Abd El-Kader
The emir Abd El-Kader (Arab: عبدالقادرالجزائري) (born in 1808 close to Mascara in Algeria - deceased the May 24th 1883 with Damas Syria), is a Théologien Soufi Algérie N, also writer-poet and philosopher, politician and resistant military face the Colonial army Frenchwoman.
Origins and Moslem education
His/her father, Sidi Mahieddine, was a Sheik of the order Soufi Qadiri, and his mother, Zora, an erudite woman. He was born with Zaayah , a religious school of Guyathnali (Tents), in the area of Mascara, on the left of the road which goes from Oran to this city. The most probable date of its birth is the May 6th 1807. The emir Abd El-Kader makes go up his origins with the tribes Berber of the Banou Ifren of the Middle Ages.
He had an religious education soufist. Abd-el-Kader was eight years old when his/her father took it along to Mecque for the Hajj (or “Pilgrimage”). On their return, Ahmed Bilhar, her uncle paternal, man well-read man, took at his place the young pilgrim and undertook her education, which consisted in the study of the Coran, the principles of physical sciences and morals, of the geometry and astronomy, the gymnastics, the exercise of the horse and the handling of the weapons. Mahieddine sent then his/her son to Oran, at Sidi Ahmed Ben-Kodja, which kept it eighteen months and taught the policy to him.
Voyages
Mahieddine made one second time the voyage of Mecque with his/her son. It was in 1820, the Jovas captain, commander the Beaver , brig French commercial, took on its board the father and the son, with a certain number of candidates under Hadj, and transported them to Alexandria. Mahieddine and its son, after having visited Mecque and Médine, went to make their devotions with Baghdad, with the tomb of the famous marabout Sidi Abdel-Kader el-Djelani, who has vaults ( koubbah ) by all the Algérie and in particular with Algiers. They collected all preciously that could interest the populations of the desert, and on their return they told old legends, old prophecies, which announced that Abd-El-Kader would become one day the “sultan of the Arabs”.
During its stay in Egypt, Abd-El-Kader was struck changes that Méhémet Ali had just made undergo with its army and of the improvements made in the administration of its states; it felt an immense desire to take it for model, and his/her father encouraged it in his ideas. Refugees both in their tents, they spent their days in prayers. The veneration that they had been acquired had grown so much that the population arrived as a crowd at the Douar of Hachem, bringing like offerings of the grain, the cattle, the horses, gold, the money and the weapons. It is of this time which the many richnesses to Abd-El-Kader and its high influence on all the region go back. Hassan-bey, governor of Oran, wanting to finally put a term at these carried out revolutionary, pronounced the capital punishment against the father of Abd-el-Kader; but it was too late.
French colonization
The Prise of Algiers by the French in 1830 had just carried a terrible blow to the empire of the Dey S and to the Othoman domination. Mahieddine, the old man Marabout, was then put to preach the “holy war”. Thousands of mulsulmans ran and lined up under its orders; one saw soon the powerful governor of Oran, Hassan, tiny room to request asylum from that of which it had put the head at price. The marabout was going to offer hospitality to him and its services but Abd-el-Kader was opposed to it vigorously, and the bey d' Oran had to go a few days after with the French troops. Mahieddine, selected as chief of the insurrection, went with its troops against the Turkish garrison of Mascara, and massacred it without pity; later, it fought the French under the walls of Oran, and deployed a great courage there. The Abd-El-Kader young person was distinguished there particularly; he seemed to be with the shelter of the balls and the balls; he had two horses killed under him. The white Burnous that it carried there, and who was reddened there of the blood as of his, was preserved like a relic.
