Emir Abd el-Kader

Key Accomplishments

• Led the Algerian resistance against French colonialism for 15 years (1832-1847)
• Built a functioning proto-state with administration, army, and judiciary during the resistance
• Protected an estimated 10,000-15,000 Christians during the 1860 Damascus massacres
• Authored a scholarly commentary on Ibn Arabi's Sufi metaphysics

The Full Story

Born near Mascara in western Algeria to a family of sharifs (descendants of the Prophet) and leaders of the Qadiriyya Sufi order, Abd el-Kader was chosen by the western Algerian tribes to lead resistance against the French invasion in 1832, at just 24 years of age. Over the next 15 years, he built a functioning state with a regular army, tax system, and judicial administration while conducting a guerrilla war against one of Europe's most powerful militaries.

His resistance, though ultimately unsuccessful against overwhelming French force, earned him global admiration. After his surrender in 1847, he was imprisoned in France until 1852, when Napoleon III released him. He settled in Damascus, where he devoted himself to scholarship and Sufi practice, writing a major commentary on Ibn Arabi's Futuhat al-Makkiyya. It was in Damascus that he achieved his greatest moral triumph.

During the devastating sectarian violence of 1860, when Druze militias attacked the Christian quarter of Damascus, Abd el-Kader and his Algerian followers sheltered an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Christians in his residence and nearby compounds, personally confronting the mobs and invoking his authority as a religious leader. This act of humanitarianism brought him honors from France, Britain, Russia, and the Vatican, and made him an international symbol of interfaith solidarity. Abraham Lincoln sent him a pair of Colt pistols in appreciation.

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Sources

• [1]Bouyerdene, Ahmed. Emir Abd El-Kader: Hero and Saint of Islam. World Wisdom, 2012.
• [2]Churchill, Charles Henry. The Life of Abdel Kader. Chapman and Hall, 1867.
• [3]Kiser, John W. Commander of the Faithful: The Life and Times of Emir Abd el-Kader. Monkfish, 2008.