Algeria – Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThe country’s name derives from the city of Algiers. The most common etymology links the city name to al-Jazā’ir (الجزائر, “The Islands”), a truncated form of the city’s older name Jazā’ir Banī Mazghanna (جزائر بني مزغنة, “Islands of the Mazghanna Tribe”),[page needed ] [page needed ] employed by medieval geographers such as al-Idrisi. Others[who? ] trace it to Ldzayer, the Maghrebi Arabic and Berber for “Algeria” possibly related to the Zirid Dynasty King Ziri ibn-Manad and founder of the city of Algiers.