Since the catch of Algiers, the party Moslem woman seemed to have recovered her freedom, but it was so to speak without chief: Mahieddine, very influential that it was, was not sovereign. Some tribes did not obey to him. On another side the population Moslem women saw with concern the French conquest extending. The tender of Ibrahim, bey of Mostaganem, completed to discourage them; there was a general meeting of the chiefs of tribes to proceed to the election of a sultan. The appointment took place the November 21st 1832 in the plain of Ghris, in a place named Ersebia. It was a question of naming Mahieddine, but this one says to them that the marabout Sidi El-Arrach was worthier than him of if great honor. The council was withdrawn to meet the following day. According to the popular legend, Sidi El-Arrach, just arrived, would have to declare by raising the hands towards the Sky: “Brothers, this night, celebrates it marabout Mahi Abd-el-Kader appeared to me in the middle of its glory, and said to me: “Sidi El-Arrach, retain these words well from which safety depends on our race. I know one man who, by his virtues, his courage and his intelligence, is worthy to order with the Arabs: it is Abd-El-Kader, third wire of Mahieddine. I thus order to you to repeat tomorrow with the council what you have just heard. Allah and its prophet are interested in the cause of his/her children and want that she triumphs.” ”. And Mahieddine to add: “I heard the same words that Sidi El-Arrach, and I received the same orders, but I will die in the year which will follow the advent of my son. Such is the prophecy of my grandfather. ”
Sultan
In 1832, the title of Sultan was then granted to Abd-El-Kader, the chiefs inclined themselves and presented to him the purple burnous. The new sultan put himself in his turn to preach the Holy war. After the business of Macta had consolidated its power, he thought of creating a permanent military force. Seeing the French Army mainly made up of infantry, it was formed a body of cavalry which could attack, continue or avoid an unequal combat. This first body counted initially only 400 men. To maintain the regular battalions, it put taxation of the goods and it raised taxes; then it made build stores of vivres, weapons and ammunition. When it started to make the war with the French in the west of Algeria, the general Louis Alexis Desmichels was governor of the Province of Oran; like its predecessor, it was independent of the general-in-chief. In May 1833, it gained several victories over Abd-El-Kader, and seized Mostaganem. The emir, made indignant to see the Moslems coming to supply the French markets, made remove the chief of Arzew which had been just subjected, and led it to Mascara where he was condemned to death. In October of the same year its troops tackled the escort of the commission of Africa, strong of 1.800 men, but it was beaten close to Ain-el-Bidha.
Abd-El-Kader, with died of his/her father (1833), withdrew some time with Mascara, then returned to put at the head its troops. It made block the town of Oran by the tribe of Rharaba and cut any communication with Mostaganem by the tribe of Hachem. The tactics succeed, the arrivals ceased on the French markets. The subjected tribes sought to be detached from the French. Abd-El-Kader, benefitting from the state of the spirits, tightened a trap with the French in whom four of them were made prisoners and a killed fifth. The Desmichels general wrote to him to claim the soldiers, but Abd El-Kader refused to return them and finished its answer by a challenge. The Desmichels general did not make a long time await the answer. He made, after the combat, returned the women and the children of the Douar S which had fallen into the French capacity; and the natives, not including/understanding by no means the reason for this measurement, thought that those had acted not with generosity, but with weakness.
When after this exit the markets of Oran had been supplied a little, the Desmichels general wrote again in Abd-El-Kader to ask him for an interview. The emir did not have guard to present itself, it believed himself too much above the French generals by his sovereign position: he condescended to grant this favor only to the marshal Thomas-Robert Bugeaud, to Juchault of Moricière and the duke of Aumale. To the letter of the Desmichels general he replied that Islam defended to him to be submitted to the invaders, but that he enabled him to accept a peace if she were proposed to him. Abd-El-Kader then felt the need to cease the hostilities to the French, and in spite of the reverses which the French tested close to Oran, in a place named Dar-el-Bidah (“the White House”), it continued the started negotiations, by engaging its Aga, Mouloud Ben Arrach and the Caïd Ouled Mahmoud, to get along apart from Oran, with the séfarade Mandoukaï Amar, on the basis of peace treaty which was going to be last between France and Algerian. Abd-El-Kader insisted to have Mostaganem, but being seen refusing on this point, it required Arzew, where it managed to establish in fact its authority without the agreement of the French.
They arrived at an agreement on the three following provisions of the treaty:
- Tender of the Arabs in France;
- Freedom of the trade full and whole;
- immediate Handing-over of the prisoners.
