Commander of the Faithful: The Life and Times of Emir Abd el-Kader, by John W. Kiser

[Al-khiyal]

Commander of the Faithful: The Life and Times of Emir Abd el-Kader by John W. Kiser (U.K.)

Commander of the Faithful: The Life and Times of Emir Abd el-Kader by John W. Kiser (U.S.A.)


Publication date November 21, 2008

[Al-khiyal]

John Walker Kiser bientôt à Mascara

Mercredi 17 Septembre 2008 -- The Life and Times of Emir Abdelkader est l’intitulé du dernier ouvrage signé John Walker Kiser qui vient de paraître aux États-Unis d’Amérique. Pour les besoins de sa recherche, l’auteur a séjourné à cinq reprises à Mascara pour visiter et mettre en relief les sites historiques, l’homme, d’une part, et en valeur son lieu de naissance et les communes limitrophes de Mascara. John Walker Kiser a également passé la majorité de son temps à la bibliothèque de Mascara où il a épluché des dizaines d’ouvrages relatifs à la vie de l’Émir, ses réalisations, ses exploits et son champ d’intervention. Et pour peaufiner son ouvrage, l’auteur a même dépêché, depuis Washington, sa traductrice pour effectuer les dernières retouches avant publication. John Walker Kiser organisera, le 17 octobre prochain, une vente-dédicace à El Kader (États-Unis), une ville jumelée avec Mascara depuis 1984.

[Al-khiyal]

Reviving a novel-worthy tale of war and religion

November 21, 2008 -- For more than 40 years he was a world figure, his renown stretching from the American Midwest to Moscow to the Middle East. As he neared death in 1883, The New York Times wrote that he “deserves to be ranked among the foremost of the few great men of the century.”

Earlier, he had received accolades and awards from France, Britain, Russia, the Ottoman sultan, the papacy and President Abraham Lincoln, who sent him not a medal but, in quintessentially American fashion, a matched pair of fancy Colt pistols.

The man being honored was Abd el-Kader, a learned and fervent Muslim, who for 15 years had organized and led a jihad against a Western power.

After he ceased hostilities, his four-year detention, in violation of a promise of safe passage into exile, became an international cause célèbre. Released and feted, even by his captors, he came to live in Damascus.

There, in July 1860, el-Kader braved mobs and saved thousands of Christians from a murderous rampage through the city’s Christian quarter.

In this, the bicentennial of his birth, el-Kader’s name is known to only a tiny fraction of Americans. That fraction includes those knowledgeable about modern Algeria, where his resistance to French colonization places him among the founding figures of an independent nation.

And then there are the 1,500 residents of Elkader, a town in northeastern Iowa, founded and named in 1846 by a frontier lawyer who admired the freedom-fighting exploits of this “daring Arab chieftain.”

Anyone interested in learning more should turn to Commander of the Faithful (Monkfish Book Publishing Company), a new book by John W. Kiser.

Mr. Kiser had previously written The Monks of Tibhirine (St. Martin’s Press), about Trappist monks in Algeria whose quiet lives of prayer had bonded them with their Muslim neighbors but who were nonetheless taken hostage by Islamic extremists in 1996 and killed.

Mr. Kiser learned about el-Kader (the name is sometimes transliterated from the Arabic in different ways, like al-Qadir or al-Kadir) because the Tibhirine monastery stood on the slope of a mountain where el-Kader had led one of his battles and where a steep cliff face was named after him.

A book about a leader of jihad may seem like a strange sequel to a book about peaceful monks, but the more Mr. Kiser learned about el-Kader, the more he felt a spiritual kinship between the devout, ascetic Trappists and the pious, ascetic guerrilla leader. Both had found in their own religious codes and daily rituals the basis for a fraternity that defied religious boundaries.

As the son of a celebrated holy man, tribal leader and head of a Sufi brotherhood, el-Kader was taught to read and memorize the Qur'an, tutored in all the details of the tradition but also in philosophy, history and other fields.

