Emir Abdelkader

Abd al-Qadir ibn Muhyi al-Din was an Islamic scholar and Sufi, born between 1806 and 1808, who found himself leading a military resistance he never sought. From 1831 to 1847 he united Algerian tribesmen and held off one of Europe's most advanced armies, a campaign his Christian opponents remembered for his unusual regard for what would later be called human rights. After his surrender in 1847 he spent nearly five years detained in France until Napoleon III released him and sent him to Bursa. He settled in Damascus in 1855, where he wrote the Kitab al-Mawaqif, his major work on political positions. In 1860 he intervened to stop the massacre of Damascus's Christian community, an act that brought him honours from multiple countries - some of which had once been his enemies.