Ottoman Algeria During the
Ottoman presence in
Algeria, this zawiya was respected by the
deys of Algiers and by the
qaids who managed the affairs of the region of the mountains of
Khachna. For approximately 116 years from 1714 CE until the French conquest of Algeria in 1830 CE, this zaouïa carried out its duty of religious and mystical education in the eastern suburbs of the
Casbah of Algiers on the route connecting '
to '. The
Sufi tradition which was practiced at the time in the Algerian was either the
Qadiriyya, the
Shadhiliyya or the
Tijaniyya, and as the
zawiyas of
Kabylia were of
Sufi order of the
Qadiriyya, this zawiya of
Sidi Ali Boumerdassi did not derogate to the local rule, and thus the spiritual teachings were according to the rite of
Sidi Abdul Qadir Gilani (1078-1166 CE). When the theologian
Sidi M'hamed Bou Qobrine (died 1793) returned from the
Al-Azhar University in
Egypt, he founded the
brotherhood of
Rahmaniyya in
Kabylia which spread throughout
Algeria and beyond, and so the
Zawiyet Sidi Boumerdassi adapted his initiatory and transcendent program with this brotherhood which is inspired by the
Khalwatiyya.
Invasion of Algiers in 1830 When the
Troupes coloniales of the
French Navy landed at
Sidi Fredj in 1830 to take the
Casbah of Algiers, the Sufi
murids all around the
Mitidja mobilized to counter the offensive of the
French Armed Forces which was heading towards the capital from the Algerian country. The
talibes of
Zawiyet Sidi Boumerdassi rallied the
Kabyle contingents who then rushed to face the collapse of national sovereignty before the colonial invaders. The
Sufi Sheikh who then presided over this
zawiya was the
marabout Hammou ben Abdelkrim al-Boumerdassi, the father of
Cheikh Boumerdassi, who attended in the
Bordj Tamentfoust at the meeting of the spiritual leaders of the
Algerian zawiyas under the presidency of Sheikh
Mohamed ben Zamoum, and this just after the fall of
Algiers and the surrender of
Hussein Dey. This is how this
zawiya took part in giving the
Algerians a popular collegial direction through ''
by the murids'' of the outskirts of the
Algérois region. Popular resistance against the French military occupation of
Mitidja and
Kabylia would then begin under the patronage of the Sheikhs of the Zawiyas, including
Hammou ben Abdelkrim al-Boumerdassi.
French conquest in
Kabylia. ravine As soon as the French landed in Algiers, the colonization strategy began in 1830 in order to populate the country with French people while excluding the Algerians from their wealth and their land. The first French officer who dared to attack and scout the
Beni Aïcha region around the
zawiya is Colonel
Maximilien Joseph Schauenburg who arrived in the night of 18 May 1837 at the
Meraldene ravine with his troops, as part of the
Expedition of the Col des Beni Aïcha. Thus, from the spring of 1837, the process of French pacification of the corners of
Kabylia around the mountains of
Khachna and beyond was to continue crescendo until 1857 when the Algerians stopped attacking the French after the capture of
Larbaâ Nath Irathen.
Colonization From 1857, the colonization of Algerian lands beyond
Oued Boudouaou began with ardor, and French farmers began to settle in bivouacs on the sides of the mountains that shelter the
zawiya around
Ouled Boumerdès. The buds of settlements began to emerge in
Boudouaou,
Corso,
Tidjelabine,
Thénia,
Souk El Haad,
Beni Amrane and
Lakhdaria, and the
zawiya saw the noose tighten on living space and the villages in its obedience. Even if the religious and tribal influence of the zawiya marabouts remained intact, the economic attractiveness of agricultural and mercantile techniques and the salaries of the new arrivals began to pose a problem for the cohesion of the villages affiliated to the zawiya. The
Rahmaniyya brotherhood persisted in maintaining through
Zawiyet Sidi Boumerdassi a social network which warned the
Khachna region against French hegemony, but the pressure was going to be in force and intensity to shake up a secular social order and which would not be long in lifting its shields against the military, demographic and cultural invasion of the French. ==Notable people==