ALGERIAN REFORMIST ULAMA, ASSOCIATION OF

also called Association Of Algerian Muslim Ulama, French Association Des Ulma Reformistes Algriens, or Association Des Ulma Musulmans Algriens, Arabic Jam'iyah Al-'ulama' Al-jaza'riyah, a body of Muslim religious scholars (ulama) who, under French rule, advocated the restoration of an Algerian nation rooted in Islamic and Arabic traditions. The association, founded in 1931 and formally organized on May 5, 1935, by Sheikh Abd al-Hamid ben Badis, was heavily influenced by the views of the great Muslim reformer Muhammad 'Abduh (18491905). It adopted his belief that Islam was essentially a flexible faith, capable of adapting to the modern world if freed of its non-Islamic and vulgar accretions. The Algerian Ulama thus conducted widespread campaigns against the superstition and maraboutism common among the Muslim masses. They also implemented 'Abduh's belief in the efficacy of modern education by attempting to reform the antiquated educational system that had perpetuated a medieval mentality in the country. More than 200 schools were opened, the largest at Constantine with about 300 students, and the possibility of a Muslim university was introduced but never realized. The Algerian Ulama stressed the importance of studying Arabic, the language of Algerian Muslims, and fought for its obligatory instruction in Algerian elementary and secondary schools. In effect, the Association of Algerian Ulama wished to give the Algerian Muslim an identity and tradition rooted in the Islamic community (ummah) and distinct from his French colonizer. Sheikh ben Badis condemned the adoption of European culture by Algerian Muslims, issuing a formal fatwa (legal opinion) against it in 1938. The association met with opposition from two sources. Gallicized Algerian Muslims, known as volus, Arabs by tradition and Frenchmen by education, insisted that Islam and France were not incompatible. They rejected the idea of an Algerian nation and stated that Algeria had for generations been identified in terms of its economic and cultural relations with France. Traditional Muslim circles also rejected the Association of Algerian Ulama. The leaders of the Muslim Sufi (mystic) brotherhoods and the marabouts were directly threatened by the purist drive of the Ulama, while the Islamic functionariesimams (prayer leaders in the mosques), qadis (religious judges), and muftis (religious lawyers)were affected by their educational reforms and anti-French sentiment. The popular response to the programs of the association was nonetheless considerable. To counteract the growing influence of the Ulama, the French government issued the circulaire Michel, which forbade members of the association from preaching in the mosques. The association, however, did not curtail its activities, even with the arrest of ben Badis in 1938. Sheikh Talib al-Bashir Brahimi succeeded ben Badis on his death in 1940. During the Algerian war of independence against France (195462), the association aligned with the National Liberation Front (1956), and Tawfiq al-Madani, secretary-general of the Algerian Ulama, sat in the provisional government of the Algerian Republic after independence (1962).