Constantine قسنطينة

Malek Bennabi (or Malik Bin Nabi) (or Malik bin Nebi) is a great Algerian thinker (1905 – 1973). He wrote about human society, particularly Muslim society with a focus on the reasons behind the fall of muslim society.

Malek Ben nabi was born in Constantine from a poor family in a conservative Algerian community. Studied in public school in Algeria and graduated on 1925. Left for Paris afterwards but did not succeed to work and came back home. He worked as a clerk in the justice court on 1927 in which he started to understand the status of his country.

For the aim of studying in France, he joined a school of wireless connections to become an assistant engineer. Engineering was not his primary choice, but at that time scholarships to France was reserved for technical studies not for intellectual fields. However, he indulged in his technical studies as well as his intellectual life in France. During this period he started publishing his views concerning the question of resurrection from an Islamic point of view.

He moved to Cairo after the announcement of the armed Algerian revolution on 1954 where he was met with reverence. In Cairo he continued his intellectual production until the independence of Algeria on 1962, when he returned back home. Upon his return he was appointed as a minister for high education until his resign on 1967 after which he devoted himself for continuing his intellectual project.