At home and away, the young boy was also trained in horseback riding, public speaking and fighting skills. All would prove crucial. In 1832, with France increasingly encroaching on Algerian territory that was only nominally under Ottoman rule, the 25-year-old el-Kader emerged as the commander, the emir, of Muslim Arab resistance.

Because el-Kader was just over five feet tall, Alexis de Tocqueville, the French political thinker, who took a great interest in Algerian affairs, called him a “puny Arab”; but Tocqueville also called him “a Muslim Cromwell.” Like Oliver Cromwell, he wielded strict religious beliefs to form a disciplined fighting force.

Mr. Kiser insists on the religious dimension of what might otherwise be read as a story of military and political maneuvering. But Commander of the Faithful is hardly a theological study. It is a dramatic story of quarreling tribes, of Sufi sects and brotherhoods, of treacherous Ottoman officials, rival French generals, secret negotiations, broken truces, terrible atrocities and new forms of insurgency and counterinsurgency warfare.

Any number of episodes could inspire novels, like the deep spiritual intimacy that joined the embattled emir and Antoine-Adolphe Dupuch, Roman Catholic bishop of Algiers.

It began in 1841 with the emir’s offer of a prisoner exchange, a humanitarian contrast to the scorched-earth policy being executed by French troops. A decade later, when el-Kader, with his family and entourage, was being held in confinement in France, Bishop Dupuch became a tireless champion of his liberation.

At the end of 1847, el-Kader decided that God did not want any more blood spilled in what had come to be a futile struggle. The emir agreed to lay down arms and expected French officials to honor their promise of exile in the Middle East.

In France, however, the reign of Louis-Philippe was tottering, and he feared public opinion. When the French ship transporting the Algerians arrived in Toulon, they were put under guard.

Little more than a month later, the Revolution of 1848 broke out, and politicians grew even more fearful of stirring public outrage at the idea of freeing the Algerian enemy. It took four years before the mood changed, and Louis Napoleon had the confidence to free the prisoner.

Mr. Kiser does not make undue claims for his book. He had ready access to sources in French and English but not Arabic ones, although he found plenty of guidance in Algeria and Damascus.

As it happens, a major source for the life of el-Kader, in any language, is the work of an eccentric Englishman, Charles Henry Churchill of, yes, those Churchills, who lived in Damascus and sympathized with the Muslim Arab subjects of Ottoman rule. For months throughout the winter of 1859-60, Churchill interviewed the emir daily and published the account in 1869.

Mr. Kiser has provided a “Chronology of Algerian and World Events” that provocatively reminds American readers that while France was launching its military campaigns against Algerian guerrillas the United States was sending troops to quell Native Americans.

But it is hard to read Commander of the Faithful without thinking of more recent events — and the author knows this well. Perhaps, he said in a phone conversation, the book might help people “to find in France’s adventure and its ultimate failure some lessons about the world we’re entering today.”

[Al-khiyal]

Author sets return stop in Elkader

ELKADER, Iowa, May 8, 2009 -- A world-renowned author is returning to the place that gave him notoriety.

Author John Kiser will spend Monday and Tuesday in Elkader to speak about his new book, Commander of the Faithful: The Life and Times of Emir Abdelkader, visit with students and present the first annual Abdelkader Essay Prize.

Emir Abdelkader was the leader of Algeria (1832-47) and inspired the founders of Elkader to give his name to their community.

"The reason (Kiser) is doing this is to keep the legacy of Abdelkader alive," said Kathy Garms, event coordinator. "(Abdelkader) was a Muslim leader and a good Arab Muslim.

"This day and age, we need some good role models."

Jan Gross, professor in Modern Languages in the Department of French and Arabic at Grinnell (Iowa) College, also is scheduled to appear at Monday's event, which includes a welcome reception from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Elkader Public Library.

Kiser and Gross will give presentations later at 8 p.m. at the Elkader Opera House.

A former international technology broker, Kiser, of Sperryville, Virginia, received a master's degree from Columbia University in European History and a master's in business administration from the University of Chicago. His stories have appeared in The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

Kiser launched Commander of the Faithful: The Life and Times of Emir Abdelkader in October 2008 in Elkader.

"It's important for all ages to become aware of this good Muslim leader," Garms said