Treaty with the French
This treaty was signed the February 24th 1834. Abd-El-Kader, satisfied, believed its ensured rest, when new enemies attacked it in his retirement. The Agha Benaouda Mazari and Mustapha Ben Ismael, chief of the douars who had been Agha before the conquest, could not be solved to submit himself to a usurper, or, as he said, with a shepherd, wire of shepherd. Another chief, who for a long time carried out a life of armed robbery, Kadour Ben el-Morfy, placed at the head of Bordja, not being able to accustom itself with the peace which was going to reign in the country, meets in Mustapha Ben Ismael to raise the Bless-Land-mark, one of the populeuses tribes of the province. The men of this tribe refused to pay the achour , pleading that the suspension of the war made this tax useless, and that they did not recognize for their Masters the infidels and their allies. Douayers and Zmelas, tribes accustomed with living at the 19th century of plundering, united with the Bless-Land-mark and began the hostilities. Abd-El-Kader as fast as possible gathered its riders in the surroundings of Mascara, went against the enemy and surprised several cities left without defense. But it had imprudence to establish its camp on the skirt of forest of Zétoul, in the country of the rebels. In the middle of the night, Douayers reflect in escape part of its troops, removed its camp with the gallop, and forced it to almost only return to Mascara. To this news, Sidi el-Arubi raised the standard of the revolt, the other chiefs of dissatisfied imitated his example, and Abd-El-Kader was seen surrounded by enemies. Instead of benefitting from these divisions which started to be born among the indigenous tribes, and benefitting from the terrible blow which had just been carried with the emir by the Bless-Land-mark, the French intervened so that they made Abd-El-Kader more powerful after this failure than it was it before.
Mustapha Ben Ismael and Kadour Ben el-Morfy, instigators of the insurrection, had written to the generals Voirol and Desmichels which they engaged in the name of the tribes risen to recognize prone France, to reverse Abd-El-Kader and to bring the tender of the troops of the emir. But the Desmichels general, instead of accepting this proposal, took Abd-el-Kader under his protection. This one, being seen supported by the French and Master of the province of Oran, i.e. of this immense region which extends since the Chlef until the empire from the Morocco, followed the example of the pasha d' Égypte, from which he had studied the policy, and he constituted the trader of his States. It was defended with the Moslems to treat directly with the Christians. Abd-El-Kader did not leave it there: he was opposed so that the French can visit Tlemcen, under pretext that the Arabs and the Jews did not like to see foreigners on their premises. Soon it formed the project to seize two provinces of the east and the center, and to constitute a state Moor on the high plateaus and to leave to the French the Algerian coast. He took a means diverted to arrive at his goal: he wrote that, thanks to him, all the province of Oran was now pacified, that the east started to be agitated, but that he urged the French generals not to go there, that it was given the responsability to make return itself the tribes risen in the tender. But the Voirol general refused these proposals.
A sect of fanatics had suddenly revolted against Abd-El-Kader. The French still took party for Abd-el-Kader. This sect had been raised by preaching the holy war. Important characters were with the head of the league, and inter alia, the brother of Abd-El-Kader, Sidi Mustapha, old caïd of Flittas. The army of the emir arrived to quickly matter the revolt. Abd-El-Kader for a long time sought to leave its province, an incident gave the opportunity of it to him. A chéliff named Hadji Mouça claimed to have found the means of preventing the guns and rifles of the infidels to leave. The people added faith to his words. Mouça, with the head of important troops, seized Médéa and Miliana, but Abd-El-Kader attacked it and entirely demolished it. The emir, while passing Chéliff, had violated conventions. Nevertheless, considering the service which it had just rendered, the French let to him establish Hadj-el-ahit khalifet of Medeah, and claim the Yachour (“dîme”). Only, the count d' Erlon, general governor, sent near the emir a staff officer charged to hold it with the current of all the companies. The officer, not including/understanding the Arab , hardly made shade with Abd-el-Kader, which gave him the exchange easily.
The replacement of the general Desmichels by the general Trézel was the beginning of the hostilities. First aid of the new governor was to work to detach the most powerful tribes of the cause of the emir. Douayers and Smela declared prone France, under the condition of an effective protection. The count d' Erlon refused to sanction this measurement, and Abd-El-Kader, educated of the dissensions which existed between the generals, persecuted the subjected tribes: those are addressed to the Trézel general, who would then have answered them: “ the word of a French general is sâcrée; in one hour, I will be in the middle of you. ”. And without hesitating, it leaves Oran to the head two thousand well armed men, the June 26th 1835. It delivers in the forest of Foamed-Ismaël a brilliance fights, where colonel Oudinot found death. But the French lost the battle and nearly 800 men including 15 officers. At the end of 1835, the marshal Clausel went on Mascara to the head of eleven thousand men. The duke of Orleans was characterized by its bravery in this forwarding. The troops of the emir, beaten with the Sig, with Abra, Tafna, in Idbar, dispersed and almost only left it.
