37 Facts About Emir Abdelkader

Abd al-Qadir ibn Muhyi al-Din, known as the Emir Abdelkader or Abd al-Qadir al-Hassani al-Jaza'iri, was an Algerian religious and military leader who led a struggle against the French colonial invasion of Algiers in the early 19th century.

Emir Abdelkader's father, Muhieddine al-Hasani, was a muqaddam in a religious institution affiliated with the Qadiriyya tariqa and claimed descendence from Muhammad, through the Idrisid dynasty.

Emir Abdelkader was thus a sharif, and entitled to add the honorary patronymic al-Hasani to his name.

Emir Abdelkader grew up in his father's zawiya, which by the early nineteenth century had become the centre of a thriving community on the banks of the Oued al-Hammam.

Emir Abdelkader was a good orator and could excite his peers with poetry and religious diatribes.

Emir Abdelkader is noted for numerous published essays about adapting Islamic law to modern society.

Emir Abdelkader traveled to Damascus and Baghdad, and visited the graves of noted Muslims, such as ibn Arabi and Abdul Qadir Gilani, who was called al-Jilali in Algeria.

Emir Abdelkader was seen as an appropriate candidate not only because of his age but because of his own learning, devoutness and saintly bloodline.

Emir Abdelkader thus won control of all of Oran Province and extended his reach to the neighbouring province of Titteri and beyond.

The period of peace following the Treaty of Tafna benefited both sides, and the Emir Abdelkader took the opportunity to consolidate a new functional state, with a capital in Tagdemt.

Emir Abdelkader played down his political power repeatedly declining the title of sultan and striving to concentrate on his spiritual authority, through obtaining a fatwa which gave him firm authority to call for Jihad and made tax avoidance a "crime against the Muslim community as a whole".

Emir Abdelkader attempted to enter the town of Ain Madhi but was beaten back and instead he laid siege until when December 1839 Sidi Muhammad al-Tijani accepted exile.

Emir Abdelkader continued to fight al-Tijani and besieged his capital at Ain Madhi for six months, eventually destroying it.

Emir Abdelkader placed, in the interior towns, arsenals, warehouses, and workshops, where he stored items to be sold for arms purchases from England.

Emir 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.

Emir Abdelkader was effective at using guerrilla warfare and for a decade, up until 1842, scored many victories.

Emir Abdelkader often signed tactical truces with the French, but these did not last.

Emir Abdelkader was noted for his chivalry; on one occasion he released his French captives simply because he had insufficient food to feed them.

Emir Abdelkader was able to cross the border into Morocco for a respite, but the French defeated the Moroccans at the Battle of Isly.

Emir Abdelkader left Morocco, and was able to keep up the fight to the French by taking the Sidi Brahim at the Battle of Sidi-Brahim.

Abd al-Rahman of Morocco secretly sent soldiers to attack Abdelkader and destroy his supplies, six months after the emir routed the Moroccans and imprisoned them.

On 23 December 1847, Emir Abdelkader surrendered to General Louis Juchault de Lamoriciere in exchange for the promise that he would be allowed to go to Alexandria or Acre.

Emir Abdelkader supposedly commented on his own surrender with the words, "And God undoes what my hand has done", although this is probably apocryphal.

Emir Abdelkader's request was granted, and two days later his surrender was made official to the French Governor-General of Algeria, Henri d'Orleans, Duke of Aumale, to whom Abdelkader symbolically handed his war-horse.

Ultimately the French government refused to honour Lamoriciere's promise: Emir Abdelkader was shipped to France and, instead of being allowed to carry on to the East, ended up being kept in captivity.

Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was a relatively new president, having come to power in the Revolution of 1848 while Emir Abdelkader was already imprisoned.

Emir Abdelkader was keen to make a break with several policies of the previous regime, and Abdelkader's cause was one of them.

Emir Abdelkader then took up residence in Bursa, today's Turkey, moving in 1855 to Amara District in Damascus.

Emir Abdelkader 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 a l'intelligent, avis a l'indifferent, and again in 1877 under the title of Lettre aux Francais.

Emir Abdelkader's mind is as beautiful as his face; he is every inch a Sultan.

Emir Abdelkader had previously warned the French consul as well as the Council of Damascus that violence was imminent; when it finally broke out, he sheltered large numbers of Christians, including the heads of several foreign consulates as well as religious groups such as the Sisters of Mercy, in the safety of his house.

Emir Abdelkader was on horseback and without arms: his handsome figure calm and imposing made a strange contrast with the noise and disorder that reigned everywhere.

Emir Abdelkader died in Damascus on 26 May 1883 and was buried near the great Sufi ibn Arabi in Damascus.

Emir Abdelkader's body was recovered in 1965 and is in the El Alia Cemetery in Algiers.

On 6 February 2022, a French sculpture of Emir Abdelkader was reported vandalized on 5 February in Amboise, central France.

Emir Abdelkader was an Islamic scholar and one of the few people to have memorised all 10 readings of the Quran.

Emir Abdelkader was a specialist in Maliki law and was a fully qualified Dentist.