The Thaaliba () were a sub-tribe of the
Maqil
The Banu Ma'qil () is 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 around the Saharan ...
Arab
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world.
Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
s, descended from Tha`lab ibn `Ali ibn Bakr ibn Saghir ibn Maqil. They settled the
Mitidja plain in the medieval period, and came to rule
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 ...
and the towns around it from 1204 to 1516.
The Thaaliba first reached the Mitidja plain from the
Titteri 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
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad Ibn Tūmart (, ca. 1080–1130) was a Muslim religion, religious scholar, teacher and political leader, from the Sous in southern present-day Morocco. He founded and served as the spiritual and first military leader ...
and thus secured a good position. Later on, the
Merinid 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, 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. After his death in 1479,
Abd al-Rahman al-Tha'alibi'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-Thumi and the notables of Algiers invited in two Ottoman corsair brothers,
Oruç Reis and
Hayreddin Barbarossa. 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 (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
.
Several notable Islamic religious figures emerged from the Thaaliba, most famously including
Abd al-Rahman al-Tha'alibi (1384-1479), but also the scholar and mystic Sidi Yahya al-Tadallisi al-Tha`alibi (d. 1461/1462), the first imam of
Timbuktu
Timbuktu ( ; ; Koyra Chiini: ; ) is an ancient city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. It is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali, having a population of 32,460 in the 2018 census.
...
's eponymous
Sidi Yahya Mosque, and the later religious scholar Abu Mahdi Isa al-Tha`alibi (d. 1669/1670).
Notable people
*
Abd al-Rahman al-Tha'alibi
*
Salim at Toumi
See also
*
Emirate of Algiers (Emirate of Thâaliba)
References
*
*
*
{{Arab tribes in Algeria
Arab tribes in Algeria
Hashemite people
Yemeni tribes