The city is built on a plateau, surrounded on three sides by a deep ravine at the bottom of which flows the Rhumel River.

The period extending from 1514 to 1648 saw the end of Constantine's dependence on the Hafsids of Tunis and its definitive attachment to the central power of Algiers in the 1530s.

The city's ulamas didn't hesitate to legislate according to their interests and new alliances were also made through strategies of common marital practices among large families.

The tribes and families of large tents, allied with the authorities, shared power through a game of balance, symbolized by the investiture with a caftan that the tribal chiefs received after the Bey.

Several tribes had a nomadic or semi-nomadic culture in the south, which constituted the most important part of the Beylik, including the Haraktas, the Seghnia, and the Oulad Sultan.

Among the important tribes of the western region, we could distinguish the Telaghma, the Oulad Abdenour, the Amar Gheraba and the Medjana, guardians of the Bibans.

The Turkish ethnic element played only a negligible role, the number of Turks there always remained very small: the permanent garrison of the province comprised only 300 men.

It was bounded on the north by the Mediterranean, and on the south by the Saharan desert, on the east by the Regency of Tunis and on the west by the Beylik of Titteri, separated by the chain of Bibans in the northern part of their frontier from the Kabyle Kingdoms of Ait Abbas and Kuku.

Each mosque was attached by an Imam, several Talibes, a Muezzin, a Sheikh an-nadher (administrator of Habus property) and ukils or agents responsible for the management of the cult.

The Sheikh al-Islam, considered the leader of the religion, who also bore the title of Amir rakb al-hajj (standard bearer of the pilgrimage caravan) is a major political and religious institution in local life, which has evolved a lot.

The nubas were divided into 22 sefra in the cities of Constantine, Annaba, Biskra, Béjaïa, Tebessa, Jijel and Bouïra which had a total of 333 men.

The zmala was the oldest and most redoubted cavalry of the Makhzen in the province, it formed a warrior tribe established in the plain of Aïn M'lila, whose chief bore the title of Qaid ez-zmala.