Between fanaticism and loyalty: Algerian prisoners within the French Mediterranean Empire

Abstract

The violent military method of colonisation embraced by French governors general such as Thomas Bugeaud and the violent resistance espoused by local leaders such as ʿAbd al-Qādir have received the lion's share of attention in the existing scholarship on the first two decades of French rule in Algeria. Although some scholars have emphasised that a number of Algerians had become an integral part of the French army and fought on the French side in many important battles, indigenous notables' ideas on French imperialism, the civilising mission and their sense of loyalty remain opaque. This article examines the writings of a number of influential Algerian leaders who experienced captivity in the colonial prison in southern France during the 1840s and redefined their sense of loyalty as a result of that experience. Most of them jettisoned ʿAbd al-Qādir's ideology of violent resistance and attempted to prove their loyalty to France by pointing to their military service and their belief in the benefits of the French civilising mission, which they interpreted as the uniform extension of the French system of justice in Algeria. In addition, some of them attempted to harmonise the French monarchy with Islam by presenting the French conquest as a divinely ordained and thus legitimate event. By analysing the ideas of Algerian notables who adopted a new sense of patriotism, this article underscores the importance of re-examining the existing narratives of French imperial expansion in North Africa in order to recover the key role that indigenous collaboration played in that development.

Keywords:

• Algeria
• penitentiary system
• French Empire
• loyalty
• Islam

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Travel and Research Grant from the History Department at Harvard University and a doctoral scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Earlier versions of this article were presented to the Center for Middle Eastern Studies Colloquium at Harvard University on 26 April 2011 and the University of British Columbia History Colloquium on 6 December 2012. I would like to thank Robert Brain, Allen Sinel, Allan Smith, and the rest of participants at those events for their feedback. I also thank David Armitage, Michel Ducharme, William Granara, Mary Lewis and Guillaume Wadia for their comments on earlier versions of this paper. I am very grateful to C. Scott Walker for preparing the map for this article.

Notes

1. Bastille, Chateau d'If, and Sainte-Pélagie in France, as well as Compiano in Napoleonic Italy, offered inmates freedoms that persisted until the institution of what Vimont (1993, 17–25, 83, 119–123, 133–141, 311–315, 397–436) has called a ‘cellular regime’ during the 1830s and 1840s, when reformists worked to remove aristocratic privileges in order to create a uniform penitentiary system.

2. Archives nationales d'outre mer (ANOM), Aix-en-Provence, F 80/566: Thomas Urbain, Note sur les prisonniers indigènes détenus en France, September 14, 1846.

3. The duke's report on those events is located in Service historique de la défense (SHD), Armée de terre, Vincennes, 1 H 90: Commandant of the Province of Titerry, Henri d'Orléans to Governor General of Algeria, bivouac at Chabouniat sur l'Oued Ouerk, 20 May 1843. I have transliterated proper names according to how they appear in Arabic because of inconsistencies in French transliterations. However, I have retained the more consistent French transliteration of geographic terms and the names of Algerian tribes. All translations from Arabic and French are mine, unless otherwise indicated.

4. ANOM, F 80/564: Minister of War to Commandant of Algiers, copie de la dépêche télégraphique, June 13, 1843.

5. The prison in Sète opened its doors on 30 September 1844, and it replicated the Brescou model: ANOM, F 80/566: Rapport fait au ministre, November 30, 1846.

6. ANOM, F 80/564: Auguste Warnier to Minister of War, Algiers, July 15, 1843.

7. ANOM, F 80/564: Auguste Warnier, Rapport sur la qualité, l'origine & l'importance des prisonniers arabes détenus au Fort de l’île Sainte-Marguerite, November 17, 1843.

8. For instance, Warnier claimed that Sīdī al-Aʿraj had bestowed religious legitimacy upon ʿAbd al-Qādir by granting him the title of sultan, and later acted as the catalyst for the signing of the Treaty of Tāfna in 1837 by judging that the French king should no longer be opposed due to his clement treatment of Algerian prisoners. Warnier urged Soult to allow al-Aʿraj to travel to Paris and admire its marvels because that had the potential to impress him and persuade him to counsel ʿAbd al-Qādir to abandon his struggle, an advice that the latter could not refuse, according to Warnier, if he wished to preserve the support of Arab tribes who respected the authority of al-Aʿraj: ANOM, F 80/564: Auguste Warnier, Importance politique des personnes prises le 16 mai 1843 avec la Smalah d'Abd-el-Kader, June 3, 1843.

