Abd al-Qadir

Abd al-Qadir (1807-83), Algerian emir and staunch opponent of French colonization. In 1832, two years after French capture of Algiers, he opposed an advance into the interior, raising the tribes around his capital Mascara and proclaiming holy war. Beaten at Oran, he concluded a treaty with the French which enabled him to gain ascendancy over the western tribes. A second bout saw him defeat Trezel on the Macta only to lose his capital and make terms with Bugeaud in 1837. This left him virtual king of the unconquered portion of Algeria, and in 1839 he again attacked the French, this time with Moroccan support. His household was captured in 1843, and the following year his allies were defeated by Bugeaud at Isly. He did not surrender until 1847. Interned in France until 1853, he ended his days in honourable exile in Damascus.

Abd al-Qadir's prospects for success were small, for many tribes were as resistant to his control as they were hostile to the French. However, he was a resolute guerrilla leader who not only inspired future Algerians, but helped persuade Frenchmen that Arabs were a warlike race whose qualities could be used in the French interest. It was typical of his magnanimity that he saved many Christians during the Damascus massacre of 1860, and ironic that, as one of France's most successful opponents, he was decorated with the Légion d'Honneur.

— Richard Holmes

1807 - 1883

Algerian leader who resisted initial French colonialism.

Abd al-Qadir (also spelled Abd el-Kader, Abdul Qader) was born in Guetna Oued al-Hammam, near Mascara, Western Algeria. His father, Muhyi al-Din, was spiritual head of the Qadiriyya order of Islam; his education was guided by Qadi Ahmad ibn Tahir of Azrou and Sidi Ahmad ibn Khoja of Oran. He pursued religious studies while traveling with his father within the Ottoman Empire, in Syria and Iraq and at al-Azhar in Egypt.

As the leader of Algerian tribal resistance to French colonialism between 1833 and 1847, Abd alQadir earned a reputation far beyond Algeria. It was only partly for military leadership, since his skill in founding alliances between hinterland tribes, especially in the western province of Oran and, for a time, as far east as Constantine, presented a political feat of no small consequence.

Abd al-Qadir's father had carried out several raids against the French in the Oran region in spring of 1832. The French had become enraged by the corsairs, pirates, and slave trade of the Barbary coast and wanted to end the taking and selling of Christian sailors from Mediterranean shipping. By this date two figures, neither Algerian, had played roles in reacting to the French presence in the former beylicate of Oran. The only serious previous attempt to defend Oran came between November 1830 and April 1832, when Ali ibn Sulayman of Morocco intervened unsuccessfully in Algeria. Meanwhile, between February and August 1831, a token Tunisian force had come and gone from Oran following an agreement between the bey of Tunis and the French government. According to its terms, the French promised to recognize ill-defined Tunisian responsibility to govern the Algerian west in their name.

By 1833, it was clear that the unorganized Algerian forces under Abd al-Qadir's father could do little more than harass the French in Oran. The decision was made to recognize Abd al-Qadir's leadership, both of the Qadiriyya order and of provincial tribal resistance. This decision proved fateful, since Abd al-Qadir clearly viewed his mission in terms that went beyond mere military leadership. An early sign of this was his insistence that his followers swear allegiance according to the bayʿa (the pledge) to the caliphs who succeeded the prophet Muhammad. A good portion of Abd alQadir's military and political career - beyond his relations with the French - involved attempts to impose legitimizing symbols of rule on neighboring tribes. Such struggles to command allegiance in Islamic as well as tribal terms were complicated by the fact that some key local tribes were traditionally makhzanis (mercenaries), which meant they were willing to receive pay from secular executive authorities. Before 1830, such tribes would have been in the service of the Algerian beys; after 1830, the French tried to recruit makhzanis to their service, thus creating a dilemma in them between Islamic and opportunistic loyalties.

In February 1834, soon after the French opened formal diplomatic contact with the Algerian resistance forces, two treaties, one containing essential French conditions, the second with additional Algerian conditions, were signed between France and Abd al-Qadir. These provided for mutual recognition of two different types of polities in the west: three French enclaves on the coast and Abd alQadir's emirate with its capital at Mascara. Thus he was recognized as dey of Mascara.

During this brief truce, Abd al-Qadir may have benefited from French help to defeat Mustafa ibn Ismaʿil, his primary rival for political and religious ascendancy over the western tribes. Another rival, Shaykh al-Ghumari, was also captured and hanged. Had Franco-Algerian peace continued, Abd alQadir might have succeeded in extending his unprecedented tax levy (the muʿuwna) to more and more subordinates of his emirate. As it was, hostilities resumed in 1835 (after the Ottomans had sent a new governor to Tripoli), and the French were repeatedly defeated by Abd al-Qadir. In 1837, the French signed the Treaty of Tafna, with Marshal Thomas-Robert Bugeaud de la Piconnerie granting most of the Algerian hinterland to Abd al-Qadir.

Perhaps the Tafna treaty was meant to keep Abd al-Qadir from objecting to French advances against the eastern beylicate of Constantine - which fell only four months after the Tafna accords. Once it fell, however, the French were never able to make deals with Abd al-Qadir again.

