1. The term casbah was derived from the citadel located at the highest point of the fortifications surrounding the town.

2. In the words of colonial architectural historian A. Maitrot de la Motte-Capron, Algerian architecture expressed a very clear " amour du cube. " See A. Maitrot de la Motte-Capron, "L'Architecture indigène nord-africaine," Bulletin de la Société de Géographie d'Alger et de l'Afrique du Nord 37, no. 131 (1932): 293.

3. Roger Le Tourneau, "Al Djaza'ir," in Encyclopedia of Islam (Leiden, 1960), 519-520.

4. Ibid., 520; Djaffar Lesbet, La Casbah d'Alger. Gestion urbaine et vide sociale (Algiers, [c. 1985]), 194-195. In 1816, the citadel became the residence of the dey of Algiers.

5. André Raymond, The Great Arab Cities in the 16th-18th Centuries (New York, 1984), 10.

6. The Janina Palace burned in 1844; it was then demolished. Today the al-Jadid Mosque is on the present-day Place des Martyres (formerly Place du Gouvernement).

7. Le Tourneau, "Al Djaza'ir," 520; André Ravéreau, La Casbah d'Alger. Et le site créa la ville (Paris, 1989), 35-36; Jean Michel de Venture, Alger au XVIIIe siècle, second ed. (Tunis, [c. 1980]), 9-10.

8. Raymond, Great Arab Cities, 9. Le Tourneau, "Al Djaza'ir," 520-521; Ravéreau, La Casbah d'Alger, 35-36. While the records are clear about the cosmopolitan nature of the population of Algiers, the available population figures are vague, making it difficult to quantify the city's population for any period before 1830. They vary dramatically, from 60,000 at the end of the sixteenth century to 100,000 in 1634; from 50,000 at the end of the eighteenth century to 30,000 in 1830. For Algiers of this period, see also William Spenser, Algiers in the Age of Corsairs (Norman, Okla., 1965).

9. Jean-Michel de Venture, for example, describes the streets of eighteenth-century Algiers as "extremely narrow," not even wide enough for three persons to walk side by side. He also elaborates on the darkness of the streets caused by houses bridging the two sides and by projecting second stories. Venture, Alger au XVIIIe siècle, 3, 10.

10. Lamberto Deho and Daniele Pini, "Tipologia edilizia e morfologia urbana della Casbah di Algeri," Parametro 17 (June 1973): 30.

11. Ravéreau, La Casbah d'Alger, 40-42. Venture's observations in the eighteenth century contradict this statement; he characterizes the streets of Algiers as dirty and foul-smelling. See Venture, Alger au XVIIIe siècle, 10.

12. Janet L. Abu-Lughod, "The Islamic City--Historic Myth, Islamic Essence, and Contemporary Relevance," International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 19, no. 2 (May 1987): 162-164.

13. Georges Marçais, "Maisons et villas musulmanes d'Alger," Documents algériens 26 (1 January 1948-31 December 1948): 347.

14. Ravéreau, La Casbah D'Alger, 40.

15. On the houses of Algiers, see Lucien Golvin, Palais et demeures d'Alger à la période ottomane (Aix-en-Provence, 1988). Although Golvin focuses on several case studies from upper-class houses, he includes some more modest examples and discusses the general principles.

16. Ravéreau, La Casbah d'Alger, 38-39. For the distribution of mosques, religious schools, public fountains, and baths, see Marcello Balbo and Guido Moretti, "La Casbah nello sviluppo di Algeri," Parametro 17 (June 1973): 7-8, and Lesbet, La Casbah d'Alger, 197-198.

17. Le Tourneau, "Al Djaza'ir," 520; André Raymond, "Le Centre d'Alger en 1830," Revue de l'occident musulman et de la Meditérranée 31, no. 1 (1981): 73-74. Relying on a number of sources, Raymond reconstructed a map of the central zone of the lower city in 1830 (see 84).

18. A waqf (known in the Maghreb as habous ) is a permanent endowment of land or real estate made by an individual and secured by a deed of restraint. Through this act, the owner stipulated that the property be used for good purposes. The principles to be followed were regulated in detail: the purpose had to be compatible with Islam and pleasing to God; the object of the endowment had to be of a permanent nature and made in perpetuity. Waqf s varied from religious buildings to educational ones, to all kinds of public works (roads, aqueducts, bridges), to charitable institutions (hospitals, hostels, laundries, kitchens, baths). Every waqf had a manager, in addition to several technically skilled people on salary, responsible for its repair; a local judge supervised the maintenance. For waqf s, see H. A. R. Gibb and H. Bowen, Islamic Society and the West, vol. 1 (New York, 1957), 2, 164; Encyclopedia of Islam (Leiden, 1960), 1096-97.

