| Algeria formally the People's Democratic | | | | |
| Republic of Algeria is a country in northward | | | | Modern Algerian literature, divide between |
| Africa, and the second largest country on the | | | | Arabic and French, has been powerfully |
| African continent, Sudan being the largest. | | | | influenced by the country's late history. |
| It is bordered by Tunisia in the northeast, | | | | Famous novelists of the 20th century admit |
| Libya inside the east, Niger in the | | | | Mohammed Dib, Albert Camus, and Kateb Yacine, |
| southeast, Mali and Mauritania in the | | | | while Assia Djebar is wide translated. |
| southwest, and Morocco as well as a few | | | | Important novelists of the 1980s included |
| kilometers of its annexed province, Western | | | | Rachid Mimouni, later vice-president of |
| Sahara, in the west. Constitutionally, it is | | | | Amnesty International, and Tahar Djaout, |
| defined as an Islamic, Arab, and Amazigh | | | | murdered by an Islamist group in 1993 for his |
| (Berber) area. | | | | secularist views. As early as Roman times, |
| | | | Apuleius, born within Mdaourouch, was native |
| The name Algeria is inferred from the name of | | | | to what would become Algeria. |
| the city of Algiers, caused by the Arabic | | | | |
| word al-jaza'ir, which translates as the | | | | Inside school of thought and the humanities, |
| islands, bringing up to the four islands | | | | Malek Bennabi and Frantz Fanon are noted for |
| which one lay off that city's coast until | | | | their ideas on decolonization, while |
| getting part of the mainland in 1525; | | | | Augustine of Hippo was born inside Tagaste |
| al-jaza'ir is itself short for the older name | | | | (about 60 miles from the present day city of |
| jaza'ir bani mazghanna, "the islands of (the | | | | Annaba), and Ibn Khaldun, though born within |
| tribe) Bani Mazghanna", used by early | | | | Tunis, wrote the Muqaddima whilst staying |
| medieval geographers such as al-Idrisi and | | | | within Algeria. |
| Yaqut al-Hamawi. | | | | |