الأمير عبد القادر في الشام: من الوطنية الجزائرية إلى القومية العربية

When El Amir Abd-el-Kader moved to El Sham (Syria) after being released by The emperor Napoleon III, his reputation and his good behaviour has preceded to those lands, the people have heard about El Amir’s long Jihad (resistance) and fights against the French in Algeria, but his fame reached its peak when he intervened with courage to settle down the fire of strife between Muslims and Christians. This courageous stand of El Amir was the main reason to propose him as a candidate by number of leaders of the East and the West to govern El Sham. While the Arab national consciousness was being formed gradually and the Ottoman Empire was facing a lot of crises, there were calls by a group of Arab nationalists in Lebanon to think seriously about the future of the Arabs. This group of leaders was known as the wise people of El Sham, and there movement had plans to appoint El Amir Abd-el-Kader at the head of the state expected. In parallel to the movement of the wise, there were, in the same direction, secret contacts between the Maronite leader Youssef Karam and El Amir Abd-el-Kader about the independence of the Arab country and his nomination as its ruler. El Amir’s presence in Syria had clear impact on the Arab nationalism movement and independence efforts in the region; he was been a source of inspiration to advocates of Arab nationalism, besides he was a centre of polarization to political projects whose aim was to get the independence of the Arab country or its separated from the Ottoman Empire.