9. ANOM, F 80/564: Auguste Warnier, Note, n.d.

10. Ibid. Bugeaud had suggested to transport a large number of Algerian captives (excluding the notables) to a French colony in the Antilles or Bordeaux, where they could be put to work as herdsmen: SHD, 1 H 90: Governor General of Algeria to Minister of War, Orléansville, May 25, 1843. For legal views that gave rise to penal colonies on islands, see Benton (2010, 162–221).

11. ANOM, F 80/564: Auguste Warnier, Note, n.d. In this note, Warnier also called for the establishment of a ‘plebeian colony’ in Algeria for prisoners who had experience in farming. However, the minster of war did not accept that suggestion.

12. ANOM, F 80/564: Extrait d'une lettre écrite par le docteur Warnier, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, August 3, 1843.

13. ANOM, F 80/564: Auguste Warnier to Minister of War, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, September 22, 1843.

14. ANOM, F 80/564: Extrait d'une lettre écrite par le docteur Warnier.

15. ANOM, F 80/564: Minister of War to Auguste Warnier, October 6, 1843; Note pour M. le chef du bureau des travaux publics, October 9, 1843.

16. The authorities in Sète expressed similar concerns about mortality among the prisoners due to nostalgia: ANOM, F 80/569: Minister of War to Interim Commandant of the Ninth Division, August 6, 1847; Rapport fait au ministre, June 30, 1847.

17. The verse quoted by Bugeaud is 7:128. For Roche's account of his pilgrimage to Mecca and discussions with Muslim clerics, see Roches (1884–1885, 2 vols.). For Bugeaud's policies in Algeria, see Germain (1955) and Cossu (1974).

18. ANOM, F 80/564: Governor General of Algeria to Minister of War, Algiers, September 7, 1843.

19. ANOM, F 80/564: Minister of War to Governor General of Algeria, September 23, 1843.

20. ANOM, F 80/564: Governor General of Algeria to Minister of War, Algiers, September 7, 1843. Warnier noted that al-Kharrūbī's shift of allegiance led a number of imprisoned notables to follow his example and seek an alliance with the French: ANOM, F 80/564: Auguste Warnier to Minister of War, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, September 22, 1843.

21. ANOM, F 80/564: Governor General of Algeria to Minister of War, Algiers, March 20, 1846. The Beni-Médiane tribe initially imprisoned Lacotte when he came to them in order to ensure the continued payment of taxes. They then handed him over to the Emir. For a longer description of those events, see Ducat (1846, 75–85).

22. ANOM, F 80/564: Governor General of Algeria to Minister of War, Algiers, March 20, 1846.

23. ANOM, F 80/564: Direction des affaires de l'Algérie, rapport fait au ministre, May 12, 1846.

24. ANOM, F 80/564: Governor General of Algeria to Minister of War, Château La Durantie (Dordogne), July 23, 1847. Al-Kharrūbī had accepted that offer: ANOM, F 80/564: Muḥammad bin al-Kharrūbī to Minister of War, Montpellier, August 1, 1847.

25. ANOM, F 80/564: Minister of War to Commandant of the Seventh Division, dépêche télégraphique, Paris, May 9, 1848; ANOM, F 80/564: Direction des affaires de l'Algérie, rapport fait au ministre, August 1847. Copies of al-Kharrūbī's petitions have not been preserved in the colonial archives in Aix-en-Provence.

26. ANOM, F 80/569: Note pour la Direction des affaires de l'Algérie, Paris, August 31, 1846.

27. ANOM, F 80/569: Lieutenant-General Commandant of the Ninth Division to Minister of War, Montpellier, September 16, 1846.

28. ANOM, F 80/569: Minister of War to Lieutenant-General Commandant of the Ninth Division, September 9, 1846.

29. The high rate of mortality among the prisoners in Sète testifies to the harsh conditions of imprisonment there. Fort records indicate that slightly less than a hundred prisoners were present in Sète in late 1846, and among the 47 who became sick between January and June 1847, 20 died: ANOM, F 80/569: Etat nominatif des prisonniers Arabes entrés à l'hôpital depuis le 1^er janvier 1847, Sète, June 6, 1847; ANOM, F 80/566: Thomas Urbain, Note confidentielle sur la situation de l'effectif des prisonniers indigènes, September 14, 1846.