From late 1837 to 1847, intermittent hostilities with forces under Abd al-Qadir brought clashes as far east as Constantine and as far west as Morocco. It was only after Marshal Bugeaud led a large French expeditionary force into Algeria that systematic subjugation
of the interior began. At this point Abd al-Qadir's crossings into Morocco involved refuge rather than tactics; and the major battle of Isly in 1844 dissuaded the Moroccans from offering him refuge again. Although the Algerians tried to reverse the inevitable tide, his fate became as insecure in Morocco as it was in Algeria. After his decision to surrender in December 1847, Abd al-Qadir was promised exile but was sent as a prisoner to France. He was released in 1852 by Napoléon III and finally granted his requested exile in Syria. He died in Damascus in 1883. Some eighty-five years later and six years after Algeria's independence, Abd al-Qadir's remains were reinterred in his native land in 1968.

His contribution to the history of North Africa may be viewed from several perspectives. Within the closest political and cultural context, his leadership reflected intertribal dynamics in what was eventually to become the entity of Algeria. His efforts to unify disparate tribes included a certain number of institutional innovations, suggesting rudiments of governmental responsibility that surpassed anything that had preceded this key period. Among these, formal executive appointments, regular decision-making councils, and taxation figured most prominently. One cannot escape the fact, however, that hinterland submission to Abd al-Qadir's ascendancy, both military and political, often came only after successful imposition of his will by force.

By contrast, those who emphasize the nationalist implications of Algerian resistance to French colonialism would interpret Abd al-Qadir in ways that reflect more on the twentieth-century context of mass political movements than the highly fragmented setting of nineteenth-century Algeria. For the nationalist school, he represents a first stage in a process that became a model for the Algerian National Liberation Front at the end of the colonial era.

The third point of view combines speculation on what actual mid-nineteenth-century appraisals of Abd al-Qadir's leadership were with twentieth-century reflections on the living heritage of the past. This view would emphasize Islamic religious and cultural values embodied - then and thereafter - in resistance to foreign domination in any form. Seen from this perspective, a culturewide hero model like Abd al-Qadir represents a heritage that can be chronologically continuous and spatially all-encompassing. His actions not only had the effect of legitimizing his call to carry out a general jihad (holy war) against the French in the name of Islam but also gave him the assumed responsibility of overseeing the welfare of the entire umma (community of believers) in a responsible way that had not been effectively present in Algeria for centuries.

Bibliography

Danziger, Raphael. Abd el Qadir and the Algerians: Resistance to the French and Internal Consolidation. New York: Homes & Meier, 1977.

Ruedy, John. Modern Algeria: The Origins and Development of a Nation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992.

— BYRON CANNON

For the song, see Abdel Kader (song).

For the Palestinian nationalist, see Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni.

Abd al-Qadir in Damascus

`Abd al-Qādir al-Jazā'irī (6 September 1808 - 26 May 1883, in Arabic عبد القادر الجزائري) was an Algerian Islamic scholar, Sufi, political and military leader who led a struggle against the French invasion in the mid-nineteenth century, for which he is seen by the Algerians as their national hero. The Chambers Biographical Dictionary gives his year of birth as 1807.^[1]

Contents 1 Name 2 Early years 3 French invasion and resistance 4 Life in exile 5 Legacy 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

Name

`Abd al-Qādir is often referred to only as `El Amir Abdelkader, since al-Jazā'iri simply means "the Algerian". His name can be variously transliterated from its Arabic spelling as Abd al-Kadir, Abdel Kader, Abdelkader, and other variant spellings. He is also often given the titles amir, prince, and shaykh or sheik.

Early years

Painting of Abd al-Qādir by Ange Tissier, 1852

`Abd al-Qādir was born near the town of Mascara near Oran. His father, Muhyi al-Din al-Hasani, was a shaykh in the Qadiri sufi order of Islam. He claimed to be a Banu Ifran berber<sup>[2]</sup> [1] and to be a descendant of Muhammad.<sup>[3]</sup> In his childhood he learned to memorize the Qur'an and was well trained in horsemanship, theological and linguistic studies, and received an education far better than that of his peers. In 1825, he set out for the Muslim pilgrimage, hajj, with his father. While in Mecca, he encountered Imam Shamil; the two spoke at length on different topics. He also traveled to Damascus and Baghdad, and visited the graves of noted Muslims, such as Shaykh Ibn Arabi and Sidi Abd-el-Kader El Jilani named also El-Jilali in Algeria. This experience cemented his religious enthusiasm. On his way back to Algeria, he was impressed by the reforms carried out by Muhammad `Ali in Egypt.^{[citation needed]} He returned to his homeland a few months before the arrival of the French.

