Béjaïa ( ; , , ), formerly known as Bougie and Bugia, is a
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
port
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...
city and
commune on the Gulf of Béjaïa in
Algeria
Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...
; it is the capital of
Béjaïa Province
The Béjaïa Province (Kabyle language, Kabyle: ''Tawilayt n Bgayet''; , Latn, ar, Wilāyat Bijāyah; or ) is a provinces of Algeria, province of Algeria in the Kabylie region. With a population of 984,050 inhabitants in 2019, with a density o ...
.
Geography
Location
Béjaïa owes its existence to its port, which also makes it prosperous. It is located in a sickle-shaped bay protected from the swell of offshore winds (northwest facing) by the advance of Cape Carbon (to the west of the city). The city is backed by
Mount Gouraya located in a northwest position. This port site, in one of the most beautiful bays of the
Maghreb
The Maghreb (; ), also known as the Arab Maghreb () and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb al ...
and
Mediterranean coast, is dominated in the background by the
Babors mountain range. Another advantage is that the city is the outlet of the
Soummam valley, a geographical corridor facing southwest. However, since the time when the city was a capital, there has been a divorce between the city and the region (
Kabylia) linked to the difficulty of securing a hinterland. On a macro-regional scale, the city has its back to the region: its position at the end of the Soummam places it at the interface between
Grande and
Petite Kabylie. But these two groups are closed in on themselves and seek inland capitals (
Tizi Ouzou,
Akbou,
Kherrata, etc.) by turning away from the coast. The city has, in a way, weak local roots; the rural proximity of the city is limited to four or five communes.
On a micro-regional scale, Béjaïa is the outlet of a central
Algeria
Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...
, going from
Algiers
Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...
to
Skikda, the spillway of the
Highlands and a supply port for two million people. But the connection is complex: to the south-east, trade with Sétif is only possible through the steep gorges of
Kherrata; another route takes the Soummam, then to the east the
Iron Gates and the climb towards Bordj Bou Arreridj, it is this route that is taken by the national road and the railway. These topographical constraints mean that, despite its strong dynamism, the city sees part of the trade escape it in its eastern and western areas of influence.
The town is overlooked by the mountain '. Other nearby scenic spots include the ''Aiguades'' beach and the ''
Pic des Singes'' (Peak of the Monkeys); the latter site is a
habitat
In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...
for the
endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...
Barbary macaque
The Barbary macaque (''Macaca sylvanus''), also known as Barbary ape, is a macaque species native to the Atlas Mountains of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, along with a small introduced population in Gibraltar.
It is the type species of the genus ' ...
, which prehistorically had a much broader distribution than at present. All three of these geographic features are located in the
Gouraya National Park.
The urban area covers an area of 12,022 hectares. Béjaïa is located 220 km east of the capital Algiers, 93 km east of Tizi Ouzou, 81.5 km northeast of
Bordj Bou Arreridj, 70 km northwest of Sétif and 61 km west of Jijel.
[Distances orthodromiques, dites aussi ''à vol d'oiseau''] The geographic coordinates of the commune at the central point of its capital are 36° 45′ 00″ North and 5° 04′ 00″ East, respectively.
Toponymy
Béjaïa is transliteration from an
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
toponym derived from the
Berber
Berber or Berbers may refer to:
Ethnic group
* Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa
* Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages
Places
* Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile
People with the surname
* Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
toponym (
Kabyle variant) , notably by transliteration (see Transcription and transliteration) of the sound ǧ in dj (ج). This Berber name — which would have originally been , but whose initial t marking the feminine gender would have fallen into disuse — would come from the words tabegga, tabeɣayt, meaning "wild brambles and blackberries".
The name Béjaïa would thus originally have the same Berber root as other names of cities in the Maghreb, such as
Dougga () and
Béja () in Tunisia or
Ksar Baghaï () in the
Aurès.
In medieval
Romance languages
The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
, (from Arabic ; in
Spanish and in Italian
[.] is the name given to the city, which supplied a large quantity of beeswax for the manufacture of candles. became the
French form of this transcription of the Arabic name. Gradually it came to refer to the wax that was imported in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
for the manufacture of
candle
A candle is an ignitable candle wick, wick embedded in wax, or another flammable solid substance such as tallow, that provides light, and in some cases, a Aroma compound, fragrance. A candle can also provide heat or a method of keeping time. ...
s in Europe; they are from then on commonly designated in French by the word "bougie".
This in turn is carried over to the word
Bugia, meaning a long-handled candlestick used by Catholic bishops and high-ranking priests.
Climate and hydrography
The city is part of the
Soummam's
drainage basin
A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...
. Béjaïa and the lower
Soummam Valley enjoy a
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...
. It is generally humid with a slight seasonal temperature change. Average temperatures are generally mild and vary from 11.1 °C in winter to 24.5 °C in summer.
