Emir Abdelkader

His full name is Abdelkader Ibn Mahieddine El-Hasani. • "Abdelkader" —which is transliterated as ʻAbd al-Qādir ("servant of the Almighty")— can also be spelled "Abd al-Kader", "Abd el-Kader", "Abdul Kader", "Abdel Kader", etc. • "Ibn Mahieddine" means "son of Mahieddine" (or "Muhyi ed-Din"), his father’s name. • "El-Hasani" refers to his descent from Hasan ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad, hence his status as sharif. • During his exile in Syria, he was given the name "El-Djazairi" ("the Algerian"), which was passed on to his descendants. • He was appointed emir (amîr al-muminîn, "commander of the faithful") in 1832. The choice of the name Abdelkader, common in the emir’s family tree, pays homage to Abdul Qadir Gilani, the 11th-century founder of the Qadiriyya Sufi brotherhood in Baghdad, to which Abdelkader’s family belongs. ==Early years==

Abdelkader was born in Ottoman Regency of Algiers between 1806 and 1808 in the hamlet of el Guetna (situated on the El-Hammam wadi, some 15 miles west of Mascara), into a family belonging to the religious and marabout aristocracy. His father, Muhieddine (or "Muhyi al-Din") al-Hasani, was a muqaddam in a religious institution affiliated with the Qadiriyya tariqa and claimed descendence from Muhammad, through the Idrisid dynasty. Abdelkader was thus a sharif, and entitled to add the honorary patronymic al-Hasani ("descendant of Hasan ibn Ali") to his name. He is noted for numerous published essays about adapting Islamic law to modern society. As a young man in 1825, he set out on the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, with his father. He also travelled to Damascus and Baghdad, and visited the graves of noted Muslims, such as ibn Arabi and Abdul Qadir Gilani, who was also called al-Jilālī 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 of Egypt. He returned to his homeland a few months before the arrival of the French under the July Monarchy. == French invasion and resistance ==

