are there still tribes in ? 123

ARE THERE STILL TRIBES IN MOROCCO?

John Shoup

Introduction

When Morocco was divided into two protectorates administered by Spain and France in 1912, Moroccan society was perhaps one of the most tribally organized in North Africa. The Moroccan state or makhzan administered the country through local power structures whether in non-tribal urban areas or in tribal semi-rural and rural regions. The use of local power structures gave rise to the often- misunderstood division of the country into two distinct zones, bil§d al-makhzan administered more or less directly by state officials and bil§d al-ßiba indirectly administered through tribal leaders and/or religious brotherhoods.1 This classic division does not give an accurate picture of the complex and shifting relationships between tribes and the Moroccan State, for example, the Moroccan State frequently relied on tribes to serve as both military and police. This system was called jish or gish, local pronunciation of the Arabic word jaysh or army.2 The state settled tribal groups on state-owned lands usu- ally surrounding major urban center such as Fez, Meknes, Rabat, and Marrakech. In return for the use of these lands, the tribes agreed to provide men whenever the Sultan needed them.3 These

1 This division would be the basis for the colonial “useful Morocco” and “non- useful Morocco” or the economically productive and non-productive parts. 2 According to Vingradov the institution of gish tribes originated in 1188 when the Sultan Ya#qub al-Manßår placed several Arab tribes in the former Barghw§ãa area ( Plain) and also to assist in controlling parts of Muslim Spain (1974). 3 Throughout Moroccan history the state rarely made use of professional, stand- ing armies but instead relied on levies from tribes considered loyal to the Sultan. The major exception to this was during the reign of Mawlay Ism§#Êl (1672-1727). Mawlay Ism§#Êl organized a professional army of black slaves (#AbÊd al-Bukh§rÊ) based on the model of the Ottoman Janissairis. The result was a period following his death of palace coups placing seven of Mawlay Ism§#Êl’s sons on the Moroc- can throne by his “slave” army. In the end Sultan SÊdÊ MuÈammad bin #Abdallah (1757-1790), backed initially by the Arab Wadaya tribe, was able to break the #AbÊd’s power and dispersed them throughout the country. The state returned to a policy using tribal levies.

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tribes were also used to extend the Sultan’s authority in border or disputed areas.4 The system of government used in Morocco grew from the long historical experience of how best to deal with trib- ally organized people. Yet in the decades following the imposition of the Protectorates, much of the population would be subjected to a number of political and economic policies that would result in “detribalizing” the majority of Moroccans.

Pre-colonial Period

From at least the time of the Islamic conquest of North Africa or the Maghrib, Morocco has been an area dominated by tribal society.5 The Umayyad prince #Abd al-RaÈm§n I al-D§khil made his deci- sion to go to Spain in 756 ad because he found the tribal nature of Morocco too chaotic for his purpose to found a new state. The rebellious forms of Islam, Shi#ite and Kharijite Islam, were quickly adopted by the recently converted as well as by some of the who had settled in the region.6 Both of these forms empha- sized social justice and equality of Muslims whether a person was an Arab or not, which appealed greatly to the egalitarian nature of tribal peoples in the Maghrib. Sunni orthodoxy was imposed only with the arrival of the Mur§biãÊn (1060-1142) from the Sahara in

4 Sections of the Awl§d Bå al-Saba# tribe were sent by the Moroccan Sultan Mawlay Al-\asan I (1873-1894) into what is today the Western Sahara and Mauri- tania to assert Moroccan authority there in the 19th century. The Sultan’s author- ity was further supported by the important Sufi leader M§"al-#Aynayn. Shaykh M§"al-#Aynayn developed a close relationship with both Mawlay \asan I and his successor Mawlay #Abd al-#Aziz (1894-1907) but eventually fell out with Mawlay #Abd al-\afÊd (1907-1912) over accommodations made with the Europeans. M§"al- #Aynayn and his son Ahmad al-HÊba resisted the European penetration into the Sahara while his other son Sa’d Båh cooperated with the French and was able to extend his influence into Senegal via Q§dirÊ lodges (for a more detailed discussion of the role of various religious leaders in the Southern Sahara and Senegal see Robinson 2000). 5 Morocco was brought under Umayyad control between 705 and 708 ad by Mås§ ibn Nußayr. 6 The IdrÊsids (788-974) were a Shi’ite state while the Rustamids (778-909) and BanÊ Midr§r (758-977) were founded by Kh§raji refugees from Iraq. The Barghw§ãa tribe founded a Berber state in the Chaouia Plain which lasted from 739 until 1060 ad. The Barghw§ãa originally followed the one of the Kh§raji “heresies,” but in the 9th century ad one of their leaders declared himself a prophet and formulated a Berber language Qur"an.

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