In addition to the Soummam River, which sufficiently meets agricultural needs in the surroundings of the city, Béjaïa is located in the
maritime Kabylie and benefits from a fairly favorable rainfall compared to the rest of the country. The
rainfall in the region can range from 800 mm to 1,200 mm, but some local sources tend to be depleted due to increased demand. The city also draws its water resources from the mountainous hinterland and from various springs, such as that of
Toudja
Toudja is a List of communes of Algeria, commune in northern Algeria in the Béjaïa Province in the Kabylia region. The liberal pied noir writer Jules Roy discussed it in his book on the Algerian war of independence.
Oranges are grown widely in ...
, which was connected in ancient times by an aqueduct to the ancient city (Saldae).
Roadside and rail communications
The city of Béjaïa is linked to Algiers,
Tizi Ouzou, Bouira, Sétif,
Jijel and several Kabyle localities by an important road network. It has a bus station. Bus lines connect it to the cities of the Algerian south, including
Hassi Messaoud, Ouargla,
Ghardaïa,
Laghouat,
Djelfa and
Bou Saâda.
The commune of Béjaïa is served by several national roads. Some of them run through valleys and gorges that constitute natural passage areas:
[For major natural crossing points, see .] national road 9 (Sétif road), which passes along the coast then the Kherrata gorges to Sétif, and national road 24 (Béjaïa road), which crosses the Soummam valley, Bouira, then Algiers to the west, or Bordj Bou Arreridj to the east. Others run through steeper terrain: national road 12 (Tizi Ouzou road), passing through the
Yakouren forest and its mountains then
Azazga, Tizi-Ouzou to
Boumerdès
Boumerdès (; ; formerly ''Rocher Noir'') is the capital city of Boumerdès Province, Algeria. It is located on the Mediterranean Sea. It had a population of 15,000 in 1987 and 28,500 in 1998.
Boumerdès is a seaside city located in the north o ...
, and national road 75 (Batna road), passing through Barbacha and the mountains of Petite Kabylie to reach Sétif and join the Highlands to
Batna. A highway construction project is underway to ease congestion on the Béjaïa road, the main axis between the capital and the east of the country, and to connect the city and its port, one of the most important in Algeria, to the
Algerian East-West highway.
Béjaïa has a railway station, the terminus of the
Beni Mansour-Bejaia line, created in 1889 and on which a railcar runs linking the stations in the region: Beni Mansour, Tazmalt, Allaghan,
Akbou, Lazib Ben Cherif,
Ighzer Amokrane, Takriets,
Sidi Aich, Ilmaten and El Kseur, The interconnection, at Beni Mansour, with the
Algiers-Skikda line, allows access to the entire Algerian railway network by direct links to the Algerian capital, to the west, and to
Sétif, to the south-east. A regional train specifically linking Béjaïa to its outskirts is also in service; it was designed to open up the east of the region. The line would benefit from about fifteen daily round trips and should serve the stations of the Beni Mansour-Bejaia line. Bejaia has an international airport located 5 km south of the city. It was first called "Bejaia - Soummam Airport" between 1982 and 1999, named after the Soummam River which flows into the Mediterranean near Bejaia. It was inaugurated in 1982 for domestic flights and in 1993 for international flights. It was renamed "
Bejaia - Soummam - Abane Ramdane Airport" in 1999, in homage to the Algerian politician who played a key role in the history of the
Algerian War of Independence
The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...
.
History
Prehistory
The presence of man is attested in various urban and peri-urban sites. The Ali Bacha cave station would represent the oldest settlement site around 40,000 to 20,000 BC. On the Aiguades site, the equipment and furniture found evoke a period around 10,000 BC and therefore
Neolithic
The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...
.
The region is also rich in archaeological deposits such as the Afalou caves where some of the oldest burials of modern men, known as
Mechta-Afalou men, have been found, which testifies to a culture focused on compassion with the burial of individuals in cave-sanctuary-necropolises and the use of clay pottery dated from 18,000 to 11,000 BC.
These deposits are typical of the so-called
Iberomaurusian archaeological culture.
Antiquity and Byzantine era
The city contains remains from the Bronze Age.
The oldest known remains are a "hanout" which is a form of
Libyc tomb. Long attributed to the
Punic culture, it is in fact much older, its dating is interdetermined.
The advantageous site, sheltered from the winds by Cape Carbon, was surely occupied very early. The first trace of historical mention appears in the 5th century BC in the
Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax. The region was part of the
kingdom of Numidia. In addition, the Punic influence is present: the
Carthaginians
The Punic people, usually known as the Carthaginians (and sometimes as Western Phoenicians), were a Semitic people, Semitic people who Phoenician settlement of North Africa, migrated from Phoenicia to the Western Mediterranean during the Iron ...
traveled the North African coasts to trade and establish trading posts called .
[.]
Jugurtha's defeat by the
Romans changed the latter's alliance into a suzerainty;
Augustus
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...
divided the territory into provinces constituting
Caesarean Mauretania, and, according to
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...