30. ANOM, F 80/570: Lieutenant-General Commandant of the Ninth Division to Minister of War, Montpellier, March 2, 1847.

31. ANOM, F 80/570: Copie du rapport du commissaire du Roi près le conseil de guerre de la neuvième division militaire sur l'administration de la justice militaire pendant le mois d'avril 1847; Note à la Direction de l'Algérie, Paris, June 30, 1847.

32. Quoted in ANOM, F 80/570: Note pour la Direction de l'Algérie, Paris, July 7, 1847.

33. Ibid.

34. ANOM, F 80/564: General Négrier to Governor General of Algeria, Constantine, July 11, 1841; General Négrier, Rapport concernant Ahmed ben el-Hamlaoui, ex-khalifa du Ferdjiouah; Province de Constantine, Premier conseil de guerre-permanent, November 29, 1841.

35. ANOM, F 80/564: Aḥmad bin al-Ḥamlāwī to Marie-Amélie of Naples and Sicily, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, April 20, 1842. Sessions (2011, 67–124) has argued that the July Monarchy tied its legitimacy to the conquest of Algeria, in which Louis-Philippe's sons played a direct role in order to prove that Orleanist legitimacy was based on merit.

36. ANOM, F 80/564: Aḥmad bin al-Ḥamlāwī to Louis-Philippe I, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, May 9, 1842.

37. Ibid.

38. For ʿAlī bin ʿĪsā's management of his defense case, see ʿAlī bin ʿĪsā to Aḥmad bin ʿĪsā, Toulon, August 14, 1841; ʿAlī bin ʿĪsā to Muṣṭafā bin ʿĪsā, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, October 13, 1841; ʿAlī bin ʿĪsā to Aḥmad bin ʿĪsā, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, January 22, 1842. French authorities expressed their deep conviction that Aḥmad bin ʿĪsā remained loyal to France and behaved well during his stay in France: ANOM, F 80/564: Commander of the Eight Division to Minister of War, Marseille, July 3, 1841.

39. ANOM, F 80/564: Aḥmad bin ʿĪsā to Minister of War, Paris, October 26, 1841.

40. Ibid.

41. ANOM, F 80/564: Governor General of Algeria to Minister of War, Algiers, June 20, 1842; General Négrier, Rapport concernant Ahmed ben el-Hamlaoui, ex-khalifa du Ferdjiouah; General Négrier to Governor General of Algeria, Constantine, November 30, 1841; Governor General of Algeria to Minister of War, Algiers, December 21, 1841.

42. ANOM, F 80/564: Governor General of Algeria to Minister of War, Algiers, June 20, 1842. In a note to the minister of war, Melcion d'Arc expressed his surprise at that move: ‘It is perhaps the first time in history that an Arab woman of noble status took on such an extreme task’, he explained: ANOM, F 80/564: Melcion d'Arc, Note pour le ministre, August 19, 1842.

43. ANOM, F 80/564: Borel de Bretizel to Minister of War, Palais des Tuileries, August 22, 1842; ʿĀʾisha to Marie-Amélie of Naples and Sicily, Paris, August 20, 1842. After his father's release, Muḥammad bin al-Ḥamlāwī also crossed the Mediterranean and stressed the family's loyalism. ‘I would like to inform your excellency’, he wrote to Soult from Paris, ‘that in the future our whole family will live in France, our new patrie’: ANOM, F 80/564: Muḥammad bin al-Ḥamlāwī to Minister of War, September 30, 1842.

44. ANOM, F 80/564: Aḥmad bin al-Ḥamlāwī to Minister of War, October 13, 1842.

45. ANOM, F 80/564: Aḥmad bin al-Ḥamlāwī to Minister of War, January 27, 1843. Although Soult echoed the views of the minister of internal affairs and the minister of foreign affairs in suggesting a continued surveillance over al-Ḥamlāwī in Tunisia, French consular archives from Tunisia for the year 1843 do not contain any mention of al-Ḥamlāwī: ANOM, F 80/564: Minister of War to Governor General of Algeria, Paris, May 27, 1843; Archives des affaires étrangères, La Courneuve: Correspondance politique des consuls, box 7, Tunis, 1843.

