page_title: Alfred Le Chatelier
section_title: Military career (1876–93)
hierarchical_section_title: Alfred Le Chatelier / Military career (1876–93)
caption_attribution_description: Sammelbild von Chocolat Lombart: 1881. Mission du Colonel Flatters au Nord du Sahara. Passage d'un marais
context_page_description: Frédéric Alfred Le Chatelier was a French soldier, ceramicist and Islamologist.
  He spent most of his military career in the French African colonies.
  After leaving the army he was involved in a project to build a railway in the French Congo.
  He fought a duel and killed his opponent over mutual accusations of improper conduct concerning the Congo railways.
  He founded and ran a ceramics workshop for a few years before becoming a professor of Islamic Sociology at the Collège de France from 1902 to 1925.
  He exerted considerable influence over French policy towards the Muslim subjects of France's colonial empire, arguing for policy based on solidly documented facts, and for tolerance and sympathy to the rapidly changing Muslim societies.
context_section_description: After leaving Saint-Cyr in 1876 Le Chatelier was an officier des affaires indigénes in Algeria for ten years.
  In 1880 he was an assistant topographer on the first Flatters expedition.
  This mission set out on January 1880 to explore a route for a trans-Saharan railway.
  At Touggourt Le Chatelier advised Paul Flatters not to accept the offer of a muqaddam to accompany the mission, since his religious prestige might undermine the authority of Flatters.
  This caused a furious response from Flatters, who possibly felt his competence was being questioned.
  Relations between the French and Arab members of the expedition were uneasy from the start.
  At Aïn Taïba, eight days south of Ouargla, Le Chatelier tried to retrieve some water skins the cameleers had taken from the French.
  The Arabs at once cocked their rifles and took position behind a dune, and the French did the same.
  Flatters temporarily resolved the problem by relieving Le Chatelier of his command.
  The mission reached Lake Menghough on the fringe of the Tuareg of the Ajjer country, then returned in May 1880.
  When the second Flatters expedition was being organized later in 1880 Le Chatelier was among the members of the first expedition who asked for other assignments.
  Le Chatelier was head of the French post among the Mekhedma tribe of the Sud-Oranais, where he taught them what he called "republican principles".
  As the rebellion of the Awlad Sidi Shaykh died down, the itinerant marabouts of the Awlad Sidi Shaykh turned to rebuilding their business, demanding donations to their shrine from the peasants, who still thought they had strong influence with God.
  Le Chatelier succeeded in convincing the local people that they need not pay the tribute.
  He was promoted to chef de bureau of Ouargla from 1882 to 1885.
  Colonel André de Saint-Germain taught him the old school Arab Bureaux principles of administration in which the chef de bureau was administrator, advocate and judge of the indigenous people.
  Le Chatelier opened a school, had wells dug, improved sanitation, established a court and met regularly with the local elders.
  Between 1886 and 1890 Le Chatelier served with a regiment in France but was allowed to travel widely in Morocco, West Africa, Egypt and Turkey.
  In 1886 the governor general of Algeria charged him with a mission in Upper Egypt and in 1889–90 he undertook a five-month mission in Morocco.
  Le Chatelier wrote several books and brochures for the African section of the État-major général which had great influence on Paul Marty, who would later write at length about Islam in West Africa.
  Le Chatelier gained deep knowledge of Islamic societies in the Middle East and North Africa, and came to believe that the French fear of Pan-Islamic conspiracies had no foundation.
  In 1887 Le Chatelier wrote Les Confréries Musulmanes de Hijaz, a useful and scholarly monograph that showed the importance in Africa of the Sufi brotherhoods.
  He said they were not organized associations or secret societies, and individuals followed different shaykhs, but all African Muslims saw themselves as either Qadiriyya or Tijaniyyah.
  He discussed the Sufi origins of the jihads of Futa Tooro, Fouta Djallon and Sokoto.
  Le Chatelier wrote a complete draft of L'islam dans l'Afrique occidentale in 1888, which was finally published in 1899.
  The book had the pragmatic goal of studying Islam to inform political action.
  He believed that systematic research into Islam was essential, rather than periodical reports or personal views.
  Policy towards Islam should be reserved, tolerant, attentive and active, and should not be overbearing or aggressive.
  In 1890–91 Le Chatelier was a member of the Minister of War Charles de Freycinet's cabinet with the mandate of monitoring debates in the Chamber of Deputies.
  He became the acquaintance or friend of many rising officials and politicians including Eugène Étienne, future head of the parliamentary colonial group, and Paul Révoil, future governor-general of Algeria.
  Freycinet arranged for Le Chatelier to take a year's leave to study Islam in Africa, and he spent time in 
caption: The Flatter expedition crosses a marsh. Lombart Chocolate trading card c. 1900
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