1830–1833: French invasion, election of Abdelkader In 1830, Algeria was invaded by France; French colonial domination over Algeria eventually supplanted domination by the Ottoman Empire and the Kouloughlis. Western Algeria had already been the hotbed of numerous anti-Ottoman revolts, leading to little in the way of coordinated resistance to the French. When the French Africa Army reached Oran in January 1831, Abdelkader's father was asked to lead a resistance campaign against them; Abdelkader was seen as an appropriate candidate not only because of his age but also because of his own learning, devoutness and saintly bloodline. The result, after protracted negotiations, was the Treaty of Tafna, signed on 30 May 1837. This treaty gave even more control of interior portions of Algeria to Abdelkader. Abdelkader thus won control of all of Oran Province and extended his reach to the neighbouring province of Titteri and beyond. The state he created was broadly theocratic, and most positions of authority were held by members of the religious aristocracy; even the main unit of currency was named the muhammadiyya, after the Prophet. His first military action was to move south into the Sahara and al-Tijani, where Sidi Muhammad al-Tijani refused to recognise Abd al-Qadir's rule. Abdelkader attempted to enter the town of Aïn Madhi but was beaten back and instead he laid siege until when December 1839 Sidi Muhammad al-Tijani accepted exile. Next, he moved east to the valley of the Chelif and Titteri, but was resisted by the Bey of Constantine Province, Hajj Ahmed. In other actions, he demanded punishment of the Kouloughlis of Zouatna for supporting the French. By the end of 1838, his rule extended east to Kabylie, and south to Biskra, and to the Moroccan border. The fighting bogged down until General Thomas Robert Bugeaud returned to Algeria, this time as governor-general, in February 1841. Abdelkader was originally encouraged to hear that Bugeaud, the promoter of the Treaty of Tafna, was returning; but this time Bugeaud's strategy would be radically different. This time, his approach was one of annihilation, with the conquest of Algeria as the endgame: In August 1845, Colonel Leroy de Saint-Arnaud discovered 500 Algerians hiding in a cave; as they refused to surrender, he had the entrance blocked until they all perished. A month later, Abdelkader defeated the French at the Battle of Sidi-Brahim, taking around a hundred prisoners. A few days later, he captured without a fight a French column of 200 soldiers who had been called up as reinforcements at Aïn Témouchent. Continuing the offensive, the Emir reached the Hautes Plaines and asked a lieutenant to escort these 300 prisoners to his deira (former smala), his mobile capital encamped in Moroccan territory on the banks of the Moulouya River, near the Algerian border. Exposed to both French and Moroccan troops and running short of food, the deira, comprising some 200 tents, regarded these prisoners as an excessive burden. Abdelkader made repeated proposals for an exchange, but Bugeaud refused, banking on a release which he believed the Emir would be compelled to grant in order to alleviate the hardships of his community. But on 24 April 1846, whilst Abdelkader was away fighting 300 miles away, one of his lieutenants, after consulting with the other camp authorities, ordered their execution. He spared 11 officers, confident that their presence would prevent French reprisals. The Emir heard the news, but due to the fighting, he did not return to his deira until three months later. He proposed to Bugeaud that the 11 prisoners be exchanged. As this offer came to nothing, he planned to propose their release in exchange for a ransom, but his officers believed that their own safety depended on the hostages’ continued presence and would only agree to his plan on condition that the Emir took responsibility for the crime. Abdelkader agreed and wrote to King Louis Philippe to this effect. The prisoners were returned in exchange for 33,000 francs. As far as France was concerned, the Emir had discredited himself through this massacre, even though certain authorities in the country, having cross-checked the evidence, concluded that he was innocent. 1847: End of the resistance Abdelkader's failure to get support from eastern tribes, apart from the Kabyles of western Kabylie, had contributed to the quelling of the rebellion, and a decree from Abd al-Rahman of Morocco following the 1844 Treaty of Tangiers had outlawed the Emir from his entire kingdom. Emir Abdelkader sent his deputy to negotiate with the Moroccan sultan, however Abd al-Rahman refused him, threw him in prison and forced him to drink poison thereby killing him. The Moroccans led another offensive in the Battle of Agueddin in which they were defeated by Abdelkader in all three military engagements, however Abdelkader soon made the choice to withdraw from Morocco and enter French territory for negotiations. On 23 December 1847, Abdelkader surrendered to General Louis Juchault de Lamoricière in exchange for the promise that he would be allowed to go to Alexandria or Acre. His request was granted, and two days later his surrender was made official to the French Governor-General of Algeria, Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale, to whom Abdelkader symbolically handed his war-horse. Ultimately, however, the French government refused to honour Lamoricière's promise: Abdelkader was shipped to France and, instead of being allowed to carry on to the East, ended up being kept in captivity. == 1848-1852: Imprisonment in France ==

Abdelkader and his family and followers were detained in France, first at Fort Lamalgue in Toulon, then at Pau, and in November 1848 they were transferred to the château of Amboise.. Abdelkader remained in France for a further two months. On two occasions he visited Paris, where he met his liberator once again; the first time at the Château de Saint-Cloud, where the Emir, of his own free will, swore an oath never again to stir up unrest in Algeria; the second time, on 2 December, at the Tuileries Palace, where Louis-Napoléon was proclaimed emperor under the name of Napoleon III. Two weeks later, Abdelkader and his entourage were about to leave the country for Bursa (now in Turkey), when the Emir spotted his future biographer, Alexandre Bellemare, and asked him to refute, in writing and in speech, the belief still held by many French people that he was responsible for the massacre of the French prisoners on 24 April 1846. France granted him an annual pension of 100,000 francs. == 1853-1883: Exile in the Near East ==

