Iṣlâḥ ibâḍite et intégration nationale : vers une communauté mozabite ? (1925-1964)

Abstract

Established as a social dynamics in the 1930s, mainly by Shaykh Bayyûḍ, the iṣlâḥ is a major element in the history and memory of the Mzab during the Contemporary period. Even if the reformist Ulama have mainly dedicated their activity to the field of education, they were also engaged in political action, at a local scale by the conquest of the « traditional » institutions of the Mzab, and at a national Algerian scale by fully participating to the colonial institutional game. This religious movement and its related political actions were also characterized by the questioning of the relations between the Ibadi madhhab and the other Islamic schools and by a reflection on the role played by Berbers in North African and Algerian history. Their political action enabled the reformist Ulama to assert themselves as the leaders of a community they were building through the reinterpretation of traditional institutions. At the same time, their historiographical production contributed to articulate Ibâḍî and Mozabî identities with the building of the Algerian nation. In this article, I intend to examine the role played by reformist Ulama in the building of a political community for the Ibâḍî and Mozabî population, a political and intellectual process that was developed along with the insertion into the Algerian frame. For this purpose, I am referring to certain texts produced by the reformist Ulema and by the iṣlâḥ historiography, as well as to the Colonial and Missionaries of Africa’s archives (ANOM, Aix-en-Provence ; White Fathers, Roma).

Keywords

• Mzab
• Shaykh Bayyûḍ
• Iṣlâḥ
• nahḍa
• Ibâḍî reformist Ulama
• Algerian nationalism