Abdelaziz Belhachemi

Abdelaziz Belhachemi , full name Abdelaziz b. Mohamed El Hachemi b. Ibrahim Chérif (* 1898 in El Oued , Algeria ; † June 1, 1965 in Tunis , according to other sources 1960 ; Arabic عبد العزيز بن محمد الهاشمي بن إبراهيم الشريف, DMG ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Muḥammad al-Hāšimī b. Ibrahim aš-Sharif ) was an Algerian Sufi sheikh of Qadiriya - Order and Antikolonialist . In the late 1930s he turned away from Sufism and joined the Association of Algerian Muslim Legal Scholars . In April 1938 he organized an uprising against the French colonial authorities, planning to declare a revolution.

Life

Origin and studies

Abdelaziz Belhachemi was born as the third of four sons of the Sufi sheikh Mohamed El Hachemi Chérif in El Oued , Algeria . He had a twin sister. His family belongs to the tribe of al-Būazīd (Abū Zaid), from the Algerian region of Ziban around the city of Biskra , but had emigrated to Nefta during the 19th century . His grandfather Ibrāhīm b. Ahmad aš-Sharif (1813-1897) founded in 1845 there is a Zaouia of Qadiriya - Order and was a supporter and financier of the Emir Abd el-Kader . His father, also a sheikh, settled in El Oued around 1890 and was an influential regional figure.

At his behest, he studied between 1913 and 1923 at the University of Ez-Zitouna in Tunis . He graduated in June 1923 with the renowned Tatwi diploma for Islamic theology and jurisprudence, which was awarded between 1898 and 1933. During his student days he was in close contact with Mbarek El Mili , who later became treasurer of the Association of Algerian Muslim Legal Scholars , and came into contact with the Islamic movement, influenced by the teachings of Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh . El Mili was later hired by Belhachemi as a teacher in his Koran school in Laghouat .

Sufi sheikh and date producer

His father Mohamed El Hachemi Chérif died in September 1923. The management of the family's religious institutions was taken over by his older brother ʿAbd ar-Razzāq, who, however, also died a little later on December 24, 1923. Subsequently, Abdelaziz Belhachemi was appointed Sufi Sheikh and was responsible for the management of the Zaouia of El Oued, located in the village of Amiche , as well as the Zaouias, mosques and Koran schools, which were spread all over Algeria.

According to Amar Hellal, Belhachemi was only pro forma in front of his branch of the Qādirīya order at the end of the 1920s and was more and more involved in the trade in dates , which is where his nickname “King of Dates” came from. He inherited Plamenhaine with a total of tens of thousands of date palms from his father. In a public speech in 1929 he is said to have made the statement that maraboutism and being a Muslim would be mutually exclusive.

In 1934, Belhachemi applied unsuccessfully to study at al-Azhar University .

Lifestyle and connection to AUMA

In February 1936 he traveled to the M'zab region to speak to the local Mozabite leaders about possible common political goals. Belhachemi then took part in the Hajj in 1936 and spent several months in Mashreq , which is said to have caused a radical change in his views.

On June 7, 1936 he took part in the Congrès Musulman Algérien (ar. Muʾtamar al-Islāmī al-Ǧazāʾirī al-ʿĀm) in Algiers . During this time he came through Abdelkamel El Nadjai (1900-1954, ar. ʿAbd al-Kāmil al-Naǧaʿī), called Si Abdelkamel, in contact with the Association of Algerian Muslim Legal Scholars (AUMA for short). El Nadjai, influential trader and treasurer of the El Oued commune, is considered to be one of the association's first supporters and preachers in the Algerian Sahara regions.

On September 24, 1937, Belhachemi took part in the general assembly of AUMA and immediately became an official member of the following month and was elected as a representative of the southern regions of Algeria in its executive committee. He subsequently headed the cell of the association in El Oued together with El Nadjai, which had already been founded in March 1937.

In addition to a donation of 25,000 French francs , Belhachemi, together with the Algerian scholar Fodhil El Ouartilani , mainly campaigned for the establishment of the first Algerian Islamic university in Biskra , for which he was prepared to invest another 200,000 to 300,000 francs.

In mid-December 1937 he organized a visit by Abdelhamid Ben Badis and other high-ranking Algerian scholars to the Souf region around El Oued, which is strongly influenced by Sufism . Belhachemi publicly acknowledged the AUMA and its ideology based on the Islamic movement for the first time . In a speech to a good 3,000 listeners, Ben Badis described the Tarīqa , the spiritual philosophy of Sufism, as un-Islamic. These statements led to a noticeable tension within the local population, which was exacerbated by the severe drought and poor harvests in the summer of 1937. There were protests with up to 5,000 participants.

Belhachemi responded to a visit by the Egyptian Sufi scholar Muḥammad al-Ḥāfiẓ at-Ti–ānī (1897–1978), from the rival Tiǧānīya order , by inviting Fodhil El Ouartilani to El Oued. At the end of January 1938, the AUMA scholar spoke again to several thousand people and escalated the situation insofar as he referred to supporters of Sufism as apostates and condemned the collaboration of local dignitaries with the French colonial authorities as non-Islamic conduct. Inspired by El Ouartilani, Belhachemi's actions were directed against France and colonialism , which helped him to gain a large following in a very short time.

Uprising in the Souf region

In March 1938, Belhachemi converted the Sufi Zaouias in his possession into Salafist- oriented madrasas and expanded those in El Oued to up to 500 places. For this purpose, he hired Ali Ben Saad Khirene and Abdelkader El Yadjouri (1912–1991), two nationalist and anti-French oriented teachers who took up lessons without the necessary teaching permit. Belhachemi publicly announced that he deliberately disregarded the French decree of March 8, 1938 on the state surveillance of all Koran schools.

