The Islamic origins of the French colonial welfare state: hospital finance in Algeria

Abstract

This article considers the development of hospitals and their funding mechanisms across the Ottoman imperial (ca. 1516–1830) and French colonial (1830–1962) states in Algeria. The first section of the article describes Islamic welfare structures introduced under the stewardship of the Ottoman Empire, and explains how these were appropriated, outlawed and reconfigured in the wake of the French invasion of Algiers. The second section discusses French and colonial policies on assistance publique (public assistance) and their implementation in rural zones of Algeria in the early decades of the twentieth century to create segregated infirmeries indigènes (‘native’ infirmaries). The third section of the article examines how officials contrived to limit the role of the state in financing hospitals by increasing taxes on ordinary Algerians, especially taxes based on Ottoman precedents. The final section uses financial audits conducted by the Cour des comptes (Court of Audit) in Paris, along with other administrative records, to reveal how revenues misrepresented as Islamic were spent, including their use to reduce the tax liabilities of elites associated with the French colonial state. This case shows the enduring importance of Ottoman and Islamic infrastructures to French colonial welfare in Algeria and helps open Algeria up for comparison with the politics of welfare provision in other imperial and post-imperial states.