The life of Abdel Kader, ex-sultan of the Arabs of Algeria

If I should unfortunately be mistaken in the belief and expectation that some interest may yet be excited in the public mind by a narrative of the deeds and exploits of the illustrious Arab whose extraordinary career I have selected as my theme, I shall willingly impute my disappointment, not to any want of judgment and discrimination on the part of the reading public, but to my own involuntary and sincere enthusiasm for all that is grand, ennobling, and romantic.

That these characteristics attach largely, and in their most inspiring and soul-stirring sense, to the life I here depict, the following pages amply corroborate.

Having thus exhibited the feeling which induced me to approach a subject, to me fraught with peculiar and almost irresistible attractions, I proceed to state the circumstances under which my present work was commenced and matured.

I was at Constantinople in the month of September, 1853. Abdel Kader was living, an exile, at Broussa. To have been within such an easy distance of one who had for so many years been invested in my mind with all the attributes of heroic greatness, without gratifying myself with a sight of his person, would have been doing treason to my warmest and most deeply cherished feelings.

I went accordingly and saw him. The acquaintance thus formed has been, through a course of wholly unexpected events, gradually cemented into permanent and unalterable friendship. In 1855 he came to Syria, his place of exile having been changed from Broussa to Damascus. On his way to the latter, from Beyrout, he passed a short time with me in the Lebanon.

Our long conversations turned almost exclusively on his proceedings in Algeria—his campaigns, his mode of administration, his plans of reform, and his principles of government. He expatiated on all these topics not only without reserve, but with exuberance. The stirring recital, delivered at times in a tone of martial energy and enthusiasm, at others with an air of melancholy which touchingly told of glowing hopes cruelly frustrated, of lofty and patriotic inspirations rudely crushed, was more than simply interesting and exciting. It had the grandeur and sublimity of a tragic epos.

What, I thought to myself, shall all this wealth of incident, these marvels of adventure, these varieties of good, and great, and glorious deeds be suffered to become “alms for oblivion,”[1] without even a feeble attempt at rescue? Shall no one ever have an opportunity afforded him of being urged to greater self-discipline, to the attainment of more mental hardihood, to the practice of more severe abnegation, by having placed before him the record of a life marked and distinguished by such absorbing devotion to a sense of duty, such fixity and concentration of purpose, such unflinching and indomitable perseverance?

Filled with these reflections, I one morning asked Abdel Kader if he had never kept any written memorial of the transactions in which he had been engaged. He smiled, and said, “I was far too much and constantly occupied for that. I did my duty. That was quite occupation enough for me.” “But,” I added, “if I were to endeavour to draw up an account of your various doings, would you assist me?” “With the greatest pleasure,” was his reply; “I will gladly answer any questions you may wish to put me.” That day I resolved to write the biography of Abdel Kader.

I resided at Damascus during the winter of 1859-60, expressly for the purpose of carrying my resolution into effect. Abdel Kader, though a perfect miser of his time, courteously consented to give me an audience of one hour every day. The mine was before me. I had to extract the ore. I laboured at it for five months. Some French works assisted me in my course of inquiry, such as “Annales Algériennes,” by M. Pellissier de Reynaud; “Histoire de la Conquête d’Alger,” by M. Alfred Nottement, and others of less note. At a later period I also profited by a publication more exclusively devoted to my subject, entitled “Abdel Kader, sa vie Politique et Militaire,” by M. Bellemare.

Abdel Kader was most ample in his remarks and commentaries on these authors. He thus supplied me with many useful rectifications, as well as a vast amount of valuable and important original information from himself.

Little did I contemplate, on leaving Damascus in the spring of 1860, that another chapter was so soon about to be added to his strange and eventful history; or that his glorious star, apparently for ever set, was destined shortly to burst forth again with meteoric splendour. Of his magnanimous and exemplary conduct during the fearful massacre of the Christians in that city, through the shameless and heartless complicity of the Turkish authorities, I obtained the most extensive and correct details from eye-witnesses.

Such, then, were my materials. It remained for me to compile and embody them. I have done so. With all diffidence and humility I invite my readers to pronounce their verdict on the performance.

CONTENTS.