FROM THE AsYAN TO AMIR: THE 'ABD AL-KARIM OF THE MOROCCAN RIF, 1900 TO 1921 Fabio T. ~6pezLdzaro B.A., university of Western Ontario, 1985 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of History @ Fabio T. L6pez LBzaro 1988 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY May 1988 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL NAME: FABIO L~PEZ-L~ZARO DEGREE: MASTER OF ARTS TITLE OF THESIS: FROM THE AYAN TO AMIR: THE ABD AL-ICZRIM IN THE ' MOROCCAN RIF, 1900 TO 1921 EXAMINING COMMITTEE: Chair: Mary Lynn Stewart Dr. W. Cleveland, Professor Dr. J. P. ~pagnolo,Profess'dr Dr. R. Newton, Proressor DATE APPROVED: PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser Unlverslty the right to lend my thesis, proJect or extended essay (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or In response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publlcation of this work for flnancial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/Project/Extended Essay From the Ayan to Amir: The Abd al-Xarim in the Xoroccan Rif, 1900 to i92i. Author ( name (date) ABSTRACT This thesis examines the rise, from 1900 to 1921, of one of the most powerful and famous families in early twentieth-century Moroccan history. In 1921, the eldest son, Muhammad ibn .Abd al-Karim al-Khattabi (1882-1963) sprang into the limelight of international affairs by becoming the leader of Moroccan resistance to Spain's military occupation. It is as heroes of this resistance that the 'Abd al-Karim are remembered today. The complicated and intriguing process leading to 1921, however, tells a different story, one of social and political ambition that drew on the benefits accruing from collaboration with the Spanish, coupled with frustrated hopes for the modernization of the Rif. Using original documents from the Servicio Hist6rico Militar in Madrid, some of which have not been examined before, the thesis stresses the process of social and political ascendancy leading to Muhammad ibn <Abd al-Karim's eventual leadership during the Rif War (1921-1926). The works published to date have not attempted to place the 'Abd al-Karim family within the context of the rise of a landowning and politically influential a'yan that regarded Europeanization and collaboration as a source of support. As a result of the collapse of their role as prime middlemen, the 'Abd al-Karim decided to carry out the modernization of the Rif on their own. It is these virtually unanalyzed aspects of their history with which the thesis deals. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author is extremely grateful for the continuing patience, encouragement and suidance of his senior supervisor, Dr. William Cleveland. The author wishes to express his gratitude as well to Simon Fraser University for granting him a Fellowship in the summer of 1987, without which he would not have been able to consult the original sources, and to the staffs of the Servicio Hist6rico Militar and the National Library in Madrid. DEDICATION A Sole y Jesfis. TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval .................................................... ii Abstract ................................................... iii Acknowledgments ........................................ iv Dedication ................................................... v ~istof Figures ........................................... viii Introduction ................................................ ix A . Before the Protectorate .................................. 1 I . "The Teapot and the Cups" ........................... 2 politics and Police ................................. 2 The Notables ........................................ 7 11 . The <Abd al.Karim. 1901 to 1906 .................... 19 The Makhzan in the if ............................. 19 . Abd al-Karim al-Khattabi as Amin .................. 23 Educating a Son of the A'yan ....................... 32 I11 . ~ssimilation. 1906 to 1912 ......................... 40 The Algeciras Act .................................. 40 The Sales ~epresentative ........................... 48 Muhammad in Melilla ................................ 51 An Identity Crisis ................................. 58 B . The Protectorate ........................................ 66 IV . ~issimilation:Allah's Way ......................... 67 Reaping the Benefits ............................... 70 The 'Abd al-Karim as Landowners .................... 76 The War ............................................ 84 The Jihad ........................................ 