19. Roland Barthes, "Myth Today," in Susan Sontag, ed., A Barthes Reader (New York, 1982), 93-94, 104.

20. Woodhull, Transfigurations of the Maghreb, 19; J. Lorraine, Heures d'Afrique (1899), quoted in Yvonne Knibiehler and Régine Goutalier, La Femme aux temps des colonies (Paris, 1985), 40.

21. M. Bernard, D'Alger à Tanger (n.d.), 1, quoted in Judy Mabro, ed., Veiled Half-Truths: Western Travellers' Perceptions of Middle Eastern Women (London, 1991), 35.

22. Lucienne Favre, Tout l'inconnu de la casbah d'Alger (Algiers, 1933), 10 ("sex appeal" is in English in the original).

23. Le Corbusier, La Ville radieuse, 260.

24. Le Corbusier, Poésie sur Alger (1950; facsimile reprint, Paris, 1989), 16.

25. Le Corbusier, "Le Folklore est l'expression fleurie des traditions," 31.

26. L'Algérie de nos jours (1893), quoted in Mabro, Veiled Half-Truths, 31-32.

27. Favre, Tout l'inconnu de la casbah d'Alger, 249. The contrast between the French town and the casbah was conveyed to broad audiences in Julien Duvivier's popular film Pépé le Moko (1937), even though the movie was shot entirely in the studio.

28. Eugène Fromentin, Une Année dans le Sahel, seventh ed. (Paris, 1888), 24, 27-28. Ville blanche is italicized in the original text.

29. Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, 51.

30. "Il Seminario al Comedor. Conclusioni," Parametro 17 (June 1973): 39.

31. Théophile Gautier, Voyage pittoresque en Algérie, ed. M. Cottin (1845; reprint, Geneva, 1973), 190.

32. See, for example, "Projets pour 1834," Service Historique de l'Armée de Terre, Château de Vincennes, Paris (hereafter SHAT), Génie. Alger. Art. 8, section 1, carton 3, which specifies, among other less important conversions, the resettlement of the Third Battalion of the African Army in a house on the Rue de la Casbah. "Projets pour 1834," ibid., mentions the continuation of the appropriation of houses near the casbah and their transformation into workshops. "Mémoire sur l'état actuel de la place. Projets pour 1837," ibid., carton 4, also notes the conversion of several houses near the casbah into workshops.

33. Quoted in Alf Andrew Heggoy, The French Conquest of Algiers, 1830: An Algerian Oral Tradition (Athens, Ohio, 1986), 22-23.

34. "Rapport au Comité du Génie. Séance du 1 octobre 1831," SHAT, Génie. Alger. Art. 8, section 6.

35. Le Baron Louis André Pichon, Alger sous la domination française, son état présent et son avenir (Paris, 1833), 118-119.

36. René Lespès, Alger, étude de géographie et d'histoire urbaines (Paris, 1930), 205-206.

37. "Rapport au Comité du Génie. Séance du 11 octobre 1831," SHAT, Génie. Alger. Art. 8, section 6.

38. Raymond, "Le Centre d'Alger en 1830," 75-76.

39. Lespès, Alger, 206-208; Pichon, Alger sous la domination française, 266-267; Ministère de la Guerre, "Extrait du Comité des fortifications, séance du 31 décembre 1833," Archives Nationales, Dépôt d'Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Provence (hereafter AOM). As this last document indicates, the desire to regularize the fourth side of the Place du Gouvernement to create " une place parfaitement rectangulaire " persisted. Another attempt to bring order to this side of the square by means of an obelisk or fountain dates from 1840. See correspondence between Directeur de l'Intérieur and Ministre de l'Intérieur, Algiers, 27 June 1840 and 19 July 1840, AOM.

40. "Rapport fait au Ministre de l'Intérieur," 8 January 1834, AOM.

41. Lespès, Alger, 213-221.

42. "Projet pour Alger" and "Projets pour 1834," SHAT, Génie. Alger. Art. 8, section 1, carton 3.

