ABSTRACT
The Algerian mode of production before 1830 displayed a few similarities with the pre-capitalist economic formations described by Marx. The history of the Maghreb of which Algeria is a part is characterized by various invasions. Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs, Turks and Frenchmen swept over the northern part of Africa. The longest-lasting influence, however, has been the Arabs who penetrated the area in several successive waves in the seventh, eighth and eleventh centuries. They established a religious bond with the Berber populations with whom they lived in a symbiotic relationship. Turkish domination over Algeria was characterized by the rule of the military caste of the janissaries, referred to as the odjak. Soon the janissaries entered into conflict with the corsairs' corporation, the Taifas of Rais, who prided themselves for their exploits on the high seas and were contemptuous of the janissaries, whom they contemptuously referred to as "the oxen of Anatolia".
