Ashīr , the fourth/tenth-century capital of the Berber Zīrid dynasty, is strategically located high in the Ṭiṭerī (Titteri) mountains 100 kilometres south of Algiers, where it commanded the route across the Maghrib from Ifrīqiya (the eastern Maghrib) to Morocco and Spain, as well as the way to the sea down the valley of the Chélif (Shalaf) River. It consisted of two palatial citadels on the separate sites called Yashīr and Bénia (Banya). The first was founded in 324/936 by Zīrī b. Manād, the Talkāta ally of the Fāṭimid