Born in 1868 into a distinguished Andalusian family from the Tlemcen region of Algeria, Si Kaddour Benghabrit studied at the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez. He was the founder and first rector of the Great Mosque of Paris (completed 1926), organising the pilgrimage and institutional affairs of France's Muslims. He is remembered for reportedly sheltering some of the persecuted through the mosque during the Second World War. He died on 24 June 1954 and was buried according to the Maliki rite in the enclosure to the north of the Paris Mosque.