,
Saldae (the ancient name of the city) was a
Roman colony
A Roman (: ) was originally a settlement of Roman citizens, establishing a Roman outpost in federated or conquered territory, for the purpose of securing it. Eventually, however, the term came to denote the highest status of a Roman city. It ...
founded with the first annexations in 33 BC. Eight years later, he returned the province of the city to the Numidian king
Juba II in compensation for his hereditary states. The city acquired a predominantly Latin culture and was Christianized.
[.] The Romans set up various hydraulic networks that would be reused centuries later in the
Hammadid era. The Toudja aqueduct dates from the reign of
Antoninus Pius
Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius (; ; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from AD 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty.
Born into a senatorial family, Antoninus held var ...
. But the city did not know the importance of the development of
Hippo (Annaba), which flourished more under the Romans.
Augustus also founded Tubusuptus, the current ruins of Tiklat, a few kilometres away on the banks of the
Nasava (Soummam). From the 1st century, the revolt of
Tacfarinas involved all the Numidian populations of the region; he invested the Soummam valley, took Tiklat and reached Saldae. He was finally pushed back by the proconsul
Publius Cornelius Dolabella.
[.] In the 4th century, in the mountains near Saldae,
Firmus gathered the "
Quinquegentians" (current Kabyle tribes of Djurdjura) and led them against the Romans. Count Theodosius arrived with troops from Europe to put down the revolt; he had difficulty overcoming the insurgents.
The
Vandals
The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...
in turn entered North Africa from Spain in 429. Led by
Genseric, they carried iron to all the coastal towns. They made Saldae the capital of their
new state until the capture of
Carthage
Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classic ...
in 439. The struggles between the supporters of Arianism and those of Catholicism weakened the entire region; the
Byzantines then found there a pretext and an opportunity to intervene. The city then fell under Byzantine domination in the
Vandalic War
The Vandalic War (533–534) was a conflict fought in North Africa between the forces of the Byzantine Empire (also known as the Eastern Roman Empire) and the Germanic Vandal Kingdom. It was the first war of Emperor Justinian I's , wherein the ...
in 533. The heavy Byzantine oppression also soon gave rise to the population's desire for revolt until the
Arab conquest of North Africa.
Muslim and feudal rulers
The Arab Conquest
Seen by the
Umayyad Arab conquerors who came from Kairouan, the mountains around Béjaïa were nicknamed ("the enemy") to designate the stubborn resistance they were the seat of.
[.] Information on this period is scattered, or contradictory; it seems that the city was conquered relatively late, around the year 708. An unlikely hypothesis would have it that the name Béjaïa comes from this period from the Arabic word (, "the remains, the survivors") because it would have served as a fallback for the Christian and Jewish populations of Constantine and Sétif. According to
Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732–808 Hijri year, AH) was an Arabs, Arab Islamic scholar, historian, philosopher and sociologist. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages, and cons ...
, the name Béjaïa would rather come from that of the tribe that inhabited the city: the "Bedjaïa".
[.]
The three centuries that followed the conquest are obscure due to the lack of accounts. The city was part of the
Aghlabid territory, then that of the
Fatimids
The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimid dynasty, Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa ...
, under whose rule it experienced a certain effervescence. It seems that when the
Hammadid sovereign
Nasir founded his capital al-Nasirya there, in 1067, the monuments of ancient Saldae were in ruins. Several hypotheses supported by local traditions explain this state: the city would have experienced 7 earthquakes or a similar number of enemy attacks. It seems established that in the 10th century, the city was in the hands of the
Sanhaja Berbers, from whom came the
Zirid and Hammadid dynasties which reigned over the Central Maghreb. It is then a town essentially populated by
Andalusis, in accordance with the description given by the Andalusi geographer
al-Bakri, before the policy of the Hammadids gave a decisive boost to the city.
[.]
Berber Dynasties: The Glory of a Medieval Capital

In the 10th century, the city was only a small fishing port. In 1067, the Berber sovereign of the Hammadid dynasty, Nasir ibn Alnas (1062-1088), ruling over the Central Maghreb, developed the city and made it his capital. Indeed, his first capital, the
Qal'a of Banu Hammad, in the Highlands, was under threat from
raids by the Hilalian Arab nomads who, hailing from the
Middle East
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
, had launched a second wave of Arab invasions into the Maghreb. He gave the city the name al-Nasiriya, which it would struggle to keep in the face of its toponym Béjaïa, which was already well established in usage. As Ibn Khaldun reports, this is due to the fact that the toponym Bejaïa is linked to the name of the Berber tribe populating this place.
Before acquiring its status as capital, the city experienced remarkable dynamism, particularly on the cultural level; it was in fact the port at the crossroads of the Qal'a of Banu Hammad, and al-Andalus. Scholars and traders passed through it and it was the outlet of the triq sultan, the royal road from the High Plateaus to the Mediterranean and even an outlet for
trans-Saharan trade. The
Kalbid emirs of
Sicily
Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...
were inspired by the palaces of Bejaïa to establish those of
Palermo
Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...
