Algiers is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city originated as Icosium, a Numidian trading port which was granted "Latin rights" by the Roman emperor Vespasian before falling into ruin during the Muslim conquest of North Africa. In 944, Bologhine ibn Ziri of the Zirid dynasty founded the city of al-Jaza'ir ("the islands") in 944 AD, and the city fell to the Hammadids in 1014, to the Almohads in 1159, and to the Zayanids during the 13th century. The Spanish occupied the Peñón islet in 1302 during the Reconquista, and, from there, Spain traded with Algiers. The end of the Reconquista in 1492 brought about an exodus of Moors to North Africa, and many of the Moors settled in Algiers and turned it into a commercial hub. In 1510, the Spanish occupied the nearby port of Oran, while they also fortified the Peñón to protect their interests against the Barbary corsairs of Algiers. The Spanish made several attempts to capture Algiers, briefly taking it from 1524 to 1529, when they were evicted by Hayreddin Barbarossa. That same year, Hayreddin turned over Algiers to the Ottoman Empire, and Algiers became the chief seat of the Barbary pirates of the Regency of Algiers. In 1541, a major Spanish expedition to Algiers was destroyed in a storm. Starting in the 16th century, Algiers turned to pirating and ransoming, and, by the 17th century, 40% of Algiers' 100,000 inhabitants were European slaves. Many European renegades fled to Algiers and converted to Islam from Christianity, among them Samson Rowlie, an Englishman who became Treasurer of Algiers. In 1556, the Ottomans built a citadel in Algiers. European powers repeatedly retaliated against Algerian piracy, such as in the United States' Barbary Wars and in Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth's 1816 bombardment of Algiers. In 1830, following the French conquest of Algeria, Algiers became the capital of French Algeria and, by the early 20th century, Europeans formed a majority of Algiers' population. In 1962, at the end of the Algerian War, the entire European population of Algiers was deported to France, but the city expanded as the result of an influx of Arabs/Berbers and came to be home to 10% of Algeria's population by the 21st century. During the Algerian Civil War and the Insurgency in the Maghreb, Algiers was targeted by terrorists; during the civil war era, armed gangs of religious conservatives effectively took control of Algiers' streets and enforced sharia law while engaging in extortion and racketeering. In 2011, Algiers had a population of 3,915,811 people, while the metro area had 7,896,923 residents.
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