During a visit by the Director General for Indigenous Affairs and the Algerian Southern Territories, Louis Milliot (1885–1961), Abdelaziz Belhachemi organized a demonstration with 12,000 participants on April 12, despite a strict ban. During a summons for a meeting with Milliot and the commander of the El Oued region, Robert Thiriet, he submitted the demonstrators' demands for more autonomy and religious self-determination. Despite the fact that the French authorities agreed to a large part of the demands, the demonstrations continued in the following days and spread to neighboring oasis towns such as Touggourt and Biskra .

Belhachemi arranged for the printing and distribution of poems that called for a revolt and started a tour through the southeastern Sahara region to solicit support. In a report on the events, Abdelhamid Ben Badis describes the complete cordoning off of the region around El Oued as well as bloody clashes between protesters and the French military, which even reacted with isolated air strikes.

At the same time Belhachemi organized a conference in Algiers , which took place from April 15 to 19, 1938 and gathered representatives of the Qādirīya from all over Algeria and North Africa. On this, his older brother Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ read out a declaration that condemned both colonialism and Sufism and called for a connection to the association of Algerian Muslim legal scholars and a commitment against the French authorities. This triggered angry reactions from those present, after which the conference ended in turmoil.

On April 17, 1938, Belhachemi indicated a large demonstration for the following day combined with the declaration of a revolution against France. On the same day, he and his comrades-in-arms El Nadjai, El Yadjouri and Ben Saad Khirene were arrested and the intended project thwarted.

Imprisonment and banishment

Before the French military tribunal in Constantine , Belhachemi was sentenced to four years' imprisonment and after his release was under house arrest in Skikda until 1944 , where he again founded a Koran school. After another forced relocation to Cherchell , he reopened a madrasa there and was instrumental in the construction of the El Oumma mosque in Algiers . The French administration rated this as another subversive activity and banished Belhachemi to Tunisia in 1946 . There he acquired the Dar El Bey palace in the old town of Tunis . The building, donated to the Tunisian independence movement in the early 1950s, is still Tunisia's seat of government today.

In January 1954, Belhachemi managed to secretly emigrate to El Oued, where he appeared in public and, after being arrested, was again exiled to Tunisia.

After the outbreak of the Algerian War in November 1954, he donated all of his property to the FLN and housed Algerian politicians and mujāhidīn in Tunisia.

Abdelaziz Belhachemi died in Tunis on June 1, 1965. Other sources give 1960 as the year of death.

literature

• Amar Hellal: Le Mouvement Reformiste Algérien. Les hommes et l'histoire (1831-1957) . Office des Publications Universitaires, Algiers 2009 [2002]. 2nd, revised edition, ISBN 978-9-9610-0548-4 , pp. 15–42.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hellal, Amar (ar. 'Aʿmar Hilāl'): Le Mouvement Reformiste Algérien. Les hommes et l'histoire (1831-1957). Algiers: Office des Publications Universitaires. 2009 [2002]. 2nd, revised edition. P. 16ff.
2. ↑ Amar Hellal: Le Mouvement Reformiste Algérien , p. 16, op. Cit.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Unknown: ǧihād aš-šayḫ ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz aš-Šarīf ḍidda quwwat al-istiʿmār al-faransī. In: Mokhtari Blog. January 4, 2009, accessed April 7, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Amar Hellal: Le Mouvement Reformiste Algérien , p. 18, op. Cit.
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Nūr ad-Dīn Abū Laḥiya: Ǧamʿīyat al-ʿulamāʾ al-muslimīn wa-ṭ-ṭuruq aṣ-ṣūfīya wa-tārīḫ al-ʿilāqa baynahumā. Dār al-Anwār li-l-našr wa-t-tawziʿ. 2016. 2nd edition. P. 78ff.
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Samīr Samirād: "aš-Šayḫ Abd al-ʿAzīz b. Ayḫ al-Hāšimī ”. In: al-iṣlāḥ (4). Algiers: Maǧlat Ǧāmʿia. July 21, 2010. p. 38ff.
7. ↑ Amar Hellal: Le Mouvement Reformiste Algérien , pp. 18f., 27, op. Cit.
8. ↑ Amar Hellal: Le Mouvement Reformiste Algérien , p. 19, op. Cit.
9. ↑ ^{a b c d} ʿAšūrī Qamaʿūn: Zāwiya aš-šayḫ al-Hāšimī aš-Šarīf mufaḫarat al-ḥaraka al-iṣlāḥīya bi-sūf bi-qalam al-brūfīsūr ʿAšūrī Qamaʿūn :. In: El Djadid El Yawmi. September 23, 2018, accessed March 18, 2019 . 
10. ↑ Amar Hellal: Le Mouvement Reformiste Algérien , pp. 20ff., Op. Cit.
11. ↑ Amar Hellal: Le Mouvement Reformiste Algérien , pp. 25f., Op. Cit.
12. ↑ Amar Hellal: Le Mouvement Reformiste Algérien , pp. 27f., Op. Cit.
13. ↑ Amar Hellal: Le Mouvement Reformiste Algérien , p. 33ff., Op. Cit.
14. ↑ Amar Hellal: Le Mouvement Reformiste Algérien , p. 38f., Op. Cit.
15. ↑ Amar Hellal: Le Mouvement Reformiste Algérien , p. 15, op. Cit.