Abd al-Qadir

Abd al-Qadir (1807-1883), Algerian religious and military leader, considered the founder of the Algerian state, hero of resistance to French colonial rule. Born in a small village near Mousakar (Mascara), Algeria, to the head of a Sufi Muslim brotherhood, Abd al-Qadir early on gained a reputation for piety and cultural refinement. In 1826 al-Qadir and his father began a pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Muhammad, the founder of Islam. They also stopped in Baghdād (in present-day Iraq) to meet the head of their Sufist order. After their celebrated return in 1828, prophecies circulated proclaiming Abd al-Qadir as a future leader of Algeria. Soon thereafter al-Qadir claimed to be a descendant of Muhammad.

In 1830 France invaded Algeria and swept out the unpopular forces of the Ottoman Empire. Abd al-Qadir and his father welcomed this change, but when they realized the French had no intention of leaving Algeria they decided to act. In 1832 al-Qadir began leading attacks on the French occupiers in Oran and within six months the city was his. Through military and diplomatic triumphs over both the French and rival local groups, he consolidated and expanded his territory, and soon controlled a true state in the surrounding Oran province with an efficient, salaried bureaucracy. He ruled austerely and autocratically, commanding fierce loyalty from the Saharan tribes, taxing his subjects uniformly, and using European and non-Muslim officials. In 1834 and 1837 the French signed treaties with Abd al-Qadir, acknowledging his authority in Oran province with the goal of establishing French influence through him. This hope faded when, after a French violation of al-Qadir's territory in 1840, he declared war again and began a bitter fight with the new French governor, General Thomas-Robert Bugeaud. The French scorched-earth tactics forced al-Qadir to become a nomad after 1841, and inflicted great hardship on his Muslim subjects. His former Moroccan allies were forced by the French to detain him, but he managed to return to Algeria to lead further hit-and-run raids. His last retreat to Morocco in July 1846 ended in complete loss of Moroccan support, and in 1847 he returned to Algeria and surrendered to French authorities. The French broke promises of safe conduct and imprisoned him for four years in France, but after 1852 he was released and allowed to go to Damascus, in present-day Syria.

Supported by a French pension, the exiled al-Qadir spent his time studying and writing. In 1860 hostility between Muslims and Christians erupted in Damascus and Lebanon, and Muslims began slaughtering Christians. Abd al-Qadir, with no cooperation from the authorities, gathered several hundred followers in Damascus and rescued more than 12,000 Christians from their attackers. The former enemy of France was awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor by French Emperor Napoleon III. By his death in 1883, Abd al-Qadir had established such a reputation for wisdom, and left behind such a legacy of bravery, that he remains an Algerian national hero to this day.