Emir Abdelkader

Abd al-Qadir ibn Muhyi al-Din (between 1806 and 1808 – 26 May 1883; Arabic: عبد القادر ابن محي الدين, romanized: ʿAbd al-Qādir ibn Muḥy al-Dīn), known as Emir Abdelkader or ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Hasani al-Jazaʾiri, was an Algerian religious and military leader who led a struggle against the French colonial invasion of Algiers from 1831 to 1847. As an Islamic scholar and Sufi who unexpectedly found himself leading a military campaign, he assembled a coalition of Algerian tribes that resisted one of the most powerful armies in Europe for 17 years. His treatment of prisoners and civilians has often been cited as an early example of humanitarian conduct in warfare, particularly by his Christian opponents. After his surrender in 1847, he was detained in France for almost five years before being released by Napoleon III and taken to Bursa. Two years later, in 1855, he settled in Damascus. In 1860, his intervention to halt the massacre of the Christian community in Damascus earned him honours and awards from several countries. It was also in Damascus that he wrote his major work, the Kitab al-Mawaqif (the "Book of Halts").