Abdel Kadir Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Abd al-Kadir (1808 - May 24, 1883), a.k.a. Abdel Kadir and other similar variants) was an Algerian military leader who led a struggle against the French invasion in the mid-19th century, for which he is seen as a Algerian national hero.
He was born in the town of Muaskar in the area of Oran. His father was a shaykh in the Qadiri sufi order. In his childhood he learned to memorize the Quran and was well trained in theological and linguistic studies, having an education far better than that of his peers. In 1825 he set out for hajj with his father. While in Mecca he encountered Imam Shamil; the two spoke at length on different topics. He also traveled to Damascus and Baghdad, and visited the graves of famous Muslims. This experience cemented his religious enthusiasm. On his way back to Algeria, he was impressed by the reforms carried out by Mehmet Ali in Egypt. He returned to his homeland a few months before the arrival of the French.
In 1830, Algeria was invaded by France; French dominion over Algeria supplanted that of the Ottoman Empire. Within two years, Abd al-Kadir was made an amir and with the loyalty of a number of tribes began a rebellion against the French. He was effective at using guerrilla warfare and for a decade, up until 1842, he had many victories. He often signed tactical truces with the French, but these did not last. His power base was in the western part of Algeria, where he was successful in uniting the tribes against the French. He was noted for his chivalry; once he released his French captives simply because he had insufficient food to feed them.
However, Kadir would was eventually forced to surrender. The French armies grew large, and brutally suppressed the native population and practiced a scorched-earth policy. Abd al-Kadir's failure to get support from eastern tribes, apart from the Berbers of western Kabylie also contributed to the quelling of the rebellion. On December 21, 1847, after being denied refuge in Morocco (strangely parallelling Jugurtha's career two thousand years earlier), Abd al-Kadir was forced to surrender. Two days later, his surrender was made official to the French governor of Algeria, Henri, duc d'Aumale. Kadir was exiled to France, in violation of the promise that he would be allowed to go to Alexandria or St Jean d'Acre, on the faith of which he surrendered.
Abd al-Kadir and his family were detained in France, first at Toulon, then at Pau, being in November 1848 transferred to the château of Amboise. There he remained until October 1852, when he was released by Napoleon III on taking an oath never again to disturb Algeria. The emir then took up his residence in Brusa, removing in 1855 to Damascus. In July 1860, when the Muslims of that city, taking advantage of disturbances among the Druzes of Lebanon, attacked the Christian quarter and killed over 3000 persons, Abd al-Kadir helped to repress the outbreak and saved large numbers of Christians. For this action the French government, which granted the emir a pension of L. 4000, bestowed on him the grand cross of the Legion of Honour.
He thereafter devoted himself to writing and philosophy until his death in Damascus in 1883.