Ali Bitchin
Ali Bitchin (c. 1560-1645) was a "
Bitchin became particularly well known through the captivity narratives published by Emanuel D'Aranda, his slave for about a year from 1640 to 1641.
Biography
Bitchin was part of a group of people captured in 1578, by Hassan Veneziano the King of Algiers at the time, while aboard a Venetian ship. Bitchin, only a ten-year-old boy at the time, was bought from the Babel Boustan slaves market (current fishery) for 60 golden dinars, by the Raïs Fettah-Allah Ben-Khodja, from whom he learned privateering.
With the exception of
Bitchin became the foster father of Algiers by the countless riches confiscated and imported on his ships to the city. He thus contributed to the apparent opulence of the Algerian capital.
Bitchin has left a trace of himself in the Regency of Algiers between 1620 and 1645, the date of his death. In 1622, he had built the Ali Bitchin Mosque. Between 1621 and 1645, he was the supreme head of the Taifa (corporation of the Rais), and took on the title Grand Admiral of Algiers. His wealth became huge. He owned a palace in the city, a home in the countryside, several galleys and thousands of slaves. His large slave holdings did not prevent him from feeding them a simple piece of bread or biscuit, yet not every day.
The mosque
Tradition says that when Ali Bitchin saw Princess Lalla Lallahoum, the daughter of Ben Ali, Sultan of the Kabyle people of Algiers, for the first time, he could not resist the desire to love her; she was considered the most beautiful woman of all. All his senses were troubled, and his days restless. Accompanied by Lalla N'fiça, widow of his mentor, Raïs Fethullah Ben-Khodja, Bitchin went to Ben Ali seeking the hand of his daughter.
Bitchin placed at the foot of the beautiful princess carpets of Persia, silks and brocades of the Levant, diamonds from India, Peru's gold and much more. Lalla Lallahoum regarded with indifference these riches: "No, she said, I have nothing to do of all this, I demand that my suitor build a mosque to prove his faith". Ali Bitchin Mosque was built that same year, in 1622.
Death and legacy
Towards 1639, the Algerian navy, under the command of Ali Bitchin, suffered extensive damage alongside the Ottoman fleet against the Venetians in Aulona (modern-day Vlorë, Albania) on the Adriatic Sea. The Turkish Sultan accordingly promised compensations to the King of Algiers, but never sent the promised subsidies for the reconstruction of the Algerian fleet.
Raising the legitimate anger of the Raïs, Bitchin made the decision not to aid the Turkish Navy in the future. During 1645, Sultan Ibrahim summoned all the Algerian warships to fight the
Bitchin was buried in Djebanet El Bashawet (cemetery of the Pashas) in the Bab El Oued neighborhood, and was unearthed with many others in 1831. In fact the French invaders later in 1832 transformed his Mosque into a Roman Catholic church calling it Notre Dame des Victoires, as they did the Ketchaoua Mosque of the lesser Casbah. In doing this, they profaned the Djebanet El Bashawet. New buildings were built upon the graves.
Dr. Segaud wrote in an article published in the Semaphore of Marseilles, bearing date of 2 March 1832: "I saw The Josephine ship that arrived in Algiers loaded with bones, and human skulls, and of corpses recently unearthed. "
References
- Chems-Eddine Chitour. Algérie: le passé revisité: une Brève histoire de l'Algérie (in French).
- Histoire religieuse de l'Algérie: l'identité Et la religion face à La modernité (in French).
- Malek Chebbal. Le dictionnaire amoureux de l'Algérie (in French).
- M'hamed, Benkhodja (4 March 2001). "Le 4 mars 1622 : Un Corsaire d'origine vénitienne, puccieni, par la foi en Dieu et pour l'amour d'une belle princesse, construisit une mosquée à Zoudj-Aïoun". L'Authentique (in French). Abdelkrim Sais. Archived from the original on 2017-10-09. Retrieved 1 January 2013.