ABD AL-QADIR, AMIR

ABD AL-QADIR, AMIR
(1807–1883)
During the early nineteenth century,
Abd al-Qadir governed
a state in Algeria. His family, claiming descent from Muhammad,
led a Qadiriyya brotherhood center (zawiya) in western
Algeria. In 1831 the French conquered the port of Oran from
the Ottomans. Fighting broke out in the Oranais among
those tribes formerly subjected to Turkish taxes and those
privileged to collect them. The Moroccan sultan, failing to
pacify the tribes on his border, designated
Abd al-Qadir’s
influential but aging father as his deputy. He, in turn, had
tribal leaders proclaim his son commander of the faithful
(amir al-muminin) in 1832.
The highly educated and well-traveled new amir negotiated
two treaties with France (1834–1837). Happy to cede the
job of tribal pacification to an indigenous leader, the French
acknowledged him as the sovereign of western Algeria.
Abd
al-Qadir received French money and arms with which he
organized an administration, diplomatic service, and supply
services, including storage facilities, a foundry, and textile
workshops, for a standing army of six thousand men. Unfortunately,
frequent disputes, and even occasional battles, punctured
the treaties. The final rupture came when
Abd al-
Qadir began expanding into eastern Algeria. In response, the
French decided on a complete conquest of Algeria and
destroyed
Abd al-Qadir’s state (1839–1847), exiling him to
Damascus. During his exile, the amir immersed himself in
religious studies. He reemerged briefly into the public eye
when riots shook Damascus in July 1860. It was then that
Muslim resentment against perceived advantages enjoyed by
Christians under the Ottoman reform edict of 1839 exploded
into widespread killings and lootings. Virtually alone among
the notables of Damascus,
Abd al-Qadir shielded Christians
from Muslim attackers.

See also Tasawwuf.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aouli, Smaï; Redjala, Ramdane; and Zoummeroff, Philippe.
Abd el-Kader. Paris: Fayard, 1994.
Danziger, Raphael. Abd al-Qadir and the Algerians: Resistance
to the French and Internal Consolidation New York: Homes
& Meier, 1977.
Peter von Sivers