. The city, more than a recognized or appreciated place, was a place of obligatory passage; It is a real crossroads on the road from al-Andalus to the East (especially for pilgrims going to
Mecca
Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...
) but also from Europe to Africa. It is a place of meetings and exchanges of knowledge between local communities, from Europe and the East.
The establishment of the Hammadid sovereigns will make it the capital of the Central Maghreb and the Algerian ''madinat at tarikh'' (the city of history). An original political fact on the scale of the ancient Maghreb, it is a coastal capital. It becomes one of the main cultural and scientific centers of the
western Mediterranean and an important commercial center for Europe. If the precise state of the Bougiotte merchant fleet is unknown, it occupies a significant place in the Mediterranean without however being preponderant compared to the European merchant fleets. It is frequented by Latin merchants,
Pisans and
Genoese, Andalusis and later
Catalans
Catalans ( Catalan, French and Occitan: ''catalans''; ; ; or ) are a Romance ethnic group native to Catalonia, who speak Catalan. The current official category of "Catalans" is that of the citizens of Catalonia, a nationality and autono ...
.
[.] These traders from the south of Europe gave it various names in
Romance languages
The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
: Bugia, Buzia, Bugea, Buzana. It was at this time that the city's wax, exported to Europe for the making of candles, gave the word "bougie" to French and the word "basane" to designate skins; lexical borrowing of the transcribed names of the city (respectively Bougie and Buzana).
[.] The city exported beeswax and skins in quantity, tannic barks for working leather (the iscorzia di Bugiea was famous in the 14th century), alum, cereals, raisins, wool and cotton from
Biskra
Biskra () is the capital city of Biskra Province, Algeria. In 2007, its population was recorded as 307,987. Biskra is located in northeastern Algeria, about from Algiers, southwest of Batna, Algeria, Batna and north of Touggourt. It is nickna ...
and
M'sila, metals and pottery. The city also imported various goods such as metals, fabric, dyes and medicinal herbs. It was also a naval base for the Hammadids, and the starting point for naval expeditions to the "country of Rum" (from which Sicily was three days' sailing).
[.] The Hammadid fleet played an important role in the western Mediterranean; it slowed down European advances, particularly those of the
Normans of Sicily in the 12th century. The Hammadids attracted scholars from all backgrounds and practiced an open policy, particularly towards Europe. Jews and Christians benefited from favorable conditions; the Emir Nasir maintained regular correspondence with
Pope Gregory VII
Pope Gregory VII (; 1015 – 25 May 1085), born Hildebrand of Sovana (), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 April 1073 to his death in 1085. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
One of the great ...
and asked him to appoint a bishop for his city. The arrival of scholars made Béjaïa a leading city in the field of science; its influence extended beyond the Mediterranean and reached Europe. An Andalusian culture mixed with traditional oriental inspiration, secular sciences developed as did sacred sciences. Unlike the Qal'a in the hinterland, it is considered a cultural and "modern" city for its time; A "Berber city living in the oriental style",
[.] many illustrious scholars came from it or settled there throughout its medieval period:
Al Madani (10th century),
Ibn Hammad,
Yahia Zwawi,
Leonardo Fibonacci (12th century),
Ramon Llull
Ramon Llull (; ; – 1316), sometimes anglicized as ''Raymond Lully'', was a philosopher, theologian, poet, missionary, Christian apologist and former knight from the Kingdom of Majorca.
He invented a philosophical system known as the ''Art ...
and
Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun (27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732–808 Hijri year, AH) was an Arabs, Arab Islamic scholar, historian, philosopher and sociologist. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest social scientists of the Middle Ages, and cons ...
(13th century).
Scholars came to complete their training in the city as they did in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
,
Tunis
Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...
or
Tlemcen
Tlemcen (; ) is the second-largest city in northwestern Algeria after Oran and is the capital of Tlemcen Province. The city has developed leather, carpet, and textile industries, which it exports through the port of Rachgoun. It had a population of ...
. Hundreds of students, some of European origin, crowded into the schools and mosques where theologians, jurists, philosophers and scholars taught. The main places of medieval knowledge were the Great Mosque, ''Madinat al-`Ilm'' (the City of Sciences), the Khizana Sultaniya and the Sidi Touati Institute. The jurist
Al Ghobrini (1246-1314), qadi of the city, described the scholars of Béjaïa as "princes of science", among whom were
Abu Madyan,
Abd al-Haq al-Isbili, al-Qurashi and
Abu Tamim Ben Gebara. These scholars met in audiences where they consulted on various subjects.
There is a rivalry and intellectual exchanges between
Tlemcen
Tlemcen (; ) is the second-largest city in northwestern Algeria after Oran and is the capital of Tlemcen Province. The city has developed leather, carpet, and textile industries, which it exports through the port of Rachgoun. It had a population of ...