46. ANOM, F 80/564: Aḥmad bin al-Ḥamlāwī to Minister of War, Paris, June 17, 1843.

47. ANOM, F 80/564: Aḥmad bin ʿĪsā to Ferdinand Philippe, duke of Orléans, Paris, January 1, 1842; Borel de Bretizel to Minister of War, Palais des Tuileries, January 15, 1842.

48. ANOM, F 80/564: Minister of War to Minister of Interior, Paris, December 31, 1843; Governor General of Algeria to Minister of War, Algiers, December 20, 1843.

49. ANOM, F 80/564: Minister of War to Governor General of Algeria, Paris, March 26, 1846.

50. Soult claimed, for example, that ‘al-Hamlāwī had been authorised to reside in Paris with his family in order to familiarise him, as well as other Algerian Arabs who reside in France, with [French] customs and habits, and give him a more exact idea of France's grandeur and power’: ANOM, F 80/564: Minister of War to Commandant of the Province of Constantine, January 26, 1843.

51. The importance of age in French conceptualisations of the civilising mission remains largely unexplored in the existing literature. Colonna (1997) has underlined the utopic aspect of French educational reforms and their effect on Algerian children. For critical assessments of the policy of assimilation, see Belmessous (2013) and Lewis (1962).

52. ANOM, F 80/571: Ḥasan bin ʿAzūz to Ferdinand Philippe, duke of Orléans, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, September 22, 1841 (Arabic).

53. Ibid. ʿAlī bin ʿĪsā had made a similar claim in a letter to his son Aḥmad. ‘The heart of the French is good’, he explained, ‘and the king had obtained earthly power (salṭana) from God only because his heart is good’: ANOM, F 80/574: ʿAlī bin ʿĪsā to Aḥmad bin ʿĪsā, November 26, 1841.

54. ANOM, F 80/571: Ḥasan bin ʿAzūz to Henri d'Orléans, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, September 22, 1841 (Arabic).

55. ANOM, F 80/571: Ḥasan bin ʿAzūz to Marie-Amélie of Naples and Sicily, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, December 29, 1841. The verse quoted by Bin ʿAzūz is 38:26.

56. ANOM, F 80/574: Ḥasan bin ʿAzūz to Melcion d'Arc, directeur des affaires d'Afrique, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, October 21, 1842 (Arabic).

57. Ibid.

58. ANOM, F 80/574: Ḥasan bin ʿAzūz to Minister of War, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, November 20, 1842 (Arabic).

59. ANOM, F 80/563: Ḥasan bin ʿAzūz to Louis-Philippe I, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, January 27, 1842 (Arabic).

60. ANOM, F 80/563: Ḥasan bin ʿAzūz to François d'Orléans, Prince of Joinville, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, n.d.

61. ANOM, F 80/563: Ḥasan bin ʿAzūz to the Royal Household, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, January 27, 1842.

62. ANOM, F 80/564: Auguste Warnier, Rapport sur la qualité, l'origine & l'importance des prisonniers arabes détenus au Fort de l’île Sainte-Marguerite, November 17, 1843; ANOM, F 80/575: Ḥasan bin ʿAzūz to Du Vachel, directeur des affaires de l'Afrique, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, n.d. (Arabic). It is interesting to note that ʿAmmār bin al-Dāb, a prisoner who had been released before Bin ʿAzūz, wrote to the latter and stressed that as a group, they ‘had become French, without any doubts’: ʿAmmār bin al-Dāb to Ḥasan bin ʿAzūz, November 30, 1842 (Arabic). This letter, however, was not forwarded to Bin ʿAzūz because it contained two sentences that the French translator could not understand.

63. The official report of Kazwālī's mission is located in SHD, 1 H 74: Rapport de Said Gazoul amin du marché à huile envoyé en mission près d'Eltedjini, Algiers, 1840–1841.

64. ANOM, F 80/565: Muḥammad Kazwālī to President of the French Republic, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, October 16, 1849 (Arabic).

65. ANOM, F 80/565: Muḥammad Kazwālī to President of the French Republic, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, October 1, 1849.

66. Ibid. The verse is 7:34 and the translator copied its original Arabic text in the official translation of the letter. Kazwālī's interpretation of this verse represents a radical departure from the views of classical exegetes, who did not place much emphasis on this passage and usually used it to describe human weakness in the face of divine punishment (see, for instance, al-Qurṭubī 2006, xi, 6; bin Kathīr 1998, iv, 238).