Shortly after settling in Bursa, Abdelkader received a valuable sabre with the following words engraved on the scabbard: ‘Sultan Napoleon III to Emir Abd-el-Kader-ben-Mahhi-ed-Dîn’. As he had promised in Paris, the Emir sent the emperor three Arabian horses. Surrounded by a population generally hostile towards Arabs, whose language and customs were alien to him, and despite close ties with scholars and religious leaders, his situation in Bursa weighed heavily on him, though he dared not inform the Emperor. The opportunity, however, arose in early 1855, when a violent earthquake devastated the city, prompting the Emir to travel to Paris to seek, and receive, the emperor’s permission to settle in Damascus. Before leaving Paris, he visited the Paris Exposition and presented the president of the Asiatic Society with the Arabic manuscript of his Rappel à l’intelligent, avis à l’indifférent (Reminder to the intelligent, notice to the indifferent). This manuscript was translated into French and published in 1858, then retranslated into French in 1977 under the title Lettre aux Français (Letter to the French). From 9 July onwards, a majority of Druze, but also Kurdish militiamen and other Muslims –tens of thousands of men in total– poured in from all directions and attacked the Christian quarter, massacring men, women and children, and looting and setting fire to houses. The soldiers of the Pasha were unable to quell the riot; some even joined the mob. Abdelkader and his comrades-in-arms swept through the neighbourhood, urging the survivors to take refuge in his home and those of his compatriots, thereby saving thousands of lives. Among them were the heads of several foreign consulates as well as the Daughters of Charity and the Lazarists, along with the 400 children in the care of these two religious orders. A French doctor reports: Reports coming out of Syria as the rioting subsided stressed the prominent role of Abdelkader, and considerable international recognition followed. The French government increased his pension to 150,000 francs and presented him with the grand cross of the order of the Legion of Honour. "What I did," the Emir replied to Imam Shamil, "I had to do in the name of Islam and respect for human rights". Last decades When he has no other commitments, Abdelkader devotes his day to his religious and spiritual vocation. According to his British biographer Charles Henry Churchill, who knew him well in Bursa and Damascus, the Emir rises two hours before sunrise to meditate and pray at home and at the mosque, has breakfast, then works in his office until midday. He then goes to the mosque for the midday prayer (dhuhr), followed by three hours of religious instruction for his group of pupils. After the afternoon prayer (asr), he returns home and spends a good hour with his eight sons. He has dinner and then returns to the mosque for the last two prayers of the day, between which he teaches again. He then spends about two hours in his study, before going to bed. Every month he distributes at least the equivalent of 4,000 francs to the needy. In January 1863, Abdelkader left Damascus for the Hejaz. He performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, spent three months in Taif, and returned to Mecca, where he joined the Darqawi sheikh Muhammad al-Fasi al-Shadhilî. He remained there for eight months and then spent three months in Medina. in 1865 On 18 June 1864, after leaving Medina to return to Damascus, Abdelkader was initiated into Freemasonry by the "Les pyramides d’Égypte" lodge in Alexandria, acting on behalf of the Parisian "Henri IV" lodge. His first contact with Freemasonry dates back to September 1860, following the rescue of the Christians of Damascus, when he was approached by Freemasons from the Henri IV lodge, affiliated to the Grand Orient de France. Keen to forge humanitarian ties, the Emir welcomed the principles and ideals of the GOF: the existence of God ("Great Architect of the Universe"), the immortality of the soul, the love of humanity, the practice of tolerance, and universal brotherhood. But already a year after his initiation —which was confirmed at the Henri IV lodge in Paris in 1865— he observed among his Masonic "brothers" a gradual erosion of belief in the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. Unable to accept this relativisation of what he regarded as immutable, he left Freemasonry. In 1865, he travelled to Constantinople, London and Paris. In 1867, on the occasion of the Paris Exposition, he returned to France at the invitation of Napoleon III. He was invited to the opening of the Suez Canal on 17 November 1869 because of his connections with the Viceroy of Egypt, Ismail Pasha, and with Ferdinand de Lesseps, the promoter and director of the canal project, of whom he had been one of the most active supporters. That same year, whilst still in Egypt, he met Imam Shamil, whose life story —in the North Caucasus, a region coveted and subsequently annexed by the Russians—mirrored that of the Emir (Sufi, elected leader of the jihad, surrender after years of struggle, imprisonment in the occupier’s country). Death and burial Abdelkader died in Damascus on 26 May 1883. After receiving military honours, in the presence of his "brothers in God", the city authorities, consular representatives and a vast crowd, he was laid to rest in the mausoleum of Ibn Arabi, whose teachings he embodied six centuries later. This spiritual connection between Ibn Arabi and Abdelkader is evident both in the commentaries transcribed by his Damascene listeners and in those written in his own hand, which form the voluminous Kitab al-Mawaqif, the "Book of Halts", the Emir's major work that bears witness to his spiritual insight. In 1965, in an effort to strengthen national unity, the Algerian authorities asked the Emir’s descendants for permission to repatriate his remains. The family agreed on condition that the Emir’s great-grandson, Abder Razak Abdelkader, who was being held by the Algerian government, be released. Following his release and deportation to France, the Emir’s remains were transferred from Damascus to the El Alia Cemetery on the outskirts of Algiers == Legacy ==

