamalla of Timbuktu and was finished in ...

, and the later religious scholar Abu Mahdi Isa al-Tha`alibi (d. 1669/1670).

Notable people

References

* * {{Historical Arab tribes Arab tribes in Algeria Hashemite people Yemeni tribes