2021 Volume 37 Issue 2 Pages 131-163
This article will study the development and emergence of the Association of Algerian Muslim Ulama (AUMA) in the department of Algiers since its creation in 1931 until its dissolution in 1956. We are trying to question the way in which militant discourses and practices of the Ulama redefine geographic space and its socioeconomic specificities, whether by means of persuasion or confrontation. To do this, we will work from endogenous sources, those produced by AUMA itself without neglecting the documents of colonial power.
Studying the AUMA in the historical context of Algeria will shed light not only on the colonial system of the French administration against the so-called “Muslim” Algerians, their associative movements and its spaces of sociability but also show the internal debates within the Algerian society colonized between 1931 and 1956. The profound changes in Algeria after a century of colonization are clearly manifested in the definition of space and time among the Ulama, their visions and structures for practicing the reform of religion as well as society.
