[Music] the pledge of ibin badis went on to become the motto of the independent Algeria Islam is our religion Arabic is our language Algeria is our homeland the largest country in Africa and the 10th largest in the world Algeria is a spectacular land of dramatic Geographic and climatic contrasts where the beauty of the Mediterranean landscape is contiguous to The Majestic spaces of the Sahara according to historical records the people of Algeria have been influenced by several powerful Empires all of these empires have left a rich Legacy for what is now presently Alger some of these
Empires include the ancient numidians phenicians carthaginians Romans and vandals byzantines and many more Islam arrived in Algeria in the 7th century and rapidly spread across the country today an estimated 99% of algerians identify as Sunni Muslim the remaining 1% consist of individuals identifying as Christian Jewish Ahmed sh and Muslim Islam the religion of almost all of the Algerian people pervades most aspects of life it provides the society with its Central Social and cultural identity and gives most individuals their basic ethical beliefs but how did Islam come to Algeria prehistory Algeria this period highlights the earliest
inhabitants of the M who showed their distinct civilization founded on the northern part of Africa the discovered remains have been recorded to date from as far back as Circa 200,000 BC since the area is surrounded by the Sahara Desert their forefathers tended to animals who lived with them in their dwellings and nourished remarkable vegetation despite the crude status of the region anthropologists unveiled their discoveries about Algeria and the outcomes are extraordinary because there was a substantial civilization during the Prehistoric Age a good piece of evidence is the discovery of cave paintings from The Classical period
in the area where the berbers live they didn't have a writing system but they expressed their thoughts through paintings on Cave walls this discovery proves that at some point the unique ability of human beings to Sur survive and innovate in any given circumstance shown through Classical period the Berber civilization had already practiced farming and trading even before modern tools were invented they had a progressive system of agriculture despite using primitive materials Berber Farmers made sure they could produce something out of the Earth in the long run trade links between Carthage and the berbers expanded but
it resulted in the slavery of some hbers carthaginians refused to Bow before any slave master and so the City was destroyed in 146 BC this led to the empowerment of the Berber Kingdom which was annexed to the Roman Empire in 24 ad you should take note of the abundance in the region at that time the kingdom became prominent for agriculture and thus became known as The Granary of the Empire but greed emerged when foreign Invaders and slav saved the berbers subsequently the arrival of the Romans began in the 2 Century under Rome the cities were
built up and impressive Public Works were constructed especially tipaza and tamad by the fifth century Roman civilization in Algeria had been eroded by incursions of numidians and the destruction rre by the vandals in 430 to 431 marked the end of a effective Roman control tipaza is the ancient city with historic nidian maum and the exceptional Punic Roman and Christian ruins along the Mediterranean Coast between 4:30 and 533 other Invaders came from the north of Europe and named Van they established their first state in Algeria with Baya as capital after one century of existence Van's people
integrated the Algerian population in 534 byzantines tried to impose their influence in the region they stayed in Algeria until the arrival of Islam Islam was first brought to Algeria by the umaya Dynasty byba in a drawn out process of conquest and conversion stretching from 670 to 71 the native berbers were rapidly converted in large numbers although some Christian and probably Pagan communities would remain at least until Al morabit times however as in the Middle East itself they sought to combine their new Islam with resistance to the calipat foreign rule a niche with the khite and
Shiite here says filled perfectly by the late 8th Century most of Algeria was ruled by the ramit who profess the strictly puritanical but politically moderate iadi sacked and saw the cffs as immoral usurpers they were destroyed by the Shia faits in 909 but their Doctrine was reestablished further south by refugees whose descendants would ultimately found the towns of the amab valley in the Algerian Sahara where ibadism still dominates though it convinced the kutama the faid isi doctrine remained unpopular and most of North Africa and the faits themselves abandoned Algeria for Egypt as soon as they
could leaving North Africa to a dynasty only nominally subject to them the zits with the political threat of the Abbasid caliphate gone these soon reverted to Sunni Islam specifically the Maliki Branch whose popularity had spread widely in the M the faits took their Revenge by sending the beduin Banu to recab on the region but were incapable of controlling it shiism rapidly dwindled and became virtually non-existent in the area al- mahad's were zealously Orthodox and under the rule Algeria gradually acquired its notable religious homogenity Sunni Islam in the Maliki mhab became virtually Universal apart from the
iadis of theab and small Jewish communities Islam took longer to spread to the far south of Algeria whose history is is to a large extent separate only in the 15th century where the tuar finally converted to Islam during the Regency period unlike the Maliki Algerian masses the ottoman algerians remained affiliated with the hanafi school of Islamic Juris Prudence the judicial system was headed by one Muti for each of the madhabs represented in the Regency major towns had both hanafi and Maliki mosques while the I Community had their own mosques and especially cemeteries the Dual hanafi
Maliki system was maintained under French Colonial regime during the 1800s through the late 1900s France was one of the great European imperialist powers its territories dotted the globe in 1830 France had conquered alers and began occupying the rest of the nation this would eventually lead to a painful Story one of strugg and the courageous pursuit of self-determination and cultural identity over the period of a century the people of Algeria were subject to oppression at the hands of the French occupation and much of the discourse surrounding it today remains chained to its traumatic history however Algeria
