Encyclopedia of Islam

Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi

 

(1808–1883)  Sufi 

shaykh, leader of Algerian resistance to French 

colonization, and hero of Algerian independence

Abd al-Qadir, the son of a Sufi shaykh of the q

adini

s

UFi

 o

rder

, was chosen by his father Muhyi al-Din 

to lead the resistance to France’s slow-motion 

colonization of a

lgeria

, which had begun in 1830. 

From his base in the region of Oran, in the north-

west of Algeria, Abd al-Qadir led a fierce and pro-

tracted resistance. For about a decade, until 1842, 

he controlled much of the Algerian hinterland and 

had de facto recognition as ruler from both the 

Algerian populace and the French army, which 

negotiated with him. He implemented a number 

of reforms during this time, inspired in part by 

his admiration of Muhammad Ali (r. 1805–48), 

the founder of modern e

gypt

, whose reforms he 

had witnessed at first hand during a visit to that 

country. But French determination to conquer 

the Algerian hinterland led to a brutal policy of 

depopulation, in which the native Algerians were 

forced off their land and into camps, with massive 

destruction of their crops, livestock, and villages. 

Eventually, in 1847, Abd al-Qadir surrendered to 

the French in order to stop the catastrophic war. 

After being exiled to France, he migrated to i

stan

-

bUl

 and then to d

amascUs

, where he would spend 

the rest of his life. In Damascus, he became a large 

landholder and influential personage, dispensing 

patronage but also teaching Quran and 

sUnna

 at 

the main Umayyad mosque.

Abd al-Qadir wrote works in which he pro-

moted rationalist explanations of the Quran and 

Islam, and in this he was in the forefront of Arab 

and Muslim reformers who sought to understand 

their religion in light of the changed situation 

imposed on them by modernity and the supremacy 

of “science.” Toward the end of his life, he began 

to propound a literalist reading of the scriptures, 

which, while not contradicting his earlier empha-

sis on reason, marked a new direction for him. As 

one of his biographers points out, however, this 

combination of “rational” and “literal” approaches 

to Islam and the Quran is typical of Salafi, or neo-

traditionalist, Islam. Abd al-Qadir is remembered 

now, and was honored by Europeans during his 

life, for his part in stopping a massacre (based on 

local grievances) of Christians in Damascus in 

1860, protecting many himself.

He is remembered by Algerians as the first 

to mount organized resistance to the colonial 

King Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud meets with President Roos-

evelt aboard the USS Quincy in the Suez Canal Zone, 

February 14, 1945. 

(Courtesy of Dr. Michael Crocker/King 

Abdul Aziz Foundation)