The treaty of Tafna
Abd-El-Kader was not long being made new partisans and in recalling to him the tribes which had given up it. Having learned the little from success of the the first forwarding of Constantine carried out by the French, it believed the favourable moment to begin the hostilities in the province of Oran. It knew soon that the general Bugeaud was to walk against him; but this general, having some difficulties in the means of transport, and wanting to restrict the hostilities with the province of Constantine which was going to be the theater of the one second forwarding, made in 1837 with the emir the Traité of Tafna, which will cause misunderstanding thereafter. The expert critics said that this convention made the emir main of the old regency of Algiers, less the Province of Constantine, that in each article one treats it equal footing, and one recognizes his independent sovereignty, that convention does not have any guarantee, since it rests only on the moral and religious character of Abd-el-Kader, etc
After the exchange of the treaty, the Bugeaud general made propose an interview with the emir for the following day. The appointment was at nine o'clock in the morning, close to Tafna. The general at nine hours, was accompanied there by six battalions of infantry, ten squadrons of cavalry and some parts of countryside. The emir did not come there at the agreed hour. Around two hours, Arab riders announced that it had been sick and went slowly. The French went without distrust more than one hour in the turning of a narrow throat, intersected with hills. Finally the general saw the escort of the emir, line in good order on scattered nipples. The disease of the emir was pretended, and the French general seemed to be come to pay homage to him. The officers of the escort had a few moments of hesitation, believing themselves in an ambush; Bou-Amedy, chief of the tribe of Oulanahs, which went in the middle of them, realized some and says to the Bugeaud general: “ Would be quiet, am not afraid. - I am not afraid of nothing, answered the general, I am accustomed to see you opposite. Only I find indecent who your chief made me come from so far and made me wait so a long time. ”. The emir was surrounded by 150 to 200 chiefs, whom it preceded by some steps, guiding a black horse. As soon as it was with range of voice, the Bugeaud general launches his horse to the gallop, and arrives on the emir by tightening the hand cavalierly to him; this one strongly pressed it and asked for news of its health to him. “ Very-good, and holds it? ” answered the general, who puts foot at ground, urging Abd-El-Kader to do as much of it. After a few minutes of an unimportant maintenance: “ did you order, says it, to restore the commercial relations in Algiers and around all our cities?
- Not, I will make it as soon as you will have returned Tlemcen to me.
- I then to do it only with the approval of my king.
- Combien does it take time to have this approval?
- It takes three weeks .
- It is too long , stopped Ben-Arrach, lieutenant of the emir, who had approached: ten to fifteen days is enough .
- you orders with the sea? retorted Bugeaud.
- We will await so far, known as the emir.
- You do not make wrong that with hold , retorted Bugeaud, by depriving them of the trade which they need . As for us, we can do some, since we receive by the sea all that is necessary for us. ”
- I then to do it only with the approval of my king.
By this convention, the France recognized its authority on the whole of the beilik of the West (except Oran, Arzew, Mostaganem and Mazagran), on the beilik of the Titteri and on the province of Algiers (except for Algiers, of Blida as well as plain of the Mitidja and the of Algiers Sahel). In these territories, two thirds of Algeria, Abd El-Kader endeavors to organize an independent and sovereign State, on a religious basis.
Resumption of the war with France
The May 5th 1839, it required and obtained the support of the Sultan Morocco, as well as the concession of the territory located between Oujda and Tafna. He wanted to annex the Constantinois by naming a “khalifa there”. In reaction, France organized the forwarding of the “Portes of Iron” in October 1839, forwarding which was regarded as a violation of the Traité of Tafna. As from this moment, the war began again with violence. In October, in the west of the Mitidja, the emir takes in ambush the commander Raffet and a hundred French soldiers; the latter go against him and take again Cherchell, Mildah, Miliana, etc
Governorship of the Bugeaud marshal
The turning of the war was the nomination of the marshal Bugeaud as general governor of the Algérie in 1842. This one changed completely tactic of the French Army , helped of many troops made up of Algerians: regular troops (Zouave S and Spahis) and irregular bodies: the goums). It badgered the troops with Abd El-Kader, while seeking to cut them of their base. The emir was driven back on the steppe high plateaus with his Smala, travelling capital estimated at 30.000 people. Abd El-Kader essuya a serious reverse the May 16th 1843, with the taken of the tribe by the duke of Aumale in the area of Boghar. It gathered the remainder of its troops, under the name of will déïra, and turned to the sultan of the Morocco. This one, which had aimings on the Algerian west, intervened but was demolishes with the Bataille of Isly (wadi close to Oujda) the August 14th 1844. In the treaty of Tangier of the September 10th 1844, it was agreed that Abd-el-Kader would be put out the law as well in Algeria in the Morocco. It delimited moreover the border between the two countries. The French had not forgotten the ambush of Sidi-Brahim, where their soldiers, ordered by the colonel Montagnac, were cut the throat of without pity by the troops of the emir.