87 V . "Our Political Situation between Spain and the Rif" 107 The Trial of Muhammad ibn <Abd al-Karim ........... 107 A Partial ~econciliation .......................... 110 A Notable Left to His Own Devices ................. 115 The Man of the Hour ............................... 125 Appendix A: Muslim and Christian Dates ..................... 143 ~ppendixB: Glossary ....................................... 145 Bibliography ............................................... 150 1.Documents ........................................150 2.Newspapers ...................................... 150 3.Books and Articles .............................. 150 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page A Northern Morocco ........................................ 15 B The Alhucemas Bay Area .................................. 69 viii INTRODUCTION On 6 February 1963, Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Karim died in his Cairene exile at the age of eighty, 'half forgotten', as Roger Le Tourneau put it, by a world that had catapulted him to the headlines of most newspapers over forty years before. His obituary in the Annuaire -de 1'Afrique du Nord , the liberal response to the out-moded colonialist L'Afrique Franqaise, outlined the main events of his colourful career as the most widely known North African of the interwar period. is outlook and politics were relegated deprecatingly to the past. Ibn 'Abd al-Karim, stated Le Tourneau, 'cherished ideas from another age...except probably in his native country, his death was received in an atmosphere of general indifference." Even in Morocco, it was clear that he was more revered as a hero of early anti-colonial military resistance than as a practical and ambitious politician of colonial days. How different this was from ibn 'Abd al-Karim's own image of himself. Following his surrender to French forces in 1926, he had confidently explained that his defeat was due to the forces of tradition in the Rif; in his eyes he had come before his ------------------ '~ogerLe Tourneau, 'Chronique Politique,' in Annuaire de 1'~frique--du Nord (paris: Centre National de la ~echerche Scientifique et le Centre de Recherche sur 1'Afrique Mbditerrankene, 1963), 234-35. 2See Abdallah Laroui's comments, 'Abd el-Krim et le nationalisme marocain jusqu'en 1947,' in -Abd el-Krim --et la Rbpublique --du Rif: Actes-- du Colloque International delEtudes Historiques et Socioloqiques, 18-20 Janvier 1973 (Paris: Franqois Massro, 1976)~482. The scholarly debate that ensued from the rout of the Spanish army at Annual in 1921 relied until 1982 almost exclusively on secondary sources or piecemeal reconstructions based on folkloric recollections of the famous 'Abd al-Karim family. Thematically, the polemic revolved around what appeared to be the most important question: was ibn +Abd al-Karim's leadership of the Rifians traditional, modern or pre-nationalist? If traditional, his power and ambitions were directed to keeping the Rifian tribes autonomous from any sort of centralized control, along the lines of the so-called 'traditional Berber' resistance. For those who propounded the view that his was an essentially modern movement, the crux of the issue was ibn <Abd al-Karim's role as a 'nationalist resistance fighter.'"inally, according to the apparently synthetic approach taken by some who valued his contribution to 'liberation' from European imperialism, but hesitated to qualify it as fully modern, ibn 'Abd al-Karim represented a nascent pre- or proto-nationalism. The last interpretation, leaving the notable somewhere in a nebulous unexamined limbo between the 'old Morocco' of Walter Harris and Abdallah Laroui's 'nationalist discourse', was the safest path and the one most used. 4~aoTse-Tung is credited with circulating this interpretation, -~bd.el- rim --et la Republique, 401. The Spanish had their equivalent interpreters, although these were usually both more biased against ibn .Abd al-Karim personally and yet better informed. The man who was heralded in the summer of 1921 as 'le myst6rieux1 by the French was not an unknown entity for the ~panish.Cafidido Lobera, who had been his superior as editor of the Melilla newspaper, -El Teleqrama -del -Rif, damned him for being 'an adventurer' who lacked the 'religious tradition and chivalrous prestige' of the other notorious opponent of Spain, al-Raisuni. Another Spaniard, expressing the view of the vast majority who knew the Rifian notable before the battle of Annual, spoke bitterly of a 'shrewd fellow' who had elevated himself to unprecedented heights by the use of 'European-style roguery.' This traditionalist approach