, the
Zeneta and Béjaïa, the
Sanhaja. This tolerance of the city is nuanced by one of the versions of the story of the death of Ramon Llull. Indeed, according to one version, he was stoned by the Bougiotes who had accused him of wanting to convert them to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
when other versions affirm that he was simply shipwrecked on his return to
Mallorca
Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.
The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...
from Tunis.
In 1202, Leonardo Fibonacci, an Italian mathematician, brought back the "
Arabic numerals
The ten Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) are the most commonly used symbols for writing numbers. The term often also implies a positional notation number with a decimal base, in particular when contrasted with Roman numera ...
" and the algebraic notation. According to the versions, the inspiration for the Fibonacci sequence would be due to the observation of beekeepers and the reproduction of bees in the region or to a local mathematical problem concerning the reproduction of rabbits that he describes in his work
Liber abaci.
[.]
At that time the city had developed so much that, according to
Leo Africanus, it was populated by several tens of thousands of people from all over the Maghreb, the Levant, Europe and Asia. The indigenous population of the city was mainly composed of
Berbers
Berbers, or the Berber peoples, also known as Amazigh or Imazighen, are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arab migrations to the Maghreb, Arabs in the Maghreb. Their main connec ...
from the
Kabyle hinterland and the large community of Andalusian refugees. The population estimate at that time is put at 100,000 inhabitants by Al Idrissi.
Mohammad Ibn Tumart met
Abd al-Mu'min
Abd al-Mu'min (c. 1094–1163) (; full name: ʿAbd al-Muʾmin ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAlwī ibn Yaʿlā al-Kūmī Abū Muḥammad) was a prominent member of the Almohad movement. Although the Almohad movement itself was founded by Ibn Tumart, Abd al-Mu' ...
, the one who would become the caliph of his movement and of a new state (the
Almohads), near Béjaïa around 1118.
Mohammad Ibn Tumart preached a return to the sources of Islam from
Mellala, a town located 10 km from Béjaïa. Years before, the
Almohad guide was said to have been driven out by the people of Bejaia, whom he had strongly criticized for their morals. The political movement he founded was the basis of the Almohad Empire, which seized Bejaia in 1152 and deposed the Hammadids. The city retained its strategic importance under the Almohads; it became a provincial capital. The caliph Abd el Mumin appointed a member of his own family as governor of the city,
[.] a testament to its strategic importance. The city's port housed the caliph's fleet and that of the Hammadids, which he had seized.
[.] In 1183, for a brief period, the
Banu Ghaniya (remnants of the
Almoravid dynasty
The Almoravid dynasty () was a Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire that stretched over the western Maghreb and Al-Andalus, starting in the 1050s and lasting until its fall to the Almo ...
) seized Bejaia before the Almohads regained control of it.
After the breakup of the Almohad Empire, Béjaïa returned to the orbit of the
Hafsid Berbers of Tunis who became independent in June 1228. But in reality, due to the fragmentation and succession disputes, the emir or sultan of Béjaïa became independent from that of Tunis at the head of a real dissident kingdom over various periods, the last of which before the Spanish conquest extended over the entire 15th century, at which time it was called the
"kingdom de Bougie ". Trade remained active with the Christian states and the city was one of the main reception points for Andalusian refugees fleeing the
Reconquista
The ''Reconquista'' (Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese for ) or the fall of al-Andalus was a series of military and cultural campaigns that European Christian Reconquista#Northern Christian realms, kingdoms waged ag ...
.
[.]
The centuries of decadence of Bejaia
Like the tragic fate suffered at the turn of the 15th century by many caravanserais and several medieval cities of the Sahara and the Maghreb coast, sometimes radically, those characterized by an economy significantly linked to
trans-Saharan-Mediterranean trade as well as by a lack of substitutes inherently or de facto (such as
Mahdia
Mahdia ( ') is a Tunisian coastal city with 76,513 inhabitants, south of Monastir, Tunisia, Monastir and southeast of Sousse.
Mahdia is a provincial centre north of Sfax. It is important for the associated fish-processing industry, as well as w ...
in Tunisia,
Honaïne in Algeria, radically
Sijilmasa in Morocco, etc.), Bejaia thus begins its decline in this context of a combination of circumstances of reconfiguration of world trade in favor of new maritime routes dominated at first by the
Portuguese and the
Dutch to the detriment of the previous caravan routes and what was related to them.
A coveted city
The
Spanish, in the wake of the
Reconquista
The ''Reconquista'' (Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese for ) or the fall of al-Andalus was a series of military and cultural campaigns that European Christian Reconquista#Northern Christian realms, kingdoms waged ag ...
