ABSTRACT
The Ottoman influence Independent development of the region by the Arabs themselves ceased in many senses in the sixteenth century. By then the vast majority of the Arabs had become subjects of the Ottoman empire. The Ottoman empire had expanded consistently from the mid-fourteenth century, from a core area which lay in what is now thought of as Turkey, to a position by the mid-seventeenth century in which it controlled much of
conquered the Balkans and parts of southwest Asia such as Azerbaijan did they turn south. In order to ward off the Portuguese maritime colonizers who were threatening Muslim pilgrimage and trade routes they incorporated the territories of Syria, Egypt and the Hijaz in 1516 and 1517. The Arabs of North Africa were at the same time facing increasing problems from the Spanish and called on the Ottoman navy to help them. Once the Ottoman admirals had repelled the Spaniards, they divided the eastern Maghreb into three of their own regencies (Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli) (Figure 2.1).
