ABD AL-HAMID IBN BADIS(1889–1940)

ABD AL-HAMID IBN BADIS(1889–1940)

Abd al-Hamid Ibn Badis was the leader of the Islamicreformist movement in Algeria and founder of the Associationdes Uléma Musulmanes Algériens (AUMA). He was born in1889 in Constantine, where he also died in 1940. Afterreceiving a traditional education in his hometown, Ibn Badis(locally referred to as Ben Badis) studied at the IslamicUniversity of Zaytuna, in Tunis, from 1908 to 1912. In thefollowing years he journeyed through the Middle East, particularlyin Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where he came intocontact with modernist and reformist currents of thoughtspreading within orthodox Sunni Islam.Ibn Badis became the most prominent promoter of theIslamic reformist movement in Algeria, first through hispreaching at the mosque of Sidi Lahdar in his hometown,and, after 1925, through his intensive journalistic activity. Hefounded a newspaper, Al-Muntaqid (The critic), which closedafter a few months. Immediately afterwards, however, hebegan a new and successful newspaper, Al-Shihab (The meteor),which soon became the platform of the reformistthinking in Algeria, until its closure in 1939. Through thepages of Al-Shihab, Ibn Badis spread the Salafiyya movementin Algeria, presented his Quranic exegesis, and argued theneed for Islamic reform and a rebirth of religion and religiousvalues within a society that, in his view, had been too influencedby French colonial rule. He further argued that theAlgerian nation had to be founded on its Muslim culture andits Arab identity, and for this reason he is also considered aprecursor of Algerian nationalism. He promoted the freeteaching of Arabic language, which had been marginalizedduring the years of French rule, and the establishment of freeschools for adults, where traditional Quranic studies couldbe taught.In May 1931 he founded the AUMA (also Association ofAlgerian Muslim Ulema), which gathered the country’s leadingMuslim thinkers, initially both reformist and conservative,and subsequently only reformist, and served as its presidentuntil his death. Whereas the reformist programs promotedthrough Al-Shihab had managed to reach an audience limitedto the elite educated class of the country, the AUMA becamethe tool for a nationwide campaign to revive Islam, Arabic,and religious studies, as well as a center for direct social andpolitical action. Throughout the country he founded a networkof Islamic cultural centers that provided the means forthe educational initiatives he advocated and the establishmentof Islamic youth groups. He also spearheaded a campaignagainst Sufi brotherhoods, accusing them of introducingblameworthy innovations to religious practice, and also ofcooperating with the colonial administration. He played animportant political role in the formation of the AlgerianMuslim Congress in 1936, which arose in reaction to thevictory of the Popular Front in France, and was activepolitically in the country until his premature death in 1940.Thanks to his activities as leader of the AUMA and to hiswriting in Al-Shihab, Ibn Badis is considered by some to bethe most important figure of the Arab-Islamic cultural revivalin Algeria during the 1930s.See also Reform: Arab Middle East and North Africa;Salafiyya.BIBLIOGRAPHYMerad, Ali. Le Réformisme Musulman en Algérie de 1925 a1940. Paris: Mouton, 1967.Safi, Hammadi. “Abdel Hamid Ben Badis entre les exigenciesdu dogme et la contrainte de la modernité.” InPenseurs Maghrébins Contemporains. Casablanca: EditionsEDDIF, 1993.Claudia Gazzini