43. M. Pasquier-Bronde, "Alger. Son développement depuis l'occupation française," in J. Royer, ed., L'Urbanisme aux colonies et dans les pays tropicaux, vol. 1 (La-Charité-sur-Loire, 1932), 33-35; P.-L. Nougier, "La Transformation de l'ancien quartier de la Marine," Chantiers 14 (January-March 1954): n.p.

44. "Rapport au Conseil d'Administration, Direction de l'Intérieur," 27 August 1845, AOM; Lespès, Alger, 315-324; "Projet d'accordement de la Place du Gouvernement avec Boulevard de l'Impératrice," SHAT, Secrétariat du Comité des Fortifications, séance du 21 janvier 1865; Federico Cresti, "The Boulevard de l'Impératrice in Colonial Algiers (1860-1866)," Environmental Design 1 (1984): 54-59.

45. "Projet général d'agrandissement de la Casbah," SHAT, Génie. Alger. Art. 8, section 1, carton 5.

46. For discussions of the early phase of French planning in Algiers, also see Federico Cresti, "Algeri dalla conquista francese alla fine del secondo impero," and Luc Vilan, "Algeri o il lettro di procuste: la nascita della citta coloniali in Algeria nell'800," Storia urbana 10, nos. 35-36 (April-September 1986): 41-76, 77-106.

47. "Transformation du quartier Bab-Azoun," Procès verbal, 29 September 1917, AOM.

48. "Rapport du Comité des Fortifications. Séance du 14 mars 1884," SHAT, Génie. Alger. Art. 8, section 6.

49. Lespès, Alger, 398-400. Reminding the French authorities that already four of the largest and most beautiful mosques of Algiers had been demolished, Algerian advisors voiced a protest in 1885 against the demolition of the al-Kabir and al-Jadid. See ibid., 400, n. 2.

50. Pasquier-Bronde, "Alger," 38-39.

51. "Rapport au Conseil d'Administration, Directeur de l'Intérieur," 27 August 1845, AOM; "Extrait des registres des déliberations du Conseil Municipal de la ville d'Alger. Session extraordinaire. Séance du 26 novembre 1859," AOM.

52. Jean-Jacques Deluz, L'Urbanisme et l'architecture d'Alger (Algiers, 1988), 13.

53. Lespès, Alger, 278-279.

54. "Rapport," addressed to M. le Maréchal Compte Randon, gouverneur général d'Algérie, 5 May 1858, AOM.

55. Quoted in Lespès, Alger, 305.

56. Fromentin, Une Année dans le Sahel, 17-18.

57. Lesbet, La Casbah d'Alger, 39-48.

58. Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, 38-39.

59. R. Randau, "Un Coin du vieil Alger qu'il faut préserver," L'Afrique du nord illustrée (1 April 1938).

60. Lespès, Alger, 170-171.

61. On Lyautey in Morocco, see Abu-Lughod, Rabat, 131-173; Rabinow, French Modern, 277-319; and Wright, Politics of Design in French Colonial Urbanism, 85-160.

62. Quoted in Abu-Lughod, Rabat, 141.

63. Quoted in Norman Daniel, Islam, Europe, and Empire (Edinburgh, 1966), 489.

64. Quoted in Abu-Lughod, Rabat, 143.

65. Quoted in ibid., 142.

66. Henri Prost, "Le Développement de l'urbanisme dans le protectorat du Maroc, de 1914 à 1923," in Royer, L'Urbanisme aux colonies, vol. 1, 60, 68.

67. Henri Prost, "Rapport général," in Royer, L'Urbanisme aux colonies, vol. 1, 21-22; see also Abu-Lughod, Rabat, 145.

68. Charles Montaland, "L'Urbanisme en Algérie, ses directives pour l'avenir," in Royer, L'Urbanisme aux colonies, vol. 1, 51; Pasquier-Bronde, "Alger," 39.

69. Jean Bévia, "Alger et ses agrandissements," L'Architecture 43, no. 5 (15 May 1930): 183.

70. Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, Unthinking Eurocentrism (London, 1994), 23.

71. "Vers un meilleur aménagement: les projets et les mesures préventives," Chantiers (March 1935): 180, 184. For Prost, Danger, and Rotival's master plan, see the next section in this chapter and Chapter 2.

