The histories of the Algerian Ottoman collection: Archiving as the invention of different pasts

The Algerian Ottoman Collection, the principal archival heritage of Algeria’s precolonial period, is today located in Algiers. The archives it contains were transported to France in 1962 upon the country’s independence, and were soon returned after a copy was made and deposited at the French Overseas Archives Centre in Aix-en-Provence. This essay aims to reconstruct the history of this documentation. By analyzing the organization and nature of the materials collected, it shows the conditions under which it was gathered beginning with French colonization in 1830, and establishes the collection’s initially colonial dimension. It then explores the stages during which these archives were classified and archived up through 1962, and shows how this colonial imprint was gradually erased. Finally, their reclassification after their return to Algeria completed the process of Ottomanization. In conclusion, this essay examines how the amnesia surrounding the collection’s colonial origin has impacted the historical interpretation of its contents.