Cheikh Bouziane

Cheikh Bouziane, a respected spiritual and tribal leader in the Ziban oasis, raised the banner of anti-colonial resistance in 1849 in response to predatory French tax exactions and colonial expansion into the northern Sahara. Rallying tribesmen from across the Aures and Hodna, he fortified the oasis of Zaatcha.

For four months, an army of 8,000 French troops under General Herbillon besieged the mudbrick citadel. When the fortress fell on November 26, 1849, Bouziane was captured and summarily decapitated; his skull was taken to the Musée de l'Homme in Paris as a trophy of war before being officially repatriated to Algeria in 2020 for a state funeral.