67. ANOM, F 80/565: Muḥammad Kazwālī to President of the French Republic, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, October 1, 1849.

68. ANOM, F 80/565: Muḥammad Kazwālī to President of the French Republic, October 16, 1849, Island of Sainte-Marguerite (Arabic).

69. ANOM, F 80/565: Governor General of Algeria to Minister of War, Algiers, August 19, 1849.

70. ANOM, F 80/565: Prefect of Algiers to Minister of War, Algiers, August 12, 1849; État nominatif des prisonniers arabes, August 31, 1849.

71. Two individuals from Algiers who felt threatened by Kazwālī plotted to send incriminating letters with false seals and the official translator supported them in their endeavour. Their correspondence is located in ANOM, F 80/571: Aḥmad bin Muḥammad to Aḥmad bin al-Razā, translated by C. B. Houry, August 10, 1849, Algiers.

72. ANOM, F 80/565: C. B. Houry to President of the French Republic, Paris, December 8, 1849. Houry maintained a strong pro-imperial stance in his writings on the Middle East. For instance, he advocated for France's participation in a coalition of European powers that he wanted to see intervene in Syria in order to install a Christian prince as a ruler, which, according to him, offered the perfect recipe for the spreading of European civilisation in the region (see Houry 1842).

73. ANOM, F 80/565: C. B. Houry to Governor General of Algeria, Paris, January 5, 1850.

74. SHD, 1 H 73: Governor General of Algeria to Minister of War, Algiers, Novembre 30, 1840. Valée cited Mawlid bin al-ʿArrāsh's voyage to France as a validation of his views. Al-ʿArrāsh first travelled to Paris in 1838 in order to meet the king and offer him gifts, and then returned to Algeria, where he signed an agreement that addressed unresolved issues related to the frontiers established by the Treaty of Tāfna in 1837. However, tensions between the Emir and religious notables in Aïn Madhi led to a continuation of conflict and the failure of al-ʿArrāsh's mission.

75. SHD, 1 H 73: Governor General of Algeria to Minister of War, Algiers, November 30, 1840.

76. SHD, 1 H 68: Lieutenant-General of the Province of Constantine to Governor General of Algeria, Constantine, March 30, 1840.

77. SHD, 1 H 68: Muṣtafā, Ḥanafī, Qāḍī of Constantine to Sayyid Aḥmad Walad al-Shaykh, Constantine, April 1840.

78. SHD, 1 H 68: Lieutenant-General of the Province of Constantine to Governor General of Algeria, Constantine, April 6, 1840.

79. SHD, 1 H 68: Governor General of Algeria to Minister of War, Algiers, April 11, 1840.

80. ANOM, F 80/571: ʿAllāl bin al-Saḥrawī al-Barkānī to Minister of War, n.d. (Arabic). Although this letter is not dated, al-Barkānī most likely composed it sometime by the end of 1845 or the beginning of 1846 because the accompanying notes from French administrators date from the first two weeks of January 1846.

81. ANOM, F 80/571: Minister of War to Lieutenant-Commander of the Eight Division, February 4, 1846.

82. ANOM, F 80/571: ʿAbd Allāh al-Ruwaydī to Louis-Philippe I, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, July 8, 1842 (Arabic); Al-Ḥabīb to General Négrier, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, May 28, 1842 (Arabic); Al-Makkī bin Zarqūn to Minister of War, Island of Sainte-Marguerite, February 23, 1842.

83. ANOM, F 80/567: Thomas Urbain to Minister of War, Paris, September 4, 1847.

84. ANOM, F 80/567: Minister of War to Governor General of Algeria, Paris, July 31, 1847. French authorities in Algeria freed the released prisoners with great reluctance. After two large groups were repatriated to Oran in October 1847, for instance, Christophe Léon de Lamoricière, the Lieutant-General of the Province of Oran, only agreed to release the captives once they secured a local guarantor who would vouch for their good behaviour, a measure approved by the minister of war. Lamoricière feared that an immediate release of the captives would create instability in a region that had only recently started to enjoy a period of peace: ANOM, F 80/567: Christophe Léon de Lamoricière to Minister of War, Oran, October 28, 1847.