Abd el-Kader

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Abd el-Kader around 1850

Hajji Abd el-Kader or ʿAbd al-Qādir (actually Sidi el-Hajj Abd el-Kader Uled Mahiddin ; Arabic عبد القادر الجزائري Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'iri , DMG ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Ǧazāʾirī  'Abd el-Kader, the Algerian'; * September 6, 1808 in Guetna at Mascara ; † May 26, 1883 in Damascus ) was an Algerian freedom fighter and scholar.

Life

Early years

Abd el-Kader was born around 1807 or 1808 in the Ghetna, a school not far from Mascara in western Algeria , as the offspring of a family of marabouts who traced their tribe back to the Fatimid caliphs. He was trained as a scholar in the Zawiya of his father Sidi el-Mahiddin, but, threatened by the Dey of Algiers because of his talent and ambition, emigrated to Cairo and acquired the honorary title of Hajji through a pilgrimage to Mecca . In 1827 he returned to Algeria to initially devote his life to studying.

In opposition to French rule

After the French conquered Oran , Algiers and Bône (1830), he united the Berber tribes in western Algeria in the fight against France . Returned to his homeland after the fall of Dey in 1830, he was elected emir at Mascara by several rebellious Arab tribes in November 1832 and led the fight against the French with perseverance and military agility. Defeated several times, he repeatedly appeared at the head of new troops, subjugated from 1832 to 1833, unhindered by the French, all independent tribes between Mascara and the sea, most recently those of the powerful provincial chiefs Bei der Duair and Zmela, who initially defeated him, but then was defeated and turned into an ally by mildness. As a result, el-Kader forced the French General Desmichels (1779-1845) to make peace on February 26, 1834, in which his rule was expressly recognized. Desmichels later defeated Abd el-Kader; the two closed on July 4, 1834 the "Traité Desmichels".

Abd el Kader profoundly reformed the existing state system under his rule. He divides the territory he controls into eight khalifaliks. These were divided into mostly tribal-centered Aghaliks. Abd el Kader set up a system of assemblies of notaries and a centralized civil service. While the Ottoman system mostly relied on the local elite to fill offices, Abd el Kader deliberately operated an appointment system in which all social groups should be represented. Abd el-Kader joined the Sufi order of the Rahmaniyya in office and resorted to its dignitaries for many offices. The government also tried to strengthen the country's economic strength by investing in factories. His army consisted of around 50,000 fighters at high times. The core was formed by 9,500 professional soldiers who made up the majority of the infantry and artillery.

Soon he took up the war against the French again and won a victory on June 28, 1835 over General Trézel (1780-1860) on the Makta. Abd el-Kader also suffered individual defeats in the further course of the war; nevertheless he won a major victory over the French General d'Arlanges on the Tafna (April 25, 1836) and led the guerrilla war with such luck that he extended his rule over Titeri and even over part of the province of Algiers.

General Bugeaud freed the French trapped at the mouth of the Tafna and inflicted a significant defeat on Abd el-Kader on July 6th on the Sikak; Nevertheless, the French, who were thinking of conquering Constantine at the time , in order to gain the necessary calm before the often successful defensive battle, signed the contract on the Tafna (May 30, 1837), in which Abd el-Kader actually acted as an emir recognized by Algeria under the mere nominal rule of France and given administration of the provinces of Oran, Titeri and Algiers, with the exception of the capitals and the Mitidscha of Algiers. Now Abd el-Kader began to organize his empire around the capital Tagdempt. When, however, urged by his fanatical followers, he resumed the war in 1839, luck was unfaithful to him. Since the French, undeterred by his bloody guerrilla war, waged a systematic war of annihilation against his followers with lightning-like movements and incursions , the tribes devoted to him gradually fell away from him in order to save themselves from starvation.

Abd el-Kader was awarded the Ottoman Mecidiye Order and the Osmanje Order of the highest class.

Finally in 1844 he felt compelled to seek refuge with the Sultan Abd ar-Rahmân of Morocco. The battle of the Jsly (August 14, 1844), in which Abd el-Kader's troops and the Moroccans of Bugeaud were badly defeated, brought about a quick decision; fearing Abd el-Kader's influence in his own country, the sultan made peace with France. In contrast, Abd el-Kader won the warring tribes of Morocco and was even dangerous to the rule of Abd ur Rahmân. Therefore, he pushed him across the border in 1847. There he was surrounded by the French and had to surrender on December 22nd.

Captive in France

Abd el-Kader was brought to France with his wives and servants, first to Fort Lamalgue at Toulon, then at the end of April 1848 in Pau Castle in Béarn and finally imprisoned in Amboise Castle. It was here in December 1848 that he wrote his treatise “The sharp scissors for chopping off the tongue of one who disparages the religion of Islam through slander and heresy” ( al-Miqrāḍ al-ḥādd li-qaṭʿ lisān muntaqiṣ dīn al-islām bi-ʾl-bil wa-ʾl-ilḥād ). The reason for the writing was a statement by a French Catholic priest that the religious law of Islam permitted lying. Abd el-Kader's entourage then urged him to write a treatise in defense of Islam. In his treatise, Abd el-Kader attempted to use reason ( ʿaql ) to prove the truthfulness of Islam and Sharia . Here he went very far and also dealt with questions of causality .

In October 1852, the President Napoléon III announced. to the emir his freedom, whereas Abd el-Kader swore to the Koran his submission "without reservation or ulterior motive".

