Who was Mohammed Khaldoun, the grandson of Emir Abdelkader, who was executed in 2015 by the Al Assad regime

A month after the fall of Bashar Al Assad’s regime, thousands of Syrians continue to search for their children and loved ones in the prisons of the fallen regime in the hope of having reliable information on their fate.

In the notorious Saydnaya prison, near Damascus, families who have not found their loved ones alive or their bodies have at least come across archives which provide them with information on the fate of the missing prisoners. In the archives found, we learn that prisoners were executed.

This is the case of Mohammed Khaldoun, a grandson of Emir Abdelkader. The latter has left numerous descendants in Syria since he settled there in 1855. Thanks to the archives which have not been destroyed, the family of Mohammed Khaldoun, without news of him since he was arrested by the regime of Bashar Al Assad in June 2012, learned that he was executed in 2015.

Who was Mohammed Khaldoun?

Mohammed Khaldoun Al Hassani Al Jazairi, born in Damascus in 1970, was both a doctor of dentistry and a researcher in Muslim law specializing in Maliki and Shafiite doctrine. As such, he is authorized to pronounce fatwas.

His father, Mekki Al Hassani, is one of the first graduates in nuclear physics in the Arab world and also a recognized linguist since he was secretary general of the Arabic language academy in Damascus. On his father’s side, Mohammed Khaldoun descends from Emir Abdelkader’s big brother, Abd Al Baki Ben Mohammed Said. On his mother’s side, he is a direct grandson of Emir Abdelkader since his maternal grandfather is none other than Abd Al Madjid, son of Emir Abdelkader’s daughter, Princess Kathoum.

Even if he specialized in Maliki doctrine, Mohammed Khaldoun was open to the three other schools of Islamic jurisprudence and more particularly to Shafiite doctrine which he studied for seven years under the supervision of Shafiite scholars Sadek Habnaqa and Mustapha Al Bagha.

He studied the science of Tafsir from 1989 with Sheikh Abd Al Karim Rajeh and the science of Hadith with Sheikh Abdelkader Al Arnaout. He learned the Koran and Islamic sciences under the supervision of several recognized scholars like his uncle Abd Al Rahman ben Abd Al Madjid Al Hassani. He learned the ten ritual recitations of the Quran under the supervision of Hanafi scholar Mahmoud ben Joumoua Abid. At the age of 14, he learned the Sahih of Muslim (one of the six great collections of the prophetic tradition and the second after the Sahih of Al Bukhari)

In the secular sciences, he left works on history, language and Arabic poetry. In this regard, he participated in a congress devoted to “the poetry of Abou Firas Al Hamadani and Emir Abdelkader”, held in Algiers from October 31 to November 3, 2000.

A scholar and a martyr

His nobility of character and his civility could have kept him away from political affairs and thus spared him the torments inflicted by the liberticidal regime of Bashar Al Assad, but his sense of justice and honor dictated to him to follow the perilous path of active opposition to an unjust regime.

As the Syrian researcher of Shafii jurisprudence, Mustapha Al Khan, pointed out: “ His gentleness and nobility of character were not a barrier between him and justice. His education with the greatest scholars of his time whom he did not hesitate to consult whenever necessary, added to the fact that God inspired him to be bold when it came to defending the Law of God and his prophet and his noble descent and his status as grandson of the prince of the Mujahideen, Emir Abdelkader Al Jazairi, made him deserved to be a guide on the path of God and his prophet and an advisor for all Muslims » (Al Jazeera, 01/07/2025)

Arrested for the first time on December 26, 2008 by the Syrian regime following the publication of a controversial theological work, Mohammed Khaldoun was arrested a second time, after the outbreak of the insurrection against the Assad regime, on June 6, 2012 and taken to an unknown destination which ultimately turned out to be the notorious Al Saydnaya prison, near Damascus.

Mohammed Khaldoun was sentenced to death. Despite numerous interventions from humanitarian organizations, his family and the Emir Abdelkader Foundation in Algeria – the latter having called on the Algerian president at the time, Abdelaziz Bouteflika with a view to interceding on his behalf with the Syrian regime but in vain -, Mohammed Khaldoun, who has not been heard from since, was finally executed in 2015, according to archives discovered in Al Saydnaya prison, after the fall of the Bashar Al Assad regime.

The lessons of a life in the service of Truth and Justice

The best tribute that we can pay today to the memory of a righteous man among many others, who did not hesitate to sacrifice their lives so that force might return to the Law, is to remember the main lessons that we inspires their conduct in such tragic circumstances.

By combining a noble medical profession in the service of the health of his fellow citizens alongside his interest in religious sciences, Mohammed Khaldoun has reconnected with the beautiful Muslim tradition of his ancestors who always defended the idea according to which the spiritual vocation of the Muslim must never be separated from one’s earthly vocation within the framework of the principle of ” the commandery of good and the prohibition of evil “.

Mohammed Khaldoun was a scholar but he was not content with a life of knowledge far from the tumults of his world. He put his knowledge at the service of the fight against injustice and oppression despite the exorbitant cost of this fight. Faithful to the teaching of the Prophet and his grandfather, Emir Abdelkader, Mohammed Khaldoun lived and died both as a scholar and as a mujahid for Law and Justice.

Even if we can regret his assumed refusal to delve into Kalam (rational theology of the first centuries of Islam) and Falsafa for fear of fueling the split in Muslim society, Mohammed Khaldoun showed great openness of spirit if we take into account the Sunni environment inherited from the centuries-old decadence of the Sunni tradition.

Although linked to the Maliki school by his family tradition, Mohammed Khaldoun studied other doctrines, notably the Shafiite doctrine and the Hanafi doctrine. Better still, he tried to bring out the most relevant elements and the most adapted to his time.

Despite the temptations of his sad times, Mohammed Khaldoun did not succumb like so many other theologians and preachers to the sirens of Wahhabi Salafism which has polluted the Muslim world in recent decades.

In this, Mohammed Khaldoun was faithful to his grandfather, Emir Abdelkader but also to the pioneers of contemporary Nahda who sought to overcome the sterile and paralyzing quarrels fueled by the sectarian epigones of the different legal schools, thanks to to a new interpretation of the Koranic corpus and the Prophetic Tradition which does not hesitate to draw inspiration from the methodological achievements of modern sciences.

Like thousands of other victims of the violence of the fallen regime, the body of Mohammed Khaldoun has not been found but his pious soul will continue to enlighten all those who seek a little authentic light, far from the dazzling spotlight of society of consumption that the Merchants of the Temple use to impose the formatting of minds through the mainstream media in their pay.