The kingdom of At Abbas
The kingdom of At Abbas was formed following the capture of Vgayet by the Spaniards in 1510. At the fall of the Berber Hafsid kingdom, the Kabyles took a new capital, in the interior of the country, the qalâa of At Abbas . This city is an old fortified place from the Hammadite era. It was the Hammadi Sultan Abderahmane who chose this site for its security amenities. During the reign of his grandson Abdelaziz, the qalaâ had no less than 70,000 inhabitants. Abdelaziz then takes the title of “Amoqran”.
Under his command, the qalâa erected weapons factories with the assistance of Christian renegades and Andalusians expelled from Spain. The kingdom of At Abbas controls the strategic passage of the Iron Gates, an obligatory crossing point on the road linking Algiers to Constantine. “These troops (the Turkish militia) so formidable throughout the kingdom, are obliged to lower their standards and their weapons, passing through an unfortunate strait called the Iron Gate, between steep mountains. The nation called Benia-Beïd (Beni-Abbas), which inhabits these mountains, forces them into submission. [...] and they still consider themselves happy to be at peace with them, otherwise they would have to go through the Sahara to go from Algiers to Constantine. » wrote the French traveler Peyssonnel in 1725. Sometimes, during this period, the kingdom of At Abbas even had an ambassador in Spain.
(it is in History of Kabylie by Youcef Zirem, Yoran Embanner editions, first edition March 2013; second edition December 2014)
Source: websites