In Syria

When he was released in 1852, he also enjoyed a French pension of 100,000 francs and used his leisure a. a. to write a religious-philosophical work that he sent in Arabic to the French Academy. In French it was edited by Gustave Dugat under the title: Rappel à l'intelligent, avis à l'indifférent (Paris: B. Duprat, 1858).

He first settled in Brussa in Asia Minor, but moved to Damascus, driven from there by the earthquake of 1855 . In July 1860, when the civil war spread in the Lebanon Mountains , he took on the persecuted Christians and saved several thousand of them from a massacre by the Druze in Damascus . He was there for by Napoléon III. awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor.

In 1864, Abd el-Kader was accepted into the Parisian Masonic Lodge Pyramides in the Grand Orient de France .

Abd el-Kader died in Damascus on May 26, 1883. Some of his sons took a French pension, and some entered the service of Turkey. His grandson, Emir Khaled , became one of the leading figures in assimilation among the Muslim population in French Algeria. However, he was exiled in the early 1920s because of his political demand for more rights for the local population.

reception

The small American town of Elkader in Iowa is named after him because its contemporary founders were impressed by Abd el-Kader's struggle for freedom against the French colonial power .

Karl May mentions Abd el-Kader in three novels. On June 10, 1900, he visited the burial site of Abd el-Kader in Damascus and made a sketch of the complex.

In literary terms, John Knittel worked on the subject in his novel Abd-el-Kader (Zurich 1930, Orell Füssli Verlag).

Friederike Kempner dedicated the poem "Abdel-Kaders Traum" to him.

literature

Contemporary sources

  • Abd-el-Kader and the natives . In: Illustrirte Zeitung . No. 22 . J. J. Weber, Leipzig November 25, 1843, p. 341-342 ( books.google.de ).
  • Alexandre Bellemare: Abd el-Kader: sa vie politique et militaire. Librairie Hachette, Paris 1863; New edition of Editions Bouchène, Paris 2003, Bibliothèque d'histoire du Maghreb, ISBN 2-912946-51-4 .
  • Charles Henry Churchill : The Life of Abdel Kader, ex-Sultan of the Arabs of Algeria. Chapman & Hall, London 1867.
  • Muḥammad Ibn-ʿAbd-al-Qādir al-Ḥasanī: Kitāb Tuḥfat az-zāʾir fī maʾāṯir al-amīr ʿAbd-al-Qādir wa-aḫbbār al-Ǧazāʾir . Al-Iskandarīya: al-Maṭbaʿa at-Tiǧārīya, 1903. (Arabic biography of ʿAbd al-Qādir from the pen of his son)

Secondary literature

  • Smaïl Aouli, Ramdane Redjala & Philippe Zoummeroff: Abd el-Kader. Fayard, Paris 1994. ISBN 2-213-03192-4 .
  • Paul Azan: L'émir Abd-el-Kader 1808–1883, du fanatisme musulman au patriotisme français. Paris 1925.
  • David Dean Commins: "ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Ǧazāʾirī and Islamic Reform" in The Muslim World 78 (1988) 121-131.
  • Bruno Etienne : Abdelkader: Isthme des isthmes (Barzakh al-barazikh) . Hachette Littératures, Paris 2004. ISBN 2-01-279117-4 .
  • Maike Neufend: The modern in the Islamic tradition. A Study of Amīr ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Ǧazāʾirī's Defense of Islamic Reason in the 19th Century . Ergon, Würzburg, 2012.
  • Janine Teisson: Les Rois de l'horizon . Syros jeunesse, Paris, 2002. ISBN 2-7485-0030-X .

Web links

Commons : Abd el-Kader  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Cf. Neufend: The modern in the Islamic tradition. 2012, p. 44.
  2. ↑ Cf. Neufend: The modern in the Islamic tradition. 2012, p. 44.
  3. ↑ a b John Ruedy: Modern Algeria - The Origins and Development of a Nation, 2nd edition, Bloomington, 2005, pp 61-63
  4. ↑ Julia A. Clancy-Smith: Rebel and Saint - Muslim Notables, Popular Protest, Colonial Encounters (Algeria and Tunisia 1800–1904) , Berkeley, 1994, p. 76
  5. ↑ Cf. Neufend: The modern in the Islamic tradition. 2012, p. 54f.
  6. ↑ Cf. Neufend: The modern in the Islamic tradition. 2012, p. 12.
  7. ↑ Cf. Neufend: The modern in the Islamic tradition. 2012, pp. 77-81.
  8. ^ Wauthier, Claude, L'étrange influence des francs-maçons en Afrique francophone, Le Monde diplomatique, September 1997, p. 6-7 (English online edition: A Strange Inheritance )
  9. ↑ Elkader's First 100 Years on the website of the city of Elkader, requested on February 12, 2015
  10. ↑ Karl-May-Wiki.Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  11. ↑ https://www.projekt-gutenberg.org/kempner/gedichte/ged002.html
personal data
SURNAME Cadre, abd el-
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Abd el-Kader; عبدالقادر الجزائري; Abd al-Qadir; Mahiddin, Sidi el-Hajj Abd el-Kader Uled
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Algerian freedom fighter
DATE OF BIRTH September 6, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Guetna with mascara
DATE OF DEATH May 26, 1883
Place of death Damascus