Achir

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Achir or Ashir (Amazigh: Acir) is a medieval Amazigh (Berber) city in Algeria, first capital of the Berber dynasty of the Zirids, which ruled under Fatimid suzerainty in the 10th–11th centuries. It is located at an altitude of 4,593 feet in the Titteri Mountains, in the current Algerian commune of Kef Lakhdar (Wilaya of Médéa). The city is mentioned by Ibn Khaldun, who indicates that Mount Tetri is the kingdom of the Zirids, in which the ruins of Achir are located. Archaeological excavations have determined the existence of two Zirid sites in this area. The eponymous of the Berber Sanhaja dynasty, Ziri ibn Menad, who inherited the domination over Ifriqya, had been the Fatimid faithful and active lieutenant. In their struggles against Abu Yazid's soldiers and against the Zenetas, who dominated west of Tiaret, his interventions had been decisive. Thus, the Fatimid Caliph al-Qaim had authorized him to affirm his young power by the construction, in 935–36, of a capital that served as a stronghold and store on the slopes of Jebel Lakhdar at Ain Boucif. The French historian Georges Marçais, who researched the remains of the Zirid constructions on the spot, showed that they reveal the progress of the founder of the dynasty. Achir quickly gained importance. Situated in an ideal geographical position for a capital, on the natural border separating the plains of the western Tell from the Kabyle mountains of the east, he commanded the road that climbed the coast, following the ridges, and watched over the nomads of the plain.