Mahieddine Bachtarzi (15 December 1897 – 6 February 1986) was an Algerian singer of opera (tenor), actor, writer and director of the TNA (Théâtre National Algérien).

[1] Attending Islamic studies at the Medersa Ben Osman Sheikh, at the age of fifteen he was entrusted, due to the exceptional quality of his voice, as a reciter of the Qur'an at the Great Mosque of Algiers.

However, preferring the limelight to the austerity of the prayer hall, he quickly abandoned the mosque to focus exclusively on singing.

[1] In 1925, he had been acclaimed by the French press as the North Africa equivalent of Caruso, and in 1926 he inaugurated the new Paris Mosque with the first call to prayer.

Blending French with spoken Arabic, his songs had explicit political overtones which led one collection to be banned in 1937 for anti-French sentiment.