Career
Due to difference of information and sources, some details of his life are not clearly known. Born into an important wealthy family and educated in traditional religious teaching (hence the title Si, "Doctor", which is added to his name), his life was marked by the strong repression which followed the Kabyle revolt against the French colonial rule in 1871. He lost everything. He never settled anywhere, but wandered all his life in Algiers or in other Algerian towns and villages inside and around Kabylie.
Few details of his life are known for certain.
He died of tubercholosis at 57 at the Sainte-Eugénie hospital in Michelet (now Ain El Hammam). He also chronicled in Younes Adli"s 2000 Les Éditions de Minuit-published book Mohand et un révolte.