The economic reality in the Touggourt region during the Ottoman era

Abstract

This study deals with the economic reality in the Touggourt region during the Ottoman era in Algeria (1519-1830 AD), through an analysis of local resources, patterns of production and trade exchange, the region’s position within Saharan trade networks, and its economic relations with the Ottoman authority in Algeria and in neighboring commercial areas. This study is based on the hypothesis that the Wadi Righ economy was not a closed oasis economy or based on self-sufficiency only, but rather represented a local economy connected to networks. A broader regional region, in which caravans, markets, and commercial intermediaries contributed, in addition to the political and tax relations that linked the rulers of the region, especially the Bani Gullab family, to the central authority.

The study relies on the historical and analytical approach, while employing the economic and social approach in reading the data related to oasis agriculture, the exchange of dates, animal products, grains, and manufactured goods, and the role of markets in organizing exchanges. It also examines the impact of the geographical location of Touggourt and Wadi Righ in general in linking the southern desert with the northern region, and within the limits of the intervention of the Ottoman authority in local economic activity.

The importance of the topic is highlighted in its contribution to overcoming perceptions that reduce the history of the Algerian economy during the Ottoman era to coastal cities, and highlighting the role of the inland desert centers in shaping the Algerian economic field, taking into account the limited direct quantitative statistics for the Touggourt region and Oued Righ in general during the period studied.