Encyclopedia of Islam

Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi

  

3  J

---

French, who would stay in that country until 

they were forced out by a widespread revolution 

in 1962. His position as patriot and early nation-

alist, but also as an Islamic leader, make him a 

hero around whom most Algerians can safely 

unite, and it is largely in Algeria that his memory 

remains important today.

See also c

hristianity

 

and

 i

slam

; 

colonialism

; 

o

ttoman

 

dynasty

; s

alaFism

.

John Iskander

Further reading: David Commins, Islamic Reform: Poli-

tics and Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria (New York: 

Oxford University Press, 1990); Raphael Danziger, Abd 

al-Qadir and the Algerians: Resistance to the French and 

Internal Consolidation (New York: Homes & Meier, 

1977).

Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani

 

(1077–1166)  Sufi 

saint and founder of the Qadiri Sufi Order

Abd al-Qadir was from the Caspian region of Per-

sia and went as a teenager to b

aghdad

 to study 

Hanbali law and 

theology

; he was also attracted 

to the teachings of Sufi masters there. After 

retreating to the Iraqi desert for several years 

as an ascetic, he returned to Baghdad, where he 

became a scholar and a popular preacher who 

attracted a wide circle of followers, including 

Jews and Christians whom he had converted to 

Islam. The center of his activities was a 

madrasa

,

where he taught religious studies and was con-

sulted as a 

mUFti

. In his sermons, he admonished 

his listeners to care for the poor and needy, and 

he sought to harmonize Islam’s legal require-

ments with its spiritual message. When he died 

in 1166, he was buried in his Baghdad madrasa, 

which became a popular mosque-shrine that 

drew pilgrims from the Middle East and India. 

His followers circulated many stories about his 

miraculous powers so that within a century after 

his death he was regarded as one of the leading 

Sufi saints in the Muslim world. He is considered 

to be the founder of the q

adiri

 s

UFi

 o

rder

, which 

now has branches in the Middle East, Africa, 

South Asia, and Indonesia.

See also h

anbali

 l

egal

 s

chool

.