From the beginning of his career, Abdelkader inspired admiration not only from within Algeria, but from Europeans as well, even while fighting against the French forces. "The generous concern, the tender sympathy" he showed to his prisoners-of-war was "almost without parallel in the annals of war", and he was careful to show respect for the private religion of any captives. In 1843, French Marshal General Soult declared that of all the men of his time whom he had known or heard of, Abdelkader was one of the three greatest; the two others, Imam Shamil and Muhammad Ali of Egypt are also Muslims, he pointed out. The French General Bugeaud considers that: Abdelkader was a man of genius… certainly one of the greatest figures of our time… he is an active, intelligent and swift enemy, who exerts influence over the Arab populations through the prestige conferred upon him by his genius and the nobility of the cause he defends; he is much more than an ordinary pretender; he is a kind of prophet; he is the hope of all devout Muslims. According to French Captain de Saint-Hyppolite: The Emir is a remarkable man. He occupies a moral position unknown to civilised Europe. He is a man detached from worldly matters, who believes himself to be inspired and to whom God has entrusted the mission of protecting his fellow believers… His ambition is not to conquer; glory is not the motive for his actions; personal interest does not guide him; the love of riches is unknown to him; he is attached to the earth only insofar as it relates to the fulfilment of the will of the Almighty, of whom he is the instrument. ʿAbd al-Qādir was involved in research that went into the Bulaq Press's 1911 third edition of Ibn Arabi's Meccan Revelations. This edition was based on the Konya Manuscript, Ibn Arabi's revised version of the text, and it subsequently became standard. The Abd el-Kader Fellowship is a US postdoctoral fellowship of The Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. On 6 February 2022, a French sculpture of Abdelkader was reported vandalised on 5 February in Amboise, central France. The vandalism occurred amid the presidential election campaign, during which immigration and Islam have been significant issues for specific candidates. Relatives His great grandson Khaldoun Al-Hasani Al-Jazaeri was among those found to have been tortured and killed in Syrian Sednaya Prison in 2015. He was an Islamic scholar and one of the few people to have memorised all 10 readings of the Quran. He was a specialist in Maliki law and was a fully qualified dentist. In popular media In 2013, the US film director Oliver Stone announced the pending production of a filmed biopic called The Emir Abd el-Kader, to be directed by Charles Burnett. To date the film has not been made. == Images ==

File:Abd el-Kader by Stanislaw Chlebowski.jpg| File:Frères d'Abd-el-Kader.jpg| File:EmirAbdelKader.jpg| File:Lincolns-guns-gifted to abdelkader.jpg| File:Mémorial de l'Emir Abdelkader معلم تذكاري للامير عبد القادر - panoramio.jpg| File:Emir Abdelkader1965.JPG| ==See also==

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