In 1845, much of tribes of the top-plates had submitted themselves to the French. The Emir tried to repress them; Goum of the Ouled Nail, under the command of If Sherif Bel Lahrech that Abd el-kader had named Khalifa, took part in these operations. Seeking alliances, it went then in Kabylie, new bastion of resistance to the French Army, where it took part in two engagements against the French in February 1846. The Emir furrowed then the area of Djelfa, more in the south, continued by the French, but helped by the population. Engagements took place in Ain Kahla, Zenina and the Boukahil wadi. Abd El-Kader tried to start again the revolt in 1847, but finally failing to rejoin the tribes kabyles to make common cause, it had to take refuge with the Morocco. The general of Lamoricière learned that Abd-El-Kader, refusing to go to the sultan of Morocco, had gotten along with its principal officers, the civils servant of the court of Fès, to try last once fortune. The September 13rd, a ex-sergeant of the 2° hunters of Africa which was escaped of Deïra, ran to announce to the general whom the emir wanted to still deliver a combat before withdrawing himself towards the South with those which will want to follow there.
The defeat
Escaping the troops from the Moroccan Sultan, the December 21st 1847, the troops of the emir passes river KIS and enters on the territory of ex-regency. Abd-el-Kader, only with horse, is at the head of the emigration; the Lamoricière general, defendant in time, order with two detachments of twenty Spahis chosen, covered burnous white and ordered by lieutenants Bou-Krauïa and Brahim, to keep the passage which the emir was to take. To counter any event, it makes take the weapons with its column and goes on the border; it had hardly made a Lieue and half that riders sent by Bou-Krauïa prevented it that it was in the presence of Abd-el-Kader. One flies at once to his help. At the end of a few moments, it meets Bou-Krauïa itself with men devoted to Abd-el-Kader, charged with carrying its tender to the Lamoricière general. The emir had given to Bou-Krauïa a sheet of paper on which it had done nothing but affix his seal, because the wind, the rain and the night had prevented it of there nothing to write. Abd-el-Kader asked for a letter of mercy (“insurances”) for him and those which accompanied it. The general could not, for the same causes, to answer the emir, but it gave to the envoys his saber and the seal of the commander Bazaïin, in their giving the promise of the most solemn mercy verbally. Abd-el-Kader returned its two officers and lieutenant Bou-Krauïa with a letter in which he asked the condition that he would be led to Alexandria or with Saint-Jean-in Acre. The Lamoricière general agreed to it in writing.
The December 24th, Abd-el-Kader was accepted by the Lamoricière generals and Cavaignac and the colonel Montauban, with the marabout of Sidi-Brahim, theater of its triumphs. One then brought it to Nemours (Dgemma-Ghazouat) in front of the duke of Aumale which awaited it there. The prince ratified the word given by the Lamoricière general, by expressing the hope which the king would give him his sanction. The general governor announced with the emir that it would make it embark the following day for Oran, with his family; he subjected himself to it without emotion and loathing. Before leaving the prince, Abd-el-Kader sent a horse of tender to him, to devote its Vassalité and its rendering.
Prisoner in France
The emir asked for with insistence the favor of leave Oran as soon as possible. One offered to him to immediately leave on the frigate to vapor Asmodée , which it accepted. The ship left Oran by carrying the emir and his continuation, made up of 61 men, 21 women and 15 children of the two sexes, in all 97 people. One noticed there his old mother, two his brothers-in-law, his three wives and his two sons, of which young person was eight years old. The crossing was bad and the prisoners were very tired. Arrived at Toulon, Abd-el-Kader was deposited with the Lazaret, then transferred at the height Lamalgue, then with the Château of Pau where it remained until the November 3rd 1848 and that it left then for the Château of Amboise. Its stay with Pau left with the palois a great memory and itself expressed regrets by leaving this city. In the diligence which leads it Sète in Béarn, the emir has these pathetic words: “I see these green plains, these orchards, these forests, these rivers and these rivers; such an amount of abundance! Which need have the French to occupy my Country, of sand and rocks? ”. During all its captivity in Pau, April 29th with the November 3rd 1848, the large warrior will not move of his apartments of a coldly renovated castle, refusing the walk and leaving its dear Smala only the evening to go to sleep in the Fébus keep. “I am in mourning and an Arab in mourning does not leave his tent; I am in mourning of my Freedom, I will thus not leave my room”.