, carried out raids on the ports of North Africa. The city was taken by the Spaniard
Pedro Navarro in 1510 from Sultan Abdelaziz. The Spanish put an end to the
"kingdom of Bougie" in the central Maghreb. They made the city one of their trading posts which was maintained thanks to relations with
Pisa
Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...
and
Genoa
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
. But their harshness caused the flight of the local population, and conflicts with the surrounding Berbers. The city could no longer serve as a relay for trade with the hinterland and Abu Bakr, Abdelaziz's brother and sultan,
tried to retake the city in 1512 from his new capital, Constantine (using the Zianid siege system of the 14th century).
The Spanish were content to control a perimeter forming a sort of triangle between Bordj Abdelkader, the Casbah and Bordj Moussa. The city outside these limits was not defendable by the weak Spanish garrison and was ruined. The spirit of the Inquisition influenced local Spanish politics, the
Jews
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
were driven out of the city and the urban elites, including the scholars, fled. The scholarly tradition then moved massively to the
zaouïas of the
Kabyle hinterland, the manuscripts were also moved and dispersed. The population of the city was in free fall, and even the Spanish garrison was increasingly reduced; it numbered 500 men in 1555.
The former possessions of Béjaïa were fragmented, which hindered the reconquest of the city. In Kabylie, El Abbès, the son of the Sultan of Béjaïa, founded his principality around the
Kalâa of Ait Abbès, taking part of the city's elites; on the west bank of the
Soummam he was in competition with Belkadi, descendant of the Bougiote jurist Al Ghobrini who founded the
Sultanate of Kuku. In
Constantine it was Abou Bakr, brother of the former sultan, who proclaimed himself sultan over all of eastern Algeria. These various protagonists, rivals among themselves, each hoped to reconquer the city and unify its former dependencies.
It was at this time, when the old states were in decline, that the
Barbarossa brothers, Greek corsairs converted to Islam, appeared and settled in the neighboring city of
Jijel. They joined the various attempts to retake the city from the Spanish thanks to their expertise in navigation. They eventually founded their own state around Algiers, based partly on corsair activity, and rapidly extended their influence over northern Algeria by gradually entering the Ottoman orbit and presenting themselves in the eyes of the population as direct competitors of the Spanish. Béjaïa quickly became a strategic objective; the Barbarossa gradually ousted the Hafsids from Constantine and Annaba.
Charles V used the city as a fallback after the disastrous 1541 expedition against Algiers.
A marginalized city
The Barbarossa would never achieve their goal of retaking Béjaïa during their lifetime. It was one of their successors, the
beylerbey
''Beylerbey'' (, meaning the 'commander of commanders' or 'lord of lords’, sometimes rendered governor-general) was a high rank in the western Islamic world in the late Middle Ages and early modern period, from the Anatolian Seljuks and the I ...
Salah Raïs, who finally entered the city after the Battle of Béjaïa (1555) with the help of the Kabyles of Koukou. The city was integrated into the
Regency of Algiers and depended on the
Beylik of Constantine until 1830. The territorial division into three beyliks placed the city in a marginal position. The political dream of the Barbarossa to establish their capital in Béjaïa was abandoned; the regency was already established in Algiers, which was a fortified port and in which many developments had been carried out. The only major institution maintained during this period was that of the dar senâa, the shipyards or arsenals of the city which supplied ships to the regency.
[.]
The city, with a Turkish caïd, was seen above all as a city that could potentially compete with Algiers and is surrounded by hostile mountains. The rise of its corsair fleets was closely monitored for fear of competition with that of Algiers; the Algiers fleet came to its coves, where it was naturally sheltered, during the winter. The city therefore saw its decline accelerate after the departure of the Spanish. The inhabitants maintained a small merchant fleet of about twenty
feluccas which traded with Algiers, Oran, Bouna and Tunis to export the region's produce during favorable weather. In winter, this fleet was stationed on the beach of Dar senâa under the Casbah and not refloated until spring.
[.] The goods exported included oil, wax, dried figs, and leather; fabrics and cereals are imported. These ships could transport wood for the karasta: the exploitation of wood for the shipbuilding of Algiers. Corsair activity continued during this period, particularly with that of Jijel. In 1671, the city was targeted by the English led by Édouard Sprague who bombarded it to stop the corsair attacks on their ships. During this entire period, the city was not maintained, and the descriptions of various travelers reflect the deterioration of the buildings and the lack of repair.
Sidi M'hamed Amokrane, a marabout, son of the Sultan of Aït Abbas,
Sidi Naceur Amokrane (or Mokrani), settled near Béjaïa around 1630, before going to Jijel. He moved his zaouïa from the village of Ama'dan to the city where the Turks charged him with running the karasta. At the time of
Al Warthilani (1713 – 1779), the city was in the hands of three important figures: the cadi, the caid and the descendant of the marabout Mokrani.
