ABOUT THE LAST BOOK OF BERNARD VADON TO APPEAR SOON

“When The Horses of the desert pass”

  “Quand passent les chevaux du désert”    

  At nearly 200 years of decline, otherness in question

 Bernard Vadon

Bab al 'Amoud in Arabic   or even Sha'ar Shkhem (the door of Nablus) in Hebrew   but also la Porte de Damas in french.

A mythical way in the old city of East Jerusalem but above all a sort of demarcation line between Christian and Muslim neighborhoods. 

Not to mention the adjacent Jewish and Armenian quarters.

A place, doubly symbolic in its historical and spiritual expression which in many ways bears the first meaning to the title of this Book:

" Quand passent les chevaux du désert" (in French) is a singular trip back in time into mythical places or that over the course of this route in time will become ones.  

This is the case with Latour castle in Camblanes in the vicinity of Bordeaux where the general spent a part of his life and wrote some of his books. 

In these great moments, fiction then joined the reality or vice versa in a kind of subtle quantum equation.

The context: 

During the faith-based disorders of Mount-Lebanon that took place in 1860, the Emir Abd El Kader strongly opposed the rioters, mainly Druze and Sunni who decided to fight badly against the Christian communities.

On behalf of the Muslim faith, The Emir took under his protection thousands of Damascene Christians while threatening reprisals against the rioters.

This was deemed as an act of courage which had further added to the reputation of a man profoundly humanist and tolerant, a " shining one ", a follower of Sufism who abhorred the war even if he did not hide his passion for guns while his same passion had been even stronger for the horses.

This passion was reflected in the re-edited book of general E. Daumas " Les Chevaux du Sahara " always authoritative in equestrian circles.

Previously, his unexpected meeting with the colonel Eugène-Melchior Daumas was crucial - The colonel Eugène-Melchior Daumas who was at that time not yet promoted general of Empire, was then in charge of a consular mission of surveillance of extreme importance in Mascara, capital of the Algerian resistance.

The purpose: 

A sequence of remarkable lives sprinkled with historical facts that will mark the history of France and the highly spiritual journey of a theologian known Sufi, student of the spiritual master Ibn Arabi, a man deeply steeped in his original culture and protective of Algerian nationalism, but above all a recognized mystic who had continued to encourage for the first time and precisely in Damascus the Christian-Muslim dialogue, frowned upon by the fundamentalists, that unfortunately continues even today.

We are far from the conflict of civilization predicted and encouraged in an intolerable way and worsened by all those who are working with hidden agendas to create fertile ground for communitarianism, rogue, and conducive to violence.  The opposite of the background theory of the Emir Abd El Kader presented by intellectuals as a well - read marabout coming from the wilds of Algeria, inventor of the modern State, tireless warrior, great Mystic of modern Islam, protégé and friend of Napoleon III and Ferdinand Lesseps. 

What he considered his genuine mission, is to develop a cultural and religious bridge between the East and the West, between God and his creatures, repeating time and again that for him, everyone in prayer, whether Jewish, Christian, Muslim and even idolizers, prays to one God.

A fascinating man in many ways: a man of letters and a modest scholar with no getting away when there was a need from the " vibrations " of the warrior while asserting that he is not born for weapons " the ink of scientists is more precious than the blood of martyrs " as says a hadith he claimed to quite naturally follow.

His meeting with General Daumas, a famous Arabist in charge of keeping track of the movements and operational positions of the potential France's enemies, was instrumental in many areas. Notably, in the world of the equestrian culture where they both combine their knowledge and made comparisons to observe resemblances. 

A reciprocal admiration incarnate in the two men was soon replaced by a strong and enduring friendship despite essentially political circumstances that lead someday to their separation.

The challenge : 

It prevails however, on the substance, a common but still atypical horizon line whose specificity will not escape some historians: 

" If, Sir Lawrence of Arabia managed to galvanize the tribes of Middle East, general E.M. Daumas perhaps better than anyone else managed, however, to win the hearts of the Arabs of the Sahara. » is concomitant with  violence, it is a fact,   beyond the inherent political rip-offs  in particular,  when the remains  of the deceased emir were returned in July 1966 from Damascus where he was buried  alongside his spiritual master l, Ibn Arabi,  the event appears as a strong sign, especially to the youth.

Indeed, beyond all populist or republican temptations and while the intolerance, hatred, stupidity and blindness develop in a time marked by the borders being closed and ethnic cleansing, it still may be possible to build a bridge of understanding and brotherhood between the East and the West. 

Abd el Kader who is still at the very heart of this humanitarian challenges that are nowadays topical ones. 

As such, and as expressed by Guy Laporte " one of the ways to foster the essential dialogue of cultures is to honor the exchanges engaged long before we did by men of good will."

In other words and nearly 200 years of space-time, otherness is in question.

The book is enriched and added with an exciting exegesis of Cheihk Muhammad Valsan as well as one of the last letters of the Emir Abd el Kader and the general Daumas on the topic of the Arabian thoroughbred horse and a text of general Daumas on the General principles of the Arab Horseman.

TO APPEAR SOON (à paraître bientôt)

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