The name means "Lioness" in the Berber language, a reference to the Barbary lions that lived in this region.

A 1992 study by the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis reported significant areas contaminated by industrial pollution, and growing squatter settlements on the periphery.

The Africa Institute reported in a May 2004 monograph[4] that Tiaret's more "arid and mountainous landscape has facilitated terrorist activities".

The MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base reports that Tiaret "is a frequent site of attacks by the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC)" (now known as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb).

Tiaret was said to be relatively free-thinking and democratic, being a centre for scholarship that permitted a wide range of sects and movements, notably the Mu'tazila.

Tiaret occupies a strategic mountain pass at 3,552 feet (1,083 m), and was thus a key to dominating the central Maghreb.

Later, from the start of the 8th century, it was the key northern terminus of the West African branch of the slave trade.

Seven princes of the Rustamite house succeeded Abdul Wahab until they were overthrown by the Fatimid general Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i in 909.

A 200 km (120 mi) narrow gauge railway arrived in 1889, connecting the town to Mostaganem; today, this rail line is defunct.

[7] At Mechra-Sfa ("ford of the flat stones"), a peninsula in the valley of the river Mina not far from Tiaret, are said to be "vast numbers" of megalithic monuments.