66 years have passed since the disappearance of this sheikh, and he is still considered in Algeria as a martyr without a grave. His inspiring story was one of the stories of determination and audacity at a time when boldness came at a price, and it is precisely for this reason that mainstream folk novels gave him a dramatic death that only heroes could receive.

Sheikh is the Arab Tibsi and time is 1957 in the heart of the years of the Algerian revolution against French colonialism, and the man at that time is an elderly patient does not leave his bed in a simple room above one of the scientific institutes established by the Association of Muslim Scholars in Algeria for the purpose of spreading education, Arabic language and Islamic culture in Algerian society, which the Assembly considered the focus of the battle of identity and independence from French colonialism.

Sheikh al-Arabi al-Tibsi was the association's vice president at the time, but he was the de facto acting president due to the absence of its president, Sheikh al-Bashir al-Ibrahimi, outside the country.

The last and undisputed scene is the entry of many troops dressed in French military uniforms, taking him from his sick bed, and coming out barefoot with his head barefoot, and in the following days asked about him by the management of the association in the official institutions run by colonialism, none of which admits responsibility for his disappearance, and the association documents this in its newspaper.

The rest of the end scene is disputed, the novels say that he was arrested are the elite French Red Berets, they accused him of supporting and encouraging armed resistance, and asked him to issue a fatwa prohibiting resistance, and to acknowledge his role in inciting it, he did not respond, and day after day, the commander of the division ordered a barrel of oil and asphalt boiled put in it the foot of the Sheikh and asked him to recognize and cooperate, he refused and began to repeat his testimony, so he ordered him and they put him in the barrel and his body evaporated and there was no meat or bone left.

We do not know the validity of the last version, but we know that if the Sheikh were alive, he would now complete his hundred and thirty-second year, he was born in 1891, and the Algerian authorities are still demanding that France declare his fate and the fate of thousands of other heroes of the Algerian revolution who turned into icons of Algerian history, known and unknown.

Back to the beginning

If we do not know the truth of his death, we know a lot about the truth of his life and his attitudes, starting with the knowledge that he collected in the early years of his life, to his jihad and struggle, which made him the greatest enemy of France, and it was rumored that he said: "Whoever lives, let him live his enmity to France, and whoever dies, let him carry this enmity with him to the graves."

The Sheikh grew up in a simple peasant family, in the village of Al-Saroof "Al-Nammashiyya" relative to the Al-Nammasha tribe, his father used to memorize the Qur'an for the boys of the village in addition to his work in agriculture, and he began memorizing the Qur'an with his father and then completed it after the death of his father, who left him at the age of 8 years.

He moved to Tunisia to study in Zaytuna, and lived there for 5 years until he was about to get "eligibility", then he missed the opportunity to travel to Egypt on an old commercial ship, so he rode it heading to Alexandria, Cairo, then to Al-Azhar Mosque, where he was welcomed by the Sheikh of the Moroccan gallery, who was spending on it from the endowments of Muslims, to devote students to seeking knowledge, and in Al-Azhar excels in the sciences of Sharia and language, and obtains the "international" certificate - which is equivalent to a doctorate -, and then the "major world" that is equivalent to a professorship, and in During that period, he wrote in Egyptian newspapers and magazines, the most famous of which was "Al-Manar" by Sheikh Rashid Rida, and he also contacted writers and poets such as Shawky and Hafez.

On his way to Algeria, he stopped in Tunisia again, so he entered the "eligibility" exam at the Zitouna Mosque, and won it as well, so Sheikh Bashir Ibrahimi described him as "a brilliant manager and a complete educator, graduated by the colleges of Zaytouna and Al-Azhar, and that he is a man of a complete nation, and a great businessman."

He returned to Algeria as a scientist, at a time when scientists and professors were in dire need, as they were fighting the battle of identity and evacuation against colonialism, and there he engaged in the work that he saw as the duty of the hour, which is education, including the awakening of fervor and the awakening of identity.

He started his activity from a small mosque in the town of "Tebessa", which became attributed to it, so people gathered around him, and his popularity increased throughout Algeria despite the attempts of the French occupation to restrict him and prevent him from preaching.

He then joined the Association of Muslim Scholars, which was founded by Sheikh Abdul Hamid bin Badis with the aim of spreading education and the Arabic language, so he became its secretary general, and after the death of the founder, Sheikh Bashir Ibrahimi was elected president of the Assembly, and the Arab Tebsi as vice president, and then became the actual president when Sheikh Brahimi settled in Egypt for some time starting in 1952, and thus became the largest scientist of Algeria, and I fear that France fears and realizes its impact on scientists, revolutionaries and the masses.

Had it not been for his illness and advanced age, he wished to take up arms and go to the mountains to resist the French occupation with the rebels.

Ability to set goals

At the individual level, he defined his life goal as serving Islam, spreading Islamic science in Algeria, and preserving the Arabic language.

Among other things, the people called for defining the goals of the Algerian revolution as "the cause of the people who want a state and a correct democratic government, and a constitution that achieves the sovereignty of the nation, as the Algerian people do not want a morsel of bread, or a handful of ashes thrown in the eyes."

France realized his intellectual influence on the revolutionaries, and his role in mobilizing to resist the occupation, and he had described those who came out on the first of November 1954 as "men who moved, and in them the spirit of universal life, and moved forward to fight the battle of life and pride, and they carried their souls over their hands crawling, never retreating back."

He saw the liberation of Algeria as part of a larger project to liberate North Africa from colonialism, saying that "North Africa is an Arab nation of tongue, Arabic scientific language, Arabic religious teachings, and Arab judiciary, there is no difference between Marrakesh, Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli."

Education is the path of renaissance and liberation

Like his colleagues in the Association of Muslim Scholars, the Sheikh was interested in education and considered it "the best and most effective way to resist colonialism", so he called on reformers in Algeria to work to educate and raise children to rid them of the clutches of colonialism, educate them to demand their stolen rights, and raise awareness and activate their minds to revive their personality, and also called for confronting France's missionary policy by establishing free educational institutions, and preventing young people from rushing to French public schools to raise them to be proud of Islam and Arabism.

Therefore, the Algerian researcher Ahmed Orghi believes that Tebsi made a great effort in preserving the national entity of Algeria in the fields of education, religious and social reform, and this was the basis that broke the calls for Frenchization, Westernization and denial of the Algerian personality.

When the Sheikh took over the administration of the Abdelhamid Ben Badis Institute, he called on the Algerian people of all classes to join the Islamic institutes, saying: "Come on, O people, to help your institute and spread your culture, for a people who have preserved their language and nationality will not be lost."

He has invented a method of education based on coexistence and sharing between professors and students, where he said addressing teachers at the opening of the Institute in 1947: "O brothers, the education in your homeland this, in your nation this, the field of sacrifice and jihad, let us be soldiers of science, and to live in the Institute as his children, and to live their living, live alienation from parents, forget the family and clan, and do not visit them only for the necessity, and here I am active and do, and here I am a starter and follow."

He used to prepare students in schools and at the Sheikh Ibn Badis Institute for the Revolution for the Liberation of Algeria, telling them: "You are the soldiers of God and the homeland, tell your parents and relatives about colonialism and its injustice, you are the hope of your people."

These are some of the features of Sheikh Al-Arabi Al-Tibsi's vision, which made France feel dangerous, and that its occupation of Algeria cannot continue, so it kidnapped him in 1957 after pursuing him before her with threatening messages calling on him to leave the country, and since then has not revealed his fate. May Allah have mercy on him.