Echorouk discovers rare French copy on Al Amir Abdelkader out of 150 distributed across the world

Echorouk found a rare copy of an old book of more than 60 years. It is a military official document which exists only in French museums or some government bodies. What is exiting in this document is that the military reference untitled “The magnificence of French army’s history”, authored by French militants which acknowledged that France was unable to confront Algerians only after the end of Al Emir Abdelkader’s fight as his fellows had abandoned him.

• A group of militants belonging to Military Ministry in the forties with the publisher “ Raoul Aujar” tried to glorify the French army’s history and it’s presence in African colonies. They compiled information starting by praising what was called “The magnificent history of French army.”  They went by excessive subjectivity related with their interests and military strategy to minimize the colonial historical value of their colonies especially Algeria. Yet, they could not succeed although they accused him of trying to surrender and tried to conceal the fact that Al Emir Abdelkader was a matter of their fear because of his strong resistance.
• Under a big title wrote by red colour and called “The invasion of Algiers”, the military document – which had only 150 copies and was published in 1947, as confirmed by the publisher in his book’s introduction- detailed the reasons for French invasion to Algeria, which stopped at the 13th June of 1830. He described Algiers as “The island of Sidi Fraj” , with an army of 36.000 soldiers , 80 artillery moved across 500 commercial steamers.
• The French book which was written in the colonialism era described the Algerian resistance features- according to some French militants views – where they mentioned that 40,000 men were waiting them when they tried to invade Algeria. They gathered over heights of “Staouali” for the attack- according to the same document- of the French lines in 19th June 1830, they were riding – according to his undiminished description- “small crazy horses” and cheerful “brutal shouting”.
• After the French steps to Algeria’s occupation, the book went on to talk about Al Emir Abdelkader across several pages, writing that the French treaty’s signing circumstances with him was due to the French fear of losing it’s prestige among European countries because of his strong resistance, and to the French lack of appropriate military materials in that era to extend its control and invade Algeria.
• He went on in 1831 to describe Al Emir Abdelkader as a young commander who was erected by the people of Mascara to be their king or prince and that he belonged to the prophet’s dynasty “ Mouhamed peace be upon him.” He stated that he was stubborn, courageous and ambitious because he did want to establish an Arab independent nation that gathered all Arab Muslims.
• The book mentioned that the treaty signed by France and AL Emir in 1834 granted him power and “prestige” he needed – as what they believed-.It went on also to consider Al Emir’s distinctive characteristics for independence and his wise responses about the French attitudes, as being frightening and disturbing especially towards “Marshal Klosal” who failed- as described by the copy- in invading Constantine (east of Algeria) because of the cold weather which prevented the army’s move.
• But after reviewing Al Emir’s power, the book went on to consider that his fellows  abandoned him after they had felt the lack of resistance’s sources and support ,in reference to the betrayals that facilitated the French army striking hard blows many times. After seven years of desperate struggle, the document described how Al Emir stopped fighting in 1847 as “Surrender.” Then, it moved to speak about the French army’s expansion in Algeria. A description that makes any reader feel Al Emir’s burden and imagine his resistance which  was a barrier against possessing such a free country like Algeria.
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