Administration in the Emirate

Education

Education was the primary concern in the policy of the Emir.

The Emir was confident that the developing in this field is to take care of books and references whatever the value of it scientific, literary and therefore the Emir was trying his best in collecting books from different subjects like buying, copying or transporting them.

Image Above (manuscripts)

The Emir also issued orders to his soldiers strictly not to mishandle or disrespect the books and the one who breaks these orders would be punished severely. He also used to encourage by rewarding them for any one that brings a book or the author, to copy one manuscript it would take several months to copy it and this was a long time for the Emir because his Emirate was in war with French invaders.

Image Above (manuscripts)

This policy has succeed a great success by bringing books from different fields to his emirate, the Emir also build a library to store and organize these books that he has gathered but he also linked the library with many organizations in the emirate like schools, masjids and Zawiya (religious schools), the library was open to everyone students, scholars and even soldiers. He also used to store a huge number of manuscripts in the Takdempt Fortress where he used to keep not only manuscripts but also classified state documents and diplomatic letters.

Image Above (manuscripts)

The Emir took care of books and manuscripts even in difficult situations like war, he transported all the books and manuscripts that he stored in the Takdempt fortress to Smala after when the Takdempt fortress fell to the French invaders, but in 1843 the French soldiers seized the books and manuscripts after the fall of Smala. The Emir also choose qualified teachers in order to take the role of teaching and training to the students in order to develop the education in the emirate, the Emir supported the teachers financially and morally and he also gave them wages to them depending of their qualification as he also build schools across his emirate in villages, towns and cities.

Judicial system

After the establishment of the Emirate and dividing it administratively, the Emir has appointed in every region of the emirate a Qadi (religious judge) that would rule in accordance with Islamic religious law (sharia) on the doctrine of Imam Malik. The Emir knew that justice is the basis of governance so he set requirements for those who assumed to be judges is to be honest, jurist, chastity & practising Islam.

To insure that the judiciary is running good, the Emir took care of the financial aspects of these judges so he made each judge have a respectable monthly wage of 100 Douro (50 Francs) plus some additional payments based on the type of the case he is judging on.

The Emir has separated between civil and military judiciary, then he made for each department a special judge who decides on the issues and cases raised in front of him and the judge could be elected for one year only.

The emir also recruited two clerks in all regional councils, the senior clerk does some studies on fatwas (legal judgment) issued by the judge in a particular region then he sends the fatwa to Mascara to study deeply on it then the Emir linked all the judges in the regions to review their cases with Supreme Qadi Ahmed ben Al-Hashemi Al-Mrahi.

The Emir was also keen to be the provisions of the civil and military judiciary under the Sharia (Islamic religious law) which the Emir made it the main source and the only source for ruling his Emirate, the provisions are derived from the Holy Quran, Sunnah (teachings and practices of Prophet Muhammad PBUH) and ijtihad (Islamic diligence) in order to establish the Emirate which would remind the people of the days of Rashidun Caliphate and also to wipe off the negative image of the Turkish ruling in Algeria, considering that the success of the new established Emirate in his opinion is only to remove the corruption inherited by the Turks and work to change the old relations or at least adjust it as far as the circumstances and capabilities allow him to do that so the Emir can unify the Algerian people.

This policy has come to success which gained the attention of the Algerian people which they turned to him so the Emir saw this policy has brought  a success which he united the Algerian people under his Emirate so he can later prepare his nation to face the French invasion from his country.

The judicial provisions to be implemented immediately and especially if there is a threat against the homeland, like dealing with an enemy, spying and breaching the economic blockade on the enemy these threats are characterized these provisions severity and strictly to be a deterrent to others, which is not be appealed the principle that the Emir was ruling on like he said “the one who helps the enemy financially will be financially punished (fines) and the one who helps the enemy physically will be punished by cutting off their heads (executions).”

And so on thanks to his care of judiciary and implementation of the provisions, now there was justice and security throughout the emirate and people lived peacefully under the of flag of a popular national emirate, the crimes vanished and the situations has calmed after the chaos that happened after the fall of the Turkish rule in Algeria. 

Image Above (Court house)

The Emir was also fighting the ethical corruption in the society like banning prostitution, drinking alcohol and taking drugs across his emirate, as he also banned the soldiers from playing cards and wearing gold and silver except in their weapons and horses as he also ordered the men to pray their prayers at the masjid.

Algerian people are living under peace and security under the emirate, as he Emir said “Know that the only purpose of my acceptance of this position (Emir) only that you will be safe on yourselves and your honour and your wealth assured on your country enjoying your religious duties and I cannot reach that except with your help by money or men.”

Economy

The Emir took care of the economy of his emirate, he’s interest was only to improve the living of the people in his emirate and find sufficient resources in order to boost the economy of Emirate.

 

Above Image (Mohammadia coins) 

He set up his efforts on developing the trade and to overcome the obstacles that they faced on their filed of trade, the Emir concentrated on the foreign trade like exporting food grain and wool under the treaties signed by Emir with the French. The Emir hired the Jews to develop the trade because of their experience in the field of trading.

Above Image (Mohammadia coin) 

The importing income to the Emirate were Zaakat (religious taxes), Customs tax and trading income. The Emir also established a mint which he can manufacture coins then he named the currency of the Emirate as Mohammadia and Nisfia but there were other currencies in use like Douro.