would eventually prove to be a problem for the French with the arrival of Abdul Hamed IB badis I B badis heard a man referring to the state of a worn down and fatigued Algerian people in words of Despair repeating the famous Arabic coulet they would have responded to you if they were alive but there is no life In Those whom you are calling IB badis responded by saying do not say there is no life In Those whom you are calling but say there is no caller indeed from then on he spent the rest of his
life calling in his unyielding pursuit to Rouse his people he was highly concerned with the education of children as well as the crucial role of women in society as he knew that they were indispensable for reform to take place ibin badis famously stated when you teach a boy you have taught an individual but when you teach a girl you have taught a nation using his Arabic rhetoric and oratorical skills along with his deep knowledge of Islamic tradition he addressed a WI audience on the threat posed by the French and that it should be of great
concern to every Algerian man and woman IB badis would affirm he would fight the occupation with knowledge and accordingly there was a clear solution the education and rediscovery of the core Islamic principles upon which previous Nation had built much of their achievements and successes and without which the coming Generations were to remain a subject of pity ridicule and subjugation he would often say how can one sleep when the nation is in this state of humiliation therefore it was imperative that their faith along with the Arabic language was to be a central theme in the lives
of the Algerian people reinstating their cultural identity and uniting them as one force IB badis would repeat these lines of poetry in schools and mosques engraving it in the hearts and minds of the young algerians the Algerian nation is Muslim Arab to its core whoever claims that it has abandoned its roots or that these roots have died has uttered a lie language was an aspect that IB badis did not underestimate in fact one of his main objectives was to revive the Arabic language in Algeria he saw the imposition of the French language as a systematic
subversion of Algerian people at a time when an Ever growing number of algerians were being assimilated into a French identity largely through language ibin badis vly resisted the infiltration of the French language into Algeria as a replacement for Arabic regarding this he said I would rather take a bullet to my chest than for the French language to enter into the Arabic schools consequently the Arabic language became a language of rebellion national pride and resistance in 1930 triumphalist celebrations were held across Algeria to commemorate the Centenary of the French occupation they applauded themselves that Algeria had
now become a part of France Cardinal laager an Archbishop of algers at the time smugly stated on this occasion the era of the Crescent Algeria is over unsurprisingly ibin badi strongly resisted this saying their government has oppressed us with respect to our religion language honor sanctity and every one of our rights and we said to it that we are not France nor are we the enemies of France France however overlooked our sentiments cut off our livelihoods closed our schools hunted down our Educators and students closed our mosques and the nation's most basic rights are refused
so can we declare our allegiance to it it was at this time that his ambitious streak reached Grand proportions as he began to develop a formal organization determined to take another step on the ladder of reformation and freedom IB badis founded the association of Algerian Muslim in 1931 this was essentially a body of Muslim Scholars who under the French rule advocated the restoration of an Algerian Nation rooted in Islamic and Arabic traditions this group was not a political party but it promoted a strong sense of Muslim Algerian nationality among the Algerian masses to counteract the
growing influence of the organization the French government issued the circular Michelle which banned members of the association from teaching in mosques the French had seriously underestimated the overarching aims and ambitions of the newly found Think Tank after the association had found its National voice and was in a firm position ibin badis began to oppose the French occupation more ferociously ibin badis warning his people France makes promises which it betrays every time while Algeria is Beed time and time again yet remains desperate despair has gripped many of us but by Allah their constrainted procrastination will never
cause us to grow weary but will only push us to take greater risks and to make greater sacrifices political opinions speak lies and their Omens are evil he then went on to say in defiance our Algerian nation is not France it'll never be France it does not want to be France nor will it ever become France even if it wanted to slowly but surely Break by bre brick ibin badis tactfully fulfilled his pledge and accomplished his mission he was described with regards to his approach as one who chiseled at a stone beneath a rusty torrent
until he was able to abolish this rock moving its harm out of the nation's way on April 16th 1940 at the young age of 49 Abdul Hamed IB badis died in his birthplace of Constantine leaving behind a weeping and grieving Algeria prior to his demise he had made a promise that was captured in a coulet of poetry so that the glory of its past May return to our nation I give you my pledge until I am lowered into my grave if I die before then my legacy is Long Live Algeria and the Arabs the Algerian
thinker Malik bin Nai said the miracle of Resurrection happened through the words of badis the hour of Awakening had finally arrived as the previously sedated Algerian Nation began to move and what a beautiful and blessed Awakening it was following a war that lasted 7 and 1/2 years Algeria officially became independent from France in 1962 today what remains of his legacy can be heard in Daily pledges recited by the pupils across numerous schools in Algeria the pledge of IB badis went on to become the motto of the independent Algeria Islam is our religion Arabic is our
language Algeria is our homeland
