Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very good. 1st edition, 1st printing 2008. Slight rubbing to edges of dust-jacket, now protected using removable clear wrap, otherwise in very good condition. Next day dispatch by Royal Mail in sturdy, recyclable packaging. 1000's of satisfied customers! Please contact us with any enquiries.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Like New. Size: 6x1x9; Hardcover and dust jacket. Good binding and cover. Light wear. Small scuff mark to jacket. Clean, unmarked pages. xviii, 361 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates: illustrations, map; 24 cm. Emir Abd el-Kader was an Islamic scholar from Algeria who resisted French colonialism in the mid-19th century. His faith-based leadership, moral authority, keen intelligence, physical stamina, natural military prowess and knowledge of tribal ways enabled him to organize Algerian tribesmen into a guerrilla force that effectively resisted the French occupation. In order to avoid further suffering the Emir negotiated a truce with the French in 1847 after fifteen years of fighting one of the most advanced armies in the world at that time. The Emir's commitment to human rights earned him global admiration from the likes of President Buchanan, Queen Victoria, Pope Pius IX, Tsar Alexander II, and the presidents of France, Greece and Turkey. Newspaper accounts of his valor and chivalry won him admiration as far as the American Midwest, where a new settlement was named in his honor; today, Elkader in Clayton County, Iowa.
This is a large book, 365 pages, and a bargain at the price. The author has taken great care in providing not only a chronological account but numerous details about the culture of the time in Algeria. You become not only informed about the emir's military role, but his birth, growing up, education and training by his father and as a Sufi mystic. He was a student of the theology of the great Sufi mystic Ibn 'Arabi. All of this brings the reader to a greater understanding of what the emir did, but why he did it.
This Emir lived in the 18OOs, and is known throughout Europe and the Middle East for his military prowess, but also his openness to individuals of other faiths and his incredible forgiveness of the French invaders and his willingness to protect Middle Eastern Christians and members of foreign consulates during a later, subsequent war in Damascus where he was exiled. This is not only a book about courage, but about compassion, respect for human rights and forgiveness; probably something the mystic took in his stride.
He wrote a couple of books and there are some biographical accounts of his life portrayed on You Tube, but probably in French or Arabic. There is also a book out about his spiritual philosophies called The Spiritual Writings of Amir Abd Al-Kader by Michael Chodkiewicz.
He was given honors not only by France, but by Greece, Turkey, the Vatican and received gifts of guns from the UK and US.