In Algiers,
The din of the final battle has continued for nearly two centuries.
From the gates of the Algerian Sahara to the royal palaces of Amboise and Chantilly, the dust has not yet settled.
On May 16, 1843, Field Marshal Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale and son of King Louis-Philippe, then aged 21, attacked and captured the Smala of Emir Abdelkader.
La Smala, a camp constituting at the same time a military headquarters, a place of life for the fighters and their families, and an administrative center for the Algerian resistance against French colonization, was a sort of itinerant capital, a fortress of several thousand tents sheltering some 20,000 people, including 5,000 fighters.
The capture of Abdelkader's Smala marks a major turning point in the history of the French conquest.
Conquest of Algeria (1830-1847): “Capture of the Smalah” (Smala) by the Duke of Aumale in Taguin, 05/16/1843 Stefano Bianchetti / Bridgeman Images
That day, the emir was absent, busy fighting elsewhere, but his family, his lieutenants and his personal assets, including an impressive library, fell into the hands of the young duke.
Henri d'Orléans, recognized as one of the greatest collectors of his time, kept certain of the Emir's effects at his home, at the Chantilly Palace, transformed according to his wishes into a museum, the Condé Museum.
Donations from Abdelkader's own family will enrich his collection.
Other effects of the emir are scattered in other museums in France, but also in Turkey and Syria, where he died in 1883.
Submission of Abd el-Kader (1808-83) to Henri d'Orléans (1822-97) Duke of Aumale, December 23, 1847 Condé Museum, Chantilly / Bridgeman Images
Today, the relics of one of the most illustrious Algerians of the 19th century, a chivalrous fighter, Sufi and humanist, are reviving tensions between Algiers and Paris, to the point of determining the state visit, twice postponed, of the Algerian president Abdelmadjid Tebboune in France.
At the end of December, the head of Algerian diplomacy, Ahmed Attaf…
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