Idris - North African novel

Author: Ali El-Hammami - Editions: Heritage

"The book by our fighting brother, the Maghreb professor Ali El-Hammami, reveals - although it is written in the form of a novel - many impostures of France's senseless policy in the Maghreb. It would be desirable for this book, written in French, to be translated into Arabic, so that our brothers in the East can learn what is happening there. Nor does this book hide certain errors that existed in the Maghreb before the occupation and which were undoubtedly factors that contributed to its fall into the hands of colonialism."

Mohammed Abdel-Karim Al-Khattabi

Biography of Ali El-Hammami

The sword and the pen

Ali El-Hammami was born in 1902 in Tiaret. From a young age, he accompanied his parents on a pilgrimage to Mecca. On their return from the Holy Places of Islam, the El-Hammami family stopped off in Alexandria, where they decided to settle. The day after his parents died, Ali El-Hammami left the Egyptian city. A new page opened for this teenager who was destined for the anti-colonialist fight.

Ali El-Hammami was barely 20 years old when he arrived in Tangier. In the 1920s, the Moroccan people were struggling with Franco-Spanish colonization. The young man took part in the anti-colonial struggle alongside Emir Abdelmalek (son of Emir Abdelkader) and Emir Abdelkrim El-Khattabi.

In 1923, he was in Paris, where he met fervent Algerian patriots, including the future founders of the North African Star: Mahmoud Benlekhal, Aziz Menouer, Abdelkader Hadj Ali and Youcef Benseman. A great friendship bound him to Abdelkader Hadj Ali, first president of the North African Star. It was also in the French capital that he met another figure of Algerian nationalism: Emir Khaled.

In 1924, the young intellectual led a delegation to Moscow, where he met Ho Chi Minh, with whom he would share the same apartment. From then on, he would travel to several Western and Eastern capitals to defend, with the highest personalities of the time, the Algerian, Maghreb, Arab and Muslim causes.

The young intellectual spread his ideas, wrote in several languages, traveled frequently, made many contacts and denounced the colonial system. The French authorities did not remain inactive. For the colonial administration, Ali El-Hammami was a man to be neutralized. His return to Algeria was out of the question; his homeland was forbidden to him. In Europe, he suffered all sorts of persecution.

In 1935, he decided to settle in the Middle East, but the difficulties persisted. Here too, he was refused asylum. He spent several months wandering at sea. It took the intervention of Chekib Arslan for him to finally be admitted to the "Arab continent".

After traveling throughout the region, including Palestine, El-Hammami settled in Baghdad from 1935 to 1946, where he taught history and geography. In 1946, he left the Iraqi capital for Cairo, where he met up with the hero of the Rif, Emir Abdelkrim El-Khattabi, his former comrade in arms.