Table Of Content“It is Not in a Day That a Man Abandons His Morals and Habits”:
The Arab Bureau, Land Policy, and the Doineau Trial in French Algeria, 1830-1870
by
K.A. Bowler
Department of History
Duke University
Date:___________________
Approved:
______________________________
William Reddy, Supervisor
______________________________
Malachi Hacohen
______________________________
Akram Khater
______________________________
Donald Reid
______________________________
Alex Roland
Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor
of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of Duke University
2011
ABSTRACT:
“It is Not in a Day That a Man Abandons His Morals and Habits”:
The Arab Bureau, Land Policy, and the Doineau Trial in French Algeria, 1830-1870
by
K.A. Bowler
Department of History
Duke University
Date:___________________
Approved:
______________________________
William Reddy, Supervisor
______________________________
Malachi Hacohen
______________________________
Akram Khater
______________________________
Donald Reid
______________________________
Alex Roland
An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History in the Graduate School of
Duke University
2011
Copyright 2011 by
K.A. Bowler
Abstract
This dissertation revises influential scholarship on nineteenth-century French
colonial policy in Algeria. After French troops conquered Algeria in 1830, French
civilian and military administrations competed for control. There were two major points
of conflict between the civilian and military administrative branches: the extent to which
the French should adopt or tolerate pre-existing political and social norms; and, most
important, the process by which Europeans acquired and settled the land belonging to the
indigenous population. In general, the military, especially the Arab Bureau, advocated a
tolerance for and acceptance of local legal and social customs and supported a slow
process of European colonization. The French settlers and their champions in the French
civilian administration, in contrast, wanted local practices replaced immediately by
French laws and values and promoted rapid European colonization. These issues were
informed by post-Revolutionary French political thought and concepts of individual civil
liberties. The military administration, particularly the Arab Bureau, offered an alternate
approach to governing the new colony that failed, ultimately, because it failed to conform
to French post-Revolution expectations of what constituted a just and liberal
administration.
In the Algerian city of Oran in 1857, a French civil court convicted and
condemned to death Captain Auguste-Édouard Doineau, officer of the Arab Bureau, for
killing Si-Mohammed-Ben-Abdallah, the agha of the Beni-Snouss tribe. The trial
generated tremendous public attention. The intensely negative publicity that the military
and the Arab Bureau attracted as result of this trial set in motion significant changes in
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the French colonial administration in Algeria. These changes culminated in 1870, when
republicans of the Third Republic ended the military administration, the conclusion of
decades of struggle by the civilian factions to end the “rule of the sword.” Uncritically
echoing nineteenth-century republican ideology, influential historical narratives continue
to treat this as a triumph for liberal republican values and to consider it a beneficial
change for the colony and its inhabitants, both European and indigenous.
Using the Doineau Trial of 1857 as a prism, this dissertation recovers the Arab
Bureau’s alternative colonial policies and illuminates the larger problems the French
administration faced in establishing a successful colony in Algeria.
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Contents
Abstract .............................................................................................................................iv
Acknowledgements ...........................................................................................................v
Introduction .......................................................................................................................1
The Arab Bureau: A Brief Historiography ............................................................12
Chapter One ..........................................................................................................26
Chapter Two ..........................................................................................................27
Chapter Three ........................................................................................................27
Chapter Four .........................................................................................................29
Chapter Five ..........................................................................................................32
A Brief Discussion of Terminology ......................................................................33
A General Note on Sources ...................................................................................36
Chapter One: The Ottoman Background .....................................................................38
Ottoman Empire: Adaptable and Flexible .............................................................40
Ottoman Control and Administration ....................................................................49
Justice in Ottoman Rule and Islamic Law ............................................................59
Conclusion ............................................................................................................70
Chapter Two: The French Conquest and Administration ..........................................72
Population of Algeria ............................................................................................73
The French Conquest ............................................................................................76
French Administration ..........................................................................................98
The Arab Bureau .................................................................................................102
Administrative Policies of the Arab Bureau ........................................................118
Conclusion ..........................................................................................................131
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Chapter Three: Land Policy and Colonization ..........................................................133
Traditional Land Tenure in Algeria .....................................................................136
The Early Years: Land Policy and Colonization, 1830-1847 ..............................142
A New Phase in Colonization and Land Policy ..................................................160
Land Policy 1850s and 1860s .............................................................................172
A Moderate Solution: The Military Administration and the Arab Bureau ..........183
Conclusion ..........................................................................................................185
Chapter Four: The Doineau Trial ...............................................................................188
The Setting ..........................................................................................................189
The Attack ...........................................................................................................194
Initial Investigation .............................................................................................197
The Trial ..............................................................................................................205
The Arabs’ Case ..................................................................................................212
Doineau’s Case ....................................................................................................221
The Defense, the Verdict, and the Appeal ...........................................................235
Conclusion ..........................................................................................................240
Summary of Individuals ......................................................................................245
Chapter Five: Aftermath of the Doineau Affair .........................................................249
Jules Favre, the Plaidoirie ..................................................................................250
Administrative Changes, 1858-1860 ...................................................................257
Land Policy: Changes After 1858 .......................................................................265
Colon Criticisms of the Military Administration ................................................283
Conclusion ..........................................................................................................297
Conclusion .....................................................................................................................301
Bibliography ..................................................................................................................315
vii
Biography ......................................................................................................................333
viii
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the members of my committee for their assistance and
support: from Duke University: Malachi Hacohen and Alex Roland; from the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Donald Reid; and from North Carolina State University,
Akram Khater. Last but certainly not least, I am thankful for the direction and assistance
of the Director of my committee, William Reddy (Duke University). I also am grateful
for the financial support Duke University offered me throughout my years in the graduate
program. Heidi Madden in Duke University Libraries provided invaluable research
assistance.
My work in the archives at the Centre d’Outre-Mer in Aix-en-Provence was
facilitated by the helpful, kind, and skillful staff.
My dear friend Katherine Conroy Moynagh showered me with praise, hearty
encouragement, and boundless enthusiasm. She took time to read my drafts and cheered
me on to keep writing. Her faith in me was inspirational. Anastasia Lazakis carefully
and thoughtfully read drafts of my chapters and offered invaluable feedback and
suggestions. Her insight and analysis greatly improved my work, but I am responsible
for its remaining weaknesses. I thank her greatly for her intellectual and personal
support, and I hope she realizes how much I appreciate both. I thank my parents for
teaching me to value education and for offering me with the best one they could.
Finally, I wish to offer my heartfelt gratitude to Steven. He tirelessly read draft
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after draft of this project. His suggestions and directions crafted this dissertation into a
better one than it could have been otherwise, although its flaws remain mine alone. Most
important, however, was his love, companionship, and support throughout this difficult
process. I lack the the words to express how much I appreciate and value his partnership.
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Description:31 Osama W. Abi-Mershed, Apostles of Modernity: Saint-Simonians and the Civilizing Mission in Algeria. (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press,