The romantic image of the overcome big boss, of the inflexible patriot, attracts the curious ones in search about a romantic shiver. In Pau, Abd el-Kader does not refuse the visits, quite to the contrary. During these talks, it does not cease recalling to France its lack of word and underlining gravity of it. Very quickly, the image of the exotic war leader yields the step to that of a loved host, révéré. At the time of leaving for Amboise, the emir is turned over and declared: “By leaving Pau, I leave a piece of my heart”. The word of France is not held by the modes and the successive governments. The emir is retained in captivity during five years. As of its accession with the Presidency of the Republic, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte dream to release it. In January 1849 it organizes a meeting with the Palate of Saint-Cloud, the Maréchal Bugeaud is present, but the difficulties of the new president with the Room and his Minister for the War make him give to later what it regards as an affair of honor.
Release
It is only the October 16th 1852, with the return of a round in France that the future Napoleon III comes to announce its freedom with the emir solemnly. After having made oath, its own initiative, not to disturb more the French operations in Algeria (December 1852), it leaves for Brousse then Damas. He teaches the Théologie with the Mosquée of Omeyyades. In July 1860, the denominational turbid of the Lebanon Mount extended to Damas. Moslems and Druzes attack the Christian quarters, killing more than three thousand inhabitants. The emir intervenes to stop the massacre and protects with the danger from his life the community from the fifteen thousand Christians from Damas and Europeans who lived there, thanks to his influence near the dignitaries from the city. He accepted the Grand Cross of the Légion of honor and other marks of recognition coming from the whole world (in particular of the Pope, the Tsar of Russia, etc). In 1869, it took part in the festivities of the inauguration of the Suez Canal at the sides of the empress Eugenie.
It devotes the remainder of its life to charitable organizations, being studied of the texts scientific and crowned and with the meditation until its death with Damas.Il always respected the word which it vait given not to return to Algeria. His son and especially his grandson, the Emir Khaled returned in Algérie.L' Emir Khaled made a career of French soldier, but have then a political career and militated actively, among the first, for the independence of his country. Ashes of Abdelkader were recovered in 1965 and are today with the cemetery of El-Combined with Algiers. This transfer of ashes has Algiers was discussed, because Abd el-Kader had clearly wished to be buried has Damas near its Master Ibn Arabi.
A complex character
Abd El-Kader is also the originator of the mobile capital: the Tribe.
For colonial France of the time, it was the model of “ the native ” lit and cultivated. To have fought it with honor, it was respected even by its clean enemies. It was, on behalf of France, to recognize the open-minded and the deep humanity of the man of honor which it was during all his life. It exchanged a very prolific correspondence with French, of which the contribution brought to the book of the Général Daumas on the horse. It is necessary to also quote the relations and the talks which it had with Monseigneur Dupuch, êveque of Algiers {the study of the relation between the Emir and Monsiegneur Dupuch is extrêmemnt interesting and shows an open and tolerant spirit in one time however difficult. It is advisable to quote here the novel published by an Algerian writer, Waciny Laredj: The book of the Emir to the editions Actes Sud en2006 who takes support on this relation. One will remind that Monsieugneur Dupuch him rendsit visit at the time of his imprisonment Pau and Amboise and made many steps to make it release, in accordance with engagements of France. ; {ref. necessary}}
It raises also the question of its membership of freemasonry. It seems, indeed, that it adhered to the cabin Henri IV of Large Orient.Il exists, indeed, an exchange of correspondence which appears to establish this adhesion. (see on this point the appendices of the little book published by Bruno Etienne and François Pouillon: " Abdelkader: Magnanime." Gallimard Découvertes.2003. Certain Algerian disputes the fact and estimates that the letters of the Emir must be analyzed like the expression of the intellectual curiosity of the Emir, but not like the proof of an adhesion.
In spite of his contradictions, the “Friend of the French”, as Europeans liked to qualify it, is also regarded in Algeria as the father of the nation, the hero who went only to preserve the Algerians of a combat unequal and lost in advance. In Algeria, for a few years, the figure of the national hero has grown rich and the Algerians, thanks to a whole mystical literature discover dimension soufie the resistant one to the French conquest.
It is also and especially one of the largest mystics of the 19th century, which left a work a rare depth on its own interior advance: the book of the Halts, Qitab Al-Mawaqif . Rene Guénon will recognize in him much more than one simple war leader, mû by principles of very an other order, and a character of an eminent stature akbharienne in the order of the Tacawuff.
Appendices