JS Kabylie

Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie (Tamazight: Ilemẓiyen Inaddalen n Leqbayel, Arabic: شبيبة القبائل), known as JS Kabylie or JSK (transliterated ⵊⵙⴽ in Tifinagh), is an Algerian professional association football club based in Tizi Ouzou. It draws its support from Kabyle football fans even outside the city of Tizi Ouzou. Their home stadium is Stade 1er Novembre.

JS Kabylie is the most successful club in Algeria, having won the Algerian Ligue Professionnelle 1 title a record 14 times and the Algerian Cup 5 times. The club has also won six African titles, winning the CAF Champions League twice, the African Cup Winners' Cup once and the CAF Cup three times.

History

1928–1946: A difficult birth

The club, originally a project, is considered the ancestor of the Youth Sports Kabylia and was founded in 1928 by the master lawyer Sidi Saïd Hanafi. It was called Rapide Club Tizi-Ouzou. It is considered more of a Muslim club than the sports club Olympique de Tizi-Ouzou in Greater Tizi Ouzou. Creating this club was needed as other settlers and Muslims coexisted in other cities in Algeria.

Kabylie

Kabylia (Berber: ⵜⴰⵎⵓⵔⵜ ⵏ ⵍⴻⴽⴱⴰⵢⴻⵍ, Tamurt n Iqbayliyen), is a natural and historical region in the north of Algeria.

It is part of the Tell Atlas mountains and is located at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. Kabylia covers several provinces of Algeria: the whole of Tizi Ouzou and Bejaia (Vgayet), most of Bouira (Tubirett) and parts of the wilayas of Boumerdes, Setif, Bordj Bou Arreridj and Jijel. Gouraya National Park and Djurdjura National Park are also located in Kabylia.

History

Antiquity

Kabylia was a part of the Kingdom of Numidia (202 BC – 46 BC). It was later taken over by the Roman Empire, and became split between the provinces of Africa and Mauretania Caesariensis. In AD 289, the Quinquegentiani, a Berber tribe from Kabylia, rebelled against Roman rule; the rebels were defeated in a year-long Roman offensive in the years 297-298, in which the Quinquegentiani were driven from their homeland in Kabylia, into the Sahara.

Middle Ages

The Kabyle country remained as unconquerable as it was inaccessible to the Ottoman deys. They generally established a few coastal military settlements and some in valleys, where they imposed the rule of the Islamic Ottoman Empire. The mountainous core land, however, remained independent. Islam was gradually adopted through peaceful means, namely the Marabout movement. Some scholars argue that this is the reason of the Kabyles' indifference towards Islam. The Ottoman threat disappeared with the arrival of the European and American navies to conquer North Africa.