The caids asked the marabouts to pass under the laânaya (protection) of the troops of Béjaïa until Algiers. Indeed, the city located in the heart of Kabylie, independent of the executive power of Algiers, was often besieged during insurrectional conflicts between the various confederations of the region. During the great revolt of 1806, led by the sheriff Ben el Harche, the city was besieged without success. In 1823, the tribes of Bibans and Soummam seized the caid of the city. In 1825, the agha Yahia, commander of the troops from Algiers, invaded the city and launched operations of repression against the tribes of Soummam.
The fall of the regency and the colonial period
In 1830, the French launched the conquest of Algeria. At first, the expedition was directed against Algiers. But very soon, the invaders sought to occupy the entire country, in particular Kabylie against which several expeditions were directed. Béjaïa, which had come under the control of the Mezzaïa tribe after the fall of the dey of Algiers, suffered several incidents involving French and English ships. In 1831, two expeditions aimed at imposing as its caïd a man named Mourad, then a certain Bou Setta, were thwarted. A new expedition resulted in the capture of the city in 1833, after fierce resistance from its inhabitants. However, the French failed to conquer the surrounding area.
[.]

The city and its region put up fierce resistance to the French colonial presence; moreover, like the Spanish in the 16th century, the French were content with a limited occupation until 1846. Various defensive works were built around the square, particularly on the heights.
[.]
The city took part in several uprisings and insurrections, such as that of the sheriff Boubaghla, and especially the great revolt of Sheikh El Mokrani and Sheikh Aheddad in 1871. At the time of the French conquest, the city was no more than a very modest town of around 2,000 inhabitants.
[.] The city was made a fully-fledged commune by decree of 17 June 1854. The French partially filled in the bay and developed the city's port and outer harbor. Urban planning work (development of the seafront and major roads) left its mark on its urban fabric. It gradually regains its role as an outlet for Kabylia, and as an export port for local agricultural products. Algerian inhabitants still maintain their coastal shipping activity. In 1906, the Cape Carbon lighthouse was built, it is the highest in the world due to its natural location (altitude 220 meters) and it has a range of 33 miles.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
,
Operation Torch
Operation Torch (8–16 November 1942) was an Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War. Torch was a compromise operation that met the British objective of securing victory in North Africa whil ...
landed forces in
North Africa
North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...
, including a battalion of the British
Royal West Kent Regiment at Béjaïa on 11 November 1942. That same day, at 4:40 PM, a German
Luftwaffe
The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
air raid struck Béjaïa with thirty
Ju 88 bombers and torpedo planes. The transports and ''Cathay'' were sunk and the
monitor HMS ''Roberts'' was damaged. The following day, the anti-aircraft ship
SS ''Tynwald'' was torpedoed and sank, while the transport ''Karanja'' was bombed and destroyed.
On May 8, 1945, the repression led by the French colonial forces in Kherrata, where the navy was used for a naval bombardment of the coasts of the Béjaïa region, caused thousands of victims.
[.]
During the Algerian War of Independence, the organization of the FLN and the ALN created for the first time a Kabyle administrative territory, the wilaya III; Béjaïa is part of this group.
[.] The Soummam congress, which is the political meeting of the FLN which sets the political-military line of the Algerian national movement in the war, takes place in Ouzellaguen, in the Bougiote hinterland.
[.]
The modern agglomeration
On the eve of the
Algerian War
The Algerian War (also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence) ''; '' (and sometimes in Algeria as the ''War of 1 November'') was an armed conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front (Algeri ...
in 1954, it had 30,000 inhabitants, including 6,200 Europeans. One of the last decisions of the colonial administration was to build an oil pipeline from Hassi Messaoud, with the city as a terminal depot and oil port. In 1959, Béjaïa was the most important oil port in Algeria, which was a source of income. In 1962, it was integrated into the wilaya of Sétif, before becoming the seat of its own wilaya in 1974. The city experienced a demographic boom, and an urbanization of the Lekhmis plain, following the influx of rural people, particularly from Kabylie.
Béjaïa, like other cities in Soummam, was one of the centers of Berber identity claims during the Berber Spring of 1980; and in 2001, during the Black Spring. If it struggles to establish itself as the economic capital of Little Kabylia, it is undeniably the cultural capital of Kabylia, in competition with Tizi-Ouzou. The opening of the political field has allowed the emergence of groups, associations, artistic and cultural events of all types. The University Center, by its presence, supports the movement; a Tamazight language institute is planned to be installed in Béjaïa.
[.]
This rapid expansion of the city is also a challenge in terms of urban planning; the city is indeed struggling to ensure a hinterland due to the relief. On the other hand, heritage and culture are also an issue because they are threatened in the long term. The exceptional site also raises the environmental question and that of pollution linked to domestic and industrial activities. In the early 1990s, the increase in population combined with the lack of planning and the inadequacy of public policies degraded the living environment of the city, despite certain assets for its future.
[.]
Demographics
The population of the city was 177,988 as of the 2008 census.
Economy
The northern terminus of the
Hassi Messaoud oil pipeline from the Sahara, Béjaïa is the principal
oil port of the Western Mediterranean. Exports, aside from crude petroleum, include
iron
Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...
