3-070-603 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

An Arab chief preaching the religious war in the province of Oran, Algiers, 1881. 'The "Jehad," or Sacred War of the Mussulman believers, sometimes resorted to as a military and political expedient in any national struggle against foreign enemies, rulers, or invaders..., is only proclaimed with the express sanction of their ecclesiastical authorities. But it may then be preached by any of the Princes or Chiefs; and the eloquence of such an Arab leader, from the revolted tribes in the province of Oran, threatens a formidable amount of armed resistance to the French dominion...It is to be feared that much trouble...[awaits] the French Government in consequence of the rash provocation it has recently given, by the invasion of Tunis, to an extensive confederacy of North African Mohammedans, who might otherwise never have disturbed the colony of Algiers. [There are] preparations for a military advance...south of Tunis, against the renowned sacred city of Kairouan, in hopes thereby to subdue the Mussulman insurrection'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.