Oran Departemnt and its South : Study of Tribal Space, Military Administration and Colonization during the Early Colonial Period (1830–1873)

Numerous questions arise -historically -regarding Algerians’ attitudes toward the institution of the “Arab Bureaus,” alongside the monitoring of religious zāwiyas and their activities. The issue thus imposes itself both conceptually and empirically, in order to examine how the colonial authority benefited from the role of this institution to impose its domination and consolidate its grip over the Oran sector and its southwestern hinterland -starting from the district of Tlemcen, the region of Tiaret, the district of Saïda, and extending to the district of Géryville (El Bayadh), taken as case studies- similarly to the regions of central and eastern Algeria during the period under consideration.

This issue practically requires addressing the stages of military penetration and administrative entrenchment across this vast territory, as well as the ways in which the military authority organized the regions administratively, formulated settlement policies, and established settler centers, with conflicts over land ownership as an ultimate objective.

The question of administering the Algerian indigenous population was raised directly for the colonial authority immediately after the occupation of Algeria in 1830, prompting inquiries into the extent to which its administrative apparatus was able to extend control over Algerian society across a wide geographical area. With the establishment of the Arab Bureaus (les bureaux arabes) and the Service of Arab Affairs (le service des affaires arabes), the institution of the Arab Bureaus was confirmed as an integral part of the French military establishment, whose primary objective was to subject Algerians to colonial domination.

Accordingly, the focus remains on the administrative management of the Arab Bureaus during the period under study (1830–1873). The project must therefore address the emergence of the Arab Bureaus in the regions of the Oran sector and its southern hinterland, their ongoing organization, the ways in which their mechanisms were utilized, and the nature of their relations with tribes, ʿarūsh (clan groupings), and confederations—along with efforts to co-opt them—prior to the development of settler colonization. It also seeks to examine the political, social, and economic roles played by this “institution”.