,
phosphate
Phosphates are the naturally occurring form of the element phosphorus.
In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthop ...
s,
wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...
s, dried
figs, and
plum
A plum is a fruit of some species in Prunus subg. Prunus, ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are often called prunes, though in the United States they may be labeled as 'dried plums', especially during the 21st century.
Plums are ...
s. The city also has
textile
Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...
and
cork industries.
The
Béni Mansour-Bejaïa line railroad terminates in Béjaïa. The airport of the city is
Abane Ramdane Airport.
Cevital, the largest private conglomerate in Algeria, is headquartered in the city.
[Cevital & vous]
." Cevital. Retrieved on 26 August 2011. "Adresse: Nouveau Qaui Port de -Béjaïa - Algérie"
Religion
Titular see of Bugia
This
titular see
A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...
was for a long time, ''alternatively and concurrently'' with the city's authentic Roman Latin name
Saldae (v.), called Bugia, the
Italian language
Italian (, , or , ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from the colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian language, Sardinian. It is ...
form (used in the
Roman Curia
The Roman Curia () comprises the administrative institutions of the Holy See and the central body through which the affairs of the Catholic Church are conducted. The Roman Curia is the institution of which the Roman Pontiff ordinarily makes use ...
) of Béjaïa.
The 'modern' form and title, Bugia, seems out of use, after having had the following incumbents, all of the lowest (episcopal) rank:
* Miguel Morro (1510 – ?), as
Auxiliary Bishop
An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions.
...
of
Mallorca
Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.
The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...
(Balearic Spain) (1510 – ?)
* Fernando de Vera y Zuñiga,
Augustinians
Augustinians are members of several religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written about 400 A.D. by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13 ...
(O.E.S.A.) (1614.02.17 – 1628.11.13), as Auxiliary Bishop of
Badajoz
Badajoz is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. It is situated close to the Portugal, Portuguese Portugal–Spain border, border, on the left bank of the river ...
(Spain) (1614.02.17 – 1628.11.13); later Metropolitan Archbishop of
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...
, finally
Archbishop-Bishop of
Cusco
Cusco or Cuzco (; or , ) is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Sacred Valley of the Andes mountain range and the Huatanay river. It is the capital of the eponymous Cusco Province, province and Cusco Region, department.
The city was the cap ...
(Peru) (1629.07.16 – death 1638.11.09)
* François Perez (1687.02.05 – death 1728.09.20), as
Apostolic Vicar
Apostolic may refer to:
The Apostles
An Apostle meaning one sent on a mission:
*The Twelve Apostles of Jesus, or something related to them, such as the Church of the Holy Apostles
*Apostolic succession, the doctrine connecting the Christian Churc ...
of
Cochin
Kochi ( , ), formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of Kerala. The city is also commonly referred to as Ernaku ...
(Vietnam) (1687.02.05 – 1728.09.20)
* Antonio Mauricio Ribeiro (1824.09.27 – death ?), as Auxiliary Bishop of
Évora (Portugal) (1824.09.27 – ?)
*
George Hilary Brown (5 June 1840 until 22 April 1842), as first and only Apostolic Vicar of
Lancashire District (England) (1840.06.05 – 1850.09.29), later Titular Bishop of
Tlous (1842.04.22 – 1850.09.29), promoted first bishop of successor see
Liverpool
Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
(1850.09.29 – 1856.01.25)
Sports
The city is home to
JSM Béjaïa and
MO Béjaïa, two rival
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
clubs who won one
Algerian Cup each and have represented the city in African club competitions. Both of them play at the
Maghrebi Unity Stadium.
Twin towns – sister cities
Béjaïa has an official friendly relationship with:
*
Glasgow, Scotland
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
, since 1995
*
Brest
*
Bad Homburg
Villages
*
Ilougane
Notable people
*
Zaki Hannache (born 1987), human rights activist
*
Nihad Hihat (born 1994), volleyball player
*
Rebiha Khebtani (1926–2006), politician
*
Nassim Oussalah (born 1981), footballer
*
Fares Arfa (born 1994), fencer
See also
*
European enclaves in North Africa before 1830
*
List of lighthouses in Algeria
*
Saldae, for Roman history and concurrent Catholic titular see
*
Great Mosque of Béjaïa
; Related people
*
Abu al-Salt
*
Fibonacci
Leonardo Bonacci ( – ), commonly known as Fibonacci, was an Italians, Italian mathematician from the Republic of Pisa, considered to be "the most talented Western mathematician of the Middle Ages".
The name he is commonly called, ''Fibonacci ...
Notes
References
Sources
*
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*
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*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
Bgayet.Net**
Google map of Béjaïa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bejaia
Communes of Béjaïa Province
Former Spanish colonies
Kabylia
Coastal cities in Algeria
Province seats of Algeria
Lighthouses in Algeria
Berber populated places