أوضاع المغرب الأوسط(الجزائر) في أوائل القرن السادس عشر

At the outset of modern times, between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Algeria witnessed some rotten condtions in all fields ; either political, social , economic or cultural which ranged from the rulers’ fight upon thrones to the Arabians’ grip on the citys’ inlets and outlets. In addition, the Andalusians’ immigration worsened the situation as it gave further justification to the Spaniards to colonize the coastal cities of the Mediterrannean southern shore. This led to economic decline for the external trade was ruined by the Spanish raids, while the internal was destroyed by the Arabians’ attacks, and resulted in social decline. The lack of road and traffic security, in its turn, negatively influenced commerce and led to lower living standards and to famine and it even impacted the population psychological health. Consequently, culture and science regressed during that era, and both thinkers and scholars became imitators of their predecessors by documenting, explaining or borrowing from them, and in better cases they would isolate themselves from the people and live into seclusion. As a reaction to such a situation which crystallized, on the one hand, in the Spanish colonization to the coastal cities, their involvment in the Zianids’ and Hafsids’ State affairs and in the rulers’ failure to face the external danger, on the other, some soufis (al motassawifa) called for an alliance with the Ottomans in order to rescue the land and its people from the ‘unbelievers.