Kouloughli (from Ottoman Turkish) means "children of slaves". It is equivalent to köleoğlu, the contraction of köle ("slave") and oğul ("son") in modern Turkish. It is a word used to designate the mixed descendants of Ottoman Turks and indigenous Algerians, Tunisians and Libyans from the period of Ottoman dominance of North Africa between the 16th and early 20th centuries. The phrase comes from the fact that the rulers of the Ottoman provinces of North Africa were sent from the Ottoman Empire and were officially slaves of the Ottoman Empire. Their children, the society’s “elite” were therefore children of slaves.
