Emir Khaled

Emir Khaled as a French officer (right)

Emir Khaled (* 1875 in Syria , † 1936 in Damascus ; Arabic خالد الهاشمي بن عبد القادر الجزائري Khalid Al-Hashimi bin Abd al-Qadir Al-Jasairi ) was a French officer of Algerian descent and politician during French colonial rule in Algeria.

Origin and career

Emir Khaled was the grandson of Abd el-Kader , a major leader in the resistance to the French conquest. He was born in his grandfather's Syrian exile and spent his childhood there. He completed his school education at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris . Khaled was trained as an officer at the Saint-Cyr Military School. He took part in combat operations in Morocco and made it up to the captain .

Political activity

Emir Khaled called for the Muslim-Algerian population to be assimilated as citizens of equal value in the French Republic without them having to give up their cultural origins. He called for Muslims to be able to obtain French citizenship without having to give up being bound by Islamic Sharia law, which is valid in private law . He was inspired by the Young Turks and justified his demands by stating that the French state could not call Algerians into conscription, but could continue to exclude them from political participation. Emir Khaled soon became the most prominent figure among the Muslim-Algerian politicians who sought assimilation and published his own newspaper under the title Ikdam .

Within Muslim society, Emir Khaled opposed parts of the Islamic clergy under Sheikh Ben Badis , who refused any assimilation into French society. Emir Khaled was exiled in Damascus in 1923 at the instigation of politicians from the settlers . He died there in 1936. His death caused national mourning in the colony.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} John Ruedy: Modern Algeria - The Origins and Development of a Nation . 2nd Edition. Bloomington, 2005, pp. 109-113, pp. 130 f.
2. ^ Martin Evans: Algeria: France's undeclared War . Oxford, 2012, pp. 43-45. P. 55