72. René Lespès, "Les Villes," in Les Arts et la technique moderne en Algérie 1937 (Algiers, 1937), 25-26.

73. Ibid., 26.

74. Gouvernment Général de l'Algérie, Direction Générale des Affaires Indigènes et des Territories du Sud, Service de l'Economie Sociale Indigène, Pour les paysans et les artisans indigènes (Algiers, 1939), 140-141. To hasten and increase production and to provide more "precision" to the work, these schools and workshops promoted the use of modern machinery.

75. Le Corbusier, La Ville radieuse, 229, 244; idem, letter to the Prefect of Algiers, 18 May 1942, Fondation Le Corbusier (hereafter FLC); idem, Questionnaire C, 1931-35, FLC; idem, note for M. Sabatier, 6 May 1941, FLC; and idem, "Proposition d'un plan directeur d'Alger et de sa région pour aider aux travaux de la Commission du Plan de la Région d'Alger et comme suite à la séance du 16 juillet 1941," FLC. I have analyzed Le Corbusier's projects in Algiers in terms of their colonial implications in "Le Corbusier, Orientalism, Colonialism," Assemblage 17 (April 1992): 58-77.

76. Le Corbusier, "Proposition d'un plan directeur."

77. Ibid.

78. R. P. Letellier (des Pères Blancs), Les Indigènes de la Casbah (Algiers: 19ème Corps de l'Armée, Etat Major, Cours de formation islamique, 3 December 1941), 2-5. In 1952 a study reiterated the common pattern of one family per room, the room being 5 to 10 square meters, with very poor ventilation and daylight. See Paul Debauffre, "Habitat en Algérie," Documents nord-africains 42 (February 1952): 3.

79. E. Pasquali, "La Casbah en 1949," Bulletin municipal officiel de la ville d'Alger 10 (August 1949): 6. The density in the upper casbah was recorded as 2,600 to 3,800 people per hectare as compared to the average density of 1,060 people per hectare for the entire commune of Algiers. According to soem interpretations, this amounted to an overpopulation of 25,000 people. See Georges Boni, "Le Cas d'Alger," Bulletin économique et juridique 172 (April 1954): 138; "Bilan général de l'aide à la construction de 1946 à 1953," Documents algériens 42 (1 January 1953-31 December 1953): 95.

80. E. Pasquali, "Aperçus sur la 'Casbah' d'Alger de l'époque phénicienne à nos jours--Démographie de la Casbah," Bulletin municipal officiel de la ville d'Alger 3 (March 1951): n.p., and ibid., 4 (April 1951): n.p.

81. M. Kaddache, "La Casbah de nos jours," Documents algériens (1 January 1951-31 December 1951): 237, 240-241.

82. Ibid., 231-237.

83. Ibid., 229-230; Bulletin municipal officiel de la ville d'Alger 4, 5-6, (April, May-June 1950): n.p.

84. L'Echo d'Alger, 11 June 1959.

85. General de Gaulle quoted in République Française, Délégation Générale du Gouvernement en Algérie, Direction du Plan et des Etudes Economiques, Plan de Constantine 1959-1963. Rapport général (June 1960), 33, 336.

86. M. Baglietto, "Un Vaste projet municipal: l'aménagement de la Casbah," L'Echo d'Alger, 13 February 1960; idem, "Le Conseil municipal du Grand-Alger devant un problème humain: l'aménagement de la Casbah," L'Echo d'Alger, 17 February 1960.

87. Lesbet, La Casbah d'Alger, 61-62.

88. Albert-Paul Lentin, L'Algérie entre deux mondes. Le Dernier quart d'heure (Paris, 1963), 111. The entire city was divided into three zones: central Algiers and two-thirds of the casbah; the remaining one-third of the casbah and the west of Algiers; and east of Algiers. See ibid., 124.

89. Ibid., 126-134.

90. L'Echo d'Alger, 29 March 1956, 27-28 May 1956, 9 January 1957 (the newspaper reported that about five hundred men were registered as construction workers), and 23 September 1956. See also Henri Alleg, Jacques de Bonis, Henri J. Douzon, Jean Freire, and Pierre Haudiquet, La Guerre d'Algérie, vol. 2 (Paris, 1981), 183.

91. Lentin, L'Algérie entre deux mondes, 131-135.

92. El Moudjahid 74 (15 December 1960). The tract was signed by Union Générale des Travailleurs Algériens, Union Générale des Etudiants Musulmans Algériens, Jeunesse Algérien, and Union des Femmes Algériennes.

