Mascara

Mascara stands inland from Oran, amid the plains and hills of western Algeria. Its markets brought together grain, wool and the work of local craftspeople, including burnouses and haiks whose quality was known beyond the town. In 1701 Mascara succeeded Mazouna as the capital of the western beylik of Ottoman Algeria. The beys built mosques, a kasbah, fountains and an aqueduct, and the town prospered during the eighteenth century. The seat of government finally moved to Oran after its recovery from Spain in 1792. In the following century Mascara became an early centre of Emir Abd al-Qadir’s resistance to the French invasion.