ZAYANI, MOUHA OU HAMMOU 231 Jean-Pierre Milelli , translated by Pascale Ghazaleh, a French military priority on 12 May 1914. Lyautey pp. 146–234 . Cambridge, Mass .: Th e Belknap Press realized that Moha Ou Hammou and his Zayan of Harvard University Press, 2008 . forces constituted a danger to the military lines R a p h a e l i , N i m r o d . “ A y m a n M u h a m m a d R a b i ʿ linking Rabat to Fez and he commanded he forces Al-Zawahiri: Th e Making of an Arch-Terrorist. ” to end the Berber resistance around the right bank Terrorism and Political Violence 14, no. 4 (Winter of Oum Rbia river. A military plan to conquer 2002), pp. 1–22. the tribal lands of Zayan was prepared under the W r i g h t , L a w r e n c e . Th e Looming Tower. Al-Qaeda and military leadership of Colonel Paul Henrÿs, one of the Road to 9/11. New-York : Vintage Books, 2007 . Lyautey’s experts on tribes. Henrÿs attacked the A l - Z a y a t , M u n t a s i r . Ayman Al-Zawahiri . . . Kama city of , Zayan’s headquarters, on 10 June ʿAraft uhu (Ayman Al-Zawahiri as I Knew Him). 1914. Th e attack was carried through three separate Cairo : Dar Misr al-Mahrusa, 2002 . divisions: the fi rst from Rabat led by Lieutenant- efraim barak Colonel Guillaume Cros, the second from the Meknès region under Lieutenant-Colonel Henri Zayani, Mouha Ou Hammou ( 1863–1921 ) , Moroc- Claudel, and the third from Tadla under Colonel can anticolonial and charismatic tribal Berber leader, Noël Garnier-Duplessis. Despite French control of was born in 1863 in the Mountains. Khenifra, Moha Ou Hammou and other tribal war- His full name was Muhammad Ou Hammou ben riors kept their attacks on the French camps around Aqqa ben Ahmad, and he is also known as Moha the city. Henrÿs decided to strengthen defense bor- Ou Hamou al-Harkati Zayani. He was the son of derlines along Oum Rbia using a mobile battalion Moha Ou Aqqa, the tribal leader of Ayt Harkat. under Lieutenant-Colonel René Laverdure at Aft er Moha Ou Aqqa died, his oldest son Said suc- Khenifra and two other groups from the west and ceeded him and extended his political power and east under Garnier-Duplessis and Claudel, respec- dominance over Ayt Harkat and the larger Zayan tively. Military posts at Sidi Lamine and Mrirt were confederation. In 1877, Said died and Moha took built to curb the attacks of pillaging Berber tribes. over as the new tribal chieft ain of Zayan. He was On 13 , Lieutenant-Colonel about twenty years old. In 1880, Sultan Moulay Laverdure decided to attack Moha Ou Hammou’s Hassan named Moha Ou Hammou as the qaʾid winter camp around the village of El Herri without (tribal governor) of Zayan. As the representative of the permission of Lyautey in Rabat and Henrÿs in the Sultan of in the Middle Atlas Fez. He left Khenifra in secrecy and organized his Mountains, Moha Ou Hammou was able to main- troops in four groups, which included 43 offi cers tain the allegiance of the tribal confederation and 1,230 soldiers. Th e French early morning attack of Zayn to the Alaouite dynasty and ensure its surprised a number of Zayan camps but it did not political and economic support to the central infl ict the intended harm on the forces of Moha Ou government. Hammou. Later in the morning, the Zayans under As the French military forces began to extend Moha’s leadership assembled over 2,000 fi ghters their colonial reach into the interior plains, Moha from Ichakirenes and Ayt Ishaq and 2,500 cavalry- Ou Hammou began his resistance movement men from diff erent factions of Zayan. Moha ou against the French presence in Morocco. In 1907 Hammou surrounded the French troops who and 1908, Moha Ou Hammou lent military support were retreating back to Khenifra, killing many offi - to the resistance fi ghters in the Chaouia region as cers and soldiers at what would be known as the the French forces under General Drude launched battle of El Herri. Among the dead were Laverdure, its campaign through the battle of Madioua. In 1911, three doctors, thirteen lieutenants, nine captains, he targeted the French military forces as they and three commanders. Around 179 wounded moved north toward Fez. In 1912, his campaign soldiers were able to escape along with several against the French was expanded to include the hundred men. Th e Zayans lost about 182 warriors. French stations between Rabat and . In Moha ou Hammou