Hamdan Khoja
- Died
- 1255 AH
- Born in
- Algiers
Hamdan Khoja (d. c. 1255 AH / 1842 CE) was an Algerian scholar, state official, and political writer from Algiers, best known for his anti-colonial treatise al-Mir'a (The Mirror) .
Background and Early Life
Hamdan ibn Uthman Khoja was born in Algiers in the late eighteenth century into an affluent Kouloughli family belonging to the urban elite of the city . His uncle served as Amin al-Sikka (director of the mint), while his father was a legal scholar and senior state secretary . Khoja studied Islamic and civil law under his father and later succeeded him as an instructor; he also studied under Ibn al-Amin . In addition to teaching, he became a prominent merchant and landowner with extensive properties in Algiers and the Mitidja plain .
Khoja travelled widely across Europe and the Ottoman Empire. In 1784, he accompanied his maternal uncle on a trip through the Balkans and Constantinople . He visited France in 1820, gaining proficiency in French alongside English, Turkish, and Arabic .
French Conquest and Political Activity
During the 1830 French invasion of Algiers, Dey Hussein trusted Khoja and dispatched him to encourage Agha Ibrahim to resume fighting following the Battle of Staouéli . Following the capitulation of Algiers, Khoja initially cooperated with French authorities: General de Bourmont appointed him to the municipal council of Algiers, and General Bertrand Clauzel later assigned him to a commission evaluating compensation for confiscated properties . In 1832, the Duke of Rovigo sent him on diplomatic missions to negotiate with Muhyi al-Din ibn Mubarak of Koléa and twice to Hajj Ahmed Bey in Constantine .
Tensions soon escalated between Khoja and French authorities over colonial abuses, property seizures, and the confiscation of Muslim endowments and mosques . Khoja led an Algerian political resistance movement known as the Committee of Moors (Lajnat al-Maghariba) . The French authorities subsequently exiled him from Algiers .
Exile in Paris and Istanbul
Khoja arrived in Paris in May 1833, where he advocated for Algerian self-determination . He submitted petitions to King Louis-Philippe and War Minister Marshal Soult calling for independence and civil rights, and he testified before the French government's African Commission (Commission d'Afrique) during its fourteenth session . In 1833, he published al-Mir'a (The Mirror), translated into French by the Libyan scholar Hassuna Dghies, which documented the early devastation of the occupation and denounced colonial violence and plunder . The book provoked defamation lawsuits against Khoja before French courts, and his legal appeals to the Council of State were rejected .
Around 1836, Khoja relocated to Istanbul . There, he translated correspondence from Ahmed Bey for the Ottoman court and informed Sultans Mahmud II and Abdülmejid about conditions in Algeria . He also wrote for the Ottoman state gazette Takvim-i Vekayi and composed Ithaf al-Munsifin wa-l-Udaba' fi al-Ihtiras 'an al-Waba', a treatise defending medical quarantine and preventive health measures against religious fatalism . Khoja died in Istanbul around 1255 AH (c. 1842 CE; another estimate places his death around 1845 CE) .
Answer updated
List of Works
al-Mir'a (The Mirror, full title: A Historical and Statistical Overview of the Regency of Algiers) is an 1833 political and historical treatise that documents the initial years of the French conquest of Algeria and denounces colonial abuses.