93. El Moudjahid 75 (19 December 1960): 352, 356, 358. One eventful day reveals the fervor and scale of collective action in the casbah. On II December 1960, at 9:45 a.m., 10,000 people crowded its streets, shouting "[Ferhat] Abbas to power" and "Muslim Algeria." At 2:30 p.m. hundreds of young people carrying FLN flags still marched the narrow streets to the chants of women crowded at windows. By 5:30 p.m. large crowds--FLN processions--again filled the streets of the casbah.

94. "Le Plan d'aménagement de la région algéroise," in Travaux nord-africains, 17 December 1932.

95. Deluz, L'Urbanisme et l'architecture d'Alger, 16. Although refined and detailed further by Tony Socard, the project became known as the Prost project.

96. Lespès, "Les Villes," 9; Joseph Sintes, "Le Quartier de la Marine et la Casbah" in Travaux nord-africains, 31 December 1932. According to Sintes, prostitution was so rampant that Muslim residents felt compelled to write "honnête maison" on their doors.

97. F. Gauthier, "Le Quartier de la Marine," Feuillets d'El-Djezair (July 1941): 33. Comité du Vieil Alger was established to preserve precolonial Algiers. Its activities included designation buildings that should be classified historic monuments, organizing lectures and walking tours in the casbah, and publishing a journal, Feuillets d'El-Djezair. Among its members were Georges Marçais and Muhammad Racim. See M. Orif, "De l'Art indigène à l'art algérien," Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 75 (November 1988): 38.

98. "Vers un meilleur aménagement," Chantiers (March 1935): 186.

99. Ibid., 185.

100. Lespès, "Les Villes," 12; "Vers un meilleur aménagement," 186; Jean Alazard, "L'Urbanisme et l'architecture à Alger de 1918 à 1936," L'Architecture 50, no. 1 (15 January 1937): 25. The new housing projects were to be constructed in the Bab el-Oued Quarter and in the southern suburbs.

101. J.-P. Fauve, Alger capitale (Paris, 1936), 30, 36.

102. Ibid., 67, 69; J.-P. Fauve, "Confirmation mathématique des vues qui précèdent," 7 June 1934, FLC.

103. The idea of placing a skyscraper at the location was criticized even by those who were typically Le Corbusier's defenders. Fauve, for example, argued that the proposed building "profiled in a disastrous manner on the casbah, the pure gem of Algiers," despite the same vision of the project to develop a civic center near the Place du Gouvernement. See Fauve, "Confirmation mathématique."

104. Le Corbusier, "Note financière annexe au Projet C de l'urbanisation du Quartier de la Marine à Alger," 1934, FLC; idem, Questionnaire B, 1931-35, FLC; idem, "Proposition d'un Plan Directeur d'Alger et de sa région pour aider aux travaux de la Commission du Plan de la Région d'Alger et comme suite à la séance du 16 juillet 1941," FLC.

105. See Mary McLeod, "Le Corbusier and Algiers," Oppositions 16-17 (1980): 55-85.

106. Omar Racim's letter was published in Tribune d'Alger républicain, 16 August 1947. The editors qualified their position by stating that while they thought the letter was "interesting," the opinion expressed belonged solely to the author.

107. P. Loviconi, "La Transformation du Quartier de l'Ancienne Préfecture," Bulletin municipal officiel de la ville d'Alger 11 (September 1949): 11.

108. P. L. Nougier, "La Transformation de l'ancien quartier de la Marine," Chantiers 14 (1954): n.p.

109. Travaux nord-africains, 6 December 1956.

110. Ibid., 12 March 1959; Deluz, L'Urbanisme et l'architecture d'Alger, 74-76; Travaux nord-africains, 6 December 1956. By late 1956, 328 of the 1,250 projected units had been built in Bab el-Oued. Obviously, 1,250 units for 15,000 people displaced from the Marine Quarter meant very high densities for the new housing projects.

111. Travaux nord-africains, 19 March 1959.

112. Deluz, L'Urbanisme et l'architecture d'Alger, 74.

113. "Urbanisation du quartier de la Marine," Alger-revue municipale (spring 1959): 48.

114. Travaux nord-africains, 6 December 1956; Deluz, L'Urbanisme et l'architecture d'Alger, 74.