Algeria
"Kassaman" (We Pledge)

Words by: Mufdi Zakariah
Music by: Mohamed Fawzi
Adopted: 1962

The words to "Qassaman" were written in 1956 in Serkaji-Barberousse Prison in Algiers, where the author Moufdi Zakaria was incarcerated by the French colonial forces. The poem was put into music, first by Mohamed Triki in 1956, then by the Egyptian composer Mohamed Fawzi. Originally containing five verses, the third verse containing anti-French lyrics was dropped when it became the official national anthem upon independence on July 5th 1962.