French invasion and resistance

In 1830, Algeria was invaded by France; French colonial domination over Algeria supplanted what had been domination in name only by the Ottoman Empire. Within two years, al-Qādir was made an amir and with the loyalty of a number of tribes began a rebellion against the French. He was effective at using guerrilla warfare and for a decade, up until 1842, scored many victories. He often signed tactical truces with the French, but these did not last. His power base was in the western part of Algeria, where he was successful in uniting the tribes against the French. He was noted for his chivalry; on one occasion he released his French captives simply because he had insufficient food to feed them. Throughout this period al-Qādir demonstrated political and military leadership, and acted as a capable administrator and a persuasive orator. His fervent faith in the doctrines of Islam was unquestioned, and his ultimate failure was due in considerable measure to the refusal of the Kabyles, Berber mountain tribes to make common cause with the Arabs against the French.

Until the beginning of 1842 the struggle went in his favor; however, the resistance was put down by Marshal Bugeaud. In 1837, al-Qādir signed the Treaty of Tafna with Bugeaud, in which he recognized France's sovereignty in Oran and Algiers, while France recognized his control over the remaining two-thirds of the country, mainly the interior. King Louis-Philippe broke the treaty two years later, leading al-Qādir to renew the resistance on October 15, 1839.

Al-Qādir was ultimately forced to surrender. The French armies grew large, and brutally suppressed the native population and practiced a scorched-earth policy. Al-Qādir's failure to get support from eastern tribes, apart from the Berbers of western Kabylie, also contributed to the quelling of the rebellion. On December 21, 1847, after being denied refuge in Morocco (strangely parallelling Jugurtha's career two thousand years earlier), al-Qādir surrendered. Two days later, his surrender was made official to the French Governor-General of Algeria, Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale. Al-Qādir was exiled to France, in violation of the promise that he would be allowed to go to Alexandria or Acre, on the faith of which he had surrendered.

Life in exile

`Abd al-Qādir al-Jazā'irī in Damascus, wearing the sash of the Legion d'Honneur, 1860.

Al-Qādir and his family were detained in France, first at Toulon, then at Pau, and in November 1848 they were transferred to the château of Amboise. There he remained until October 1852, when he was released by Napoleon III on taking an oath never again to disturb Algeria. He then took up residence in Bursa, moving in 1855 to Damascus. He devoted himself anew to theology and philosophy, and composed a philosophical treatise, of which a French translation was published in 1858 under the title of Rappel à l'intelligent. Avis à l'indifférent. He also wrote a book on the Arabian horse.

`Abd al-Qādir (center) during the Druze/Christian strife of 1860

While in Damascus he befriended Jane Digby and Richard and Isabel Burton. In July 1860, conflict between the Druze and Maronites of Mount Lebanon spread to Damascus, and local Druze attacked the Christian quarter, killing over 3,000 persons. `Abd al-Qādir and his personal guard saved large numbers of Christians, bringing them to safety in his house and in the citadel. For this action the French government, which granted him a pension of 4000 Louis, bestowed on him the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur. He was also honoured by Abraham Lincoln for this gesture towards Christians with several guns that are now on display in the Algiers museum.

In 1864 al-Qādir became a Freemason, and was initiated at the Lodge of Pyramids as a courtesy for the Lodge Henri IV in Paris.^[4][5]

Al-Qādir died at Damascus on 26 May 1883 and was buried near the great sufi Ibn Arabi in Damascus.

Legacy

A reference to one of Abd al-Qādir's books

Abd al-Qādir is recognized and venerated as the first hero of Algerian independence. Not without cause, his green and white standard was adopted by the Algerian liberation movement during the War of Independence and became the national flag of independent Algeria. He was buried in Damascus in the same mausoleum as Ibn Arabi, until the Algerian government brought his remains back to Algeria to be interred with much ceremony on 5 July 1962, the fourth anniversary of independence and the 136th anniversary of the French conquest. The Emir Abdel Kader University and a mosque bearing his name were constructed as a national shrine in Constantine, Algeria.

An indication of the international fame of al-Qādir's struggle is given by the way that the town of Elkader, Iowa in the United States came to be named after him. When the new community was being officially planned, on what was then the American frontier, founders Timothy Davis, John Thompson and Chester Sage—none of them Arabs or Muslims—were so impressed with what they heard of the Algerian leader's valiant struggle that they decided to name the new town for him. The American town has retained its Algerian connection by establishing a sister city connection with Mascara, Algeria.

His notable children and grandchildren:

1. Prince Muhammad ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi
2. Prince Said al-Jazairi, who took over government affairs of Syria when the Ottomans evacuated on 28 September 1918 and stayed in office until the Arab Army entered Damascus on 1 October 1918.

See also

• French rule in Algeria
• List of Freemasons

References

1. ^ Chambers Biographical Dictionary, ISBN 0-550-18022-2, page 2
2. ^ P. Rozet, L’univers ou histoire et description de tous les peuples, p. 193
3. ^ Par Société languedocienne de géographie, Université de Montpellier. Institut de géographie, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) Publié par Secrétariat de la Société languedocienne de géographie, 1881. Notes sur l'article: v. 4, page 517
4. ^ A strange inheritance, by Claude Wauthier
5. ^ Page 7

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Abd-el-Kader.

• Abd Al-Kadir's Struggle For Truth
• Famous Quotes by Abd al-Qadir

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