Tlemcen

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Coordinates: 34°52′N 1°18′W

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Tlemcen comes from the Berber word "Tala imsan" "The dry spring", sometimes spelled Tlemsan, (Arabic: تلمسان) is a town in Northwestern Algeria, and the seat of government for the Tlemcen Province of the same name. Its population is an estimated 130,000. Located inland, it is located in the center of a region known for its olive plantations and vineyards. The city has developed leather, carpet, and textile industries, which it ships to the port of Rashgun for export.

Its centuries of rich history and culture have made the city a center of a unique blend of music and art. Its textiles and handicrafts, its elegant blend of Arab, Berber, and French cultures, and its cool climate in the mountains have made it an important center of tourism in Algeria. It is home to two beautiful tombs - that of Sidi Bou Mediene, whose tomb adjoins to a mosque, and Houari Boumédiènne, the second president of Algeria. It also has an international airport-Zenata airport.

[edit] History

Tlemcen was founded by the Romans in the 4th century C.E. under the name of Pomaria as a military outpost on the Berber frontier, in the province of Mauretania Caesariensis. It was an important see of the Roman Catholic Church in the century in which it was built, where it was the center of a diocese. Its bishop, Victor, was a prominent representative at the Council of Carthage in 411, and its bishop Honoratus was exiled in 484 by the Vandal king Huneric for denying Arianism. It was a center of a large Christian population for many centuries after the city's Arab conquest in 708. In the later eighth century and the ninth century, the city became a center of the Kharijite sect. The 11th century Almoravid settlement at Tagrart merged with the city and rose to prominence as a major trading center in the region.

Tlemcen was the capital of the Abd-el-Wadid (Ziyyanids) kingdom of Tlemcen, whose flag was a blue crescent pointing upwards on a white field. The kingdom of Tlemcen grew rapidly after its foundations in 1282 to control most of the Atlas Mountains to Tunisia at its height in the 15th century. When the Spanish took the city of Oran from the kingdom in 1509, continuous pressure from the Berbers prompted the Spanish to attempt a counterattack against the city of Tlemcen (1543), which was deemed by the Papacy to be a crusade. The Spanish failed to take the city in the first attack, although the strategic vulnerability of Tlemcen caused the kingdom's weight to shift toward the safer and more heavily fortified corsair base at Algiers.

The ruler of Tlemcen is reported to have been advised by a Jewish viceroy named Abraham, who, in the time of the Inquisition of Torquemada, opened the gates of Tlemcen to hordes of Jews and Moors fleeing Spain. Abraham is said to have supported them with his own money and with the tolerance of the king of Tlemcen.

In 1553, the kingdom of Tlemcen came under the protection of the Ottoman Empire, which was fighting a naval war against the Spaniards across the Mediterranean, and the Kingdom of Tlemcen became another vassal of the Sultan in Constantinople. Tlemcen and the Algerian provinces gained effective independence in their own affairs in 1671, although Tlemcen was no longer the seat of government that it once was (transferred to ?Algiers), and its grandeur was much reduced from the days of its great kings. The Spanish were evicted from Oran in 1792, but thirty years later they were replaced by the French, who seized Algiers. A French fleet bombarded Algiers in 1834, at which point the dey capitulated to French colonial rule; a broad coalition of Berbers and Arabs continued to resist, coordinated loosely at Tlemcen. The great Kabylian warrior, Abd al-Kader, fought with incredible skill and valor, but his defeat in 1844 at Isly ended the dream of a new independent Algeria.

Tlemcen was a vacation spot and retreat for French settlers in Algeria, who found it to be far more temperate than Oran or Algiers. The city adapted and became more cosmopolitan, with a unique outlook on art and culture, and its architecture and urban life evolved to accommodate this new sense. In the independence movements of the mid-twentieth century, it was relatively quiet, reflecting the city's sense of aloofness from the turbulence of Algiers.

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[edit] External links

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