French, who would stay in that country until
they were forced out by a widespread revolution
in 1962. His position as patriot and early nation-
alist, but also as an Islamic leader, make him a
hero around whom most Algerians can safely
unite, and it is largely in Algeria that his memory
remains important today.
See also christianity and islam; colonialism;
ottoman dynasty; salaFism.
John IskanderFurther reading: David Commins, Islamic Reform: Poli-
tics and Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1990); Raphael Danziger, Abd
al-Qadir and the Algerians: Resistance to the French and
Internal Consolidation (New York: Homes & Meier,
1977).
Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (1077–1166) Sufi
saint and founder of the Qadiri Sufi Order
Abd al-Qadir was from the Caspian region of Per-
sia and went as a teenager to baghdad to study
Hanbali law and theology; he was also attracted
to the teachings of Sufi masters there. After
retreating to the Iraqi desert for several years
as an ascetic, he returned to Baghdad, where he
became a scholar and a popular preacher who
attracted a wide circle of followers, including
Jews and Christians whom he had converted to
Islam. The center of his activities was a madrasa,
where he taught religious studies and was con-
sulted as a mUFti. In his sermons, he admonished
his listeners to care for the poor and needy, and
he sought to harmonize Islam’s legal require-
ments with its spiritual message. When he died
in 1166, he was buried in his Baghdad madrasa,
which became a popular mosque-shrine that
drew pilgrims from the Middle East and India.
His followers circulated many stories about his
miraculous powers so that within a century after
his death he was regarded as one of the leading
Sufi saints in the Muslim world. He is considered
to be the founder of the qadiri sUFi order, which
now has branches in the Middle East, Africa,
South Asia, and Indonesia.
See also hanbali legal school.Further reading: Khaliq Ahmad Nizami, “The Qadiri-
yyah Order.” In Islamic Spirituality, 2 vols., edited by
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 2: 6–25 (New York: Crossroad,
1991); J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi Orders of Islam
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).Abd al-Rahman, Umar (1938– ) a blind
radical Islamic leader who was implicated in the
assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat
(d. 1981) and the 1993 New York World Trade
Center bombing
Umar Abd al-Rahman was born in al-Gamalaya,
egypt, in 1938, and lost his sight very early in life.
After learning Braille as a young child, he excelled
at his studies. By age 11, Abd al-Rahman had
memorized the qUran. Having been trained in a
series of traditional Islamic learning academies,
including al-azhar University, he received his
doctorate in 1972. He is best known for his work
as a preacher and as an Islamist organizer and
activist. In this capacity, throughout the 1970s
and 1980s, Abd al-Rahman ran afoul of Egyptian
authorities, most notoriously for allegedly issuing
the FatWa (religious edict) leading to Egyptian
president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981.
Abd al-Rahman has been linked to two Egyp-
tian Islamist organizations, Jihad and the Jamaa
Islamiyya. As a result of his involvement with
these organizations and his criticism of the Egyp-
tian state, Abd al-Rahman was imprisoned a num-
ber of times, including after Jamal Abd al-Nasir’s
death in 1970 and after Sadat’s assassination.
Through his involvement with Islamist networks,
he became active in anti-Soviet resistance in
aFghanistan in the early 1980s, raising money
and recruiting through his preaching and organi-
zational activities. Abd al-Rahman is said to have
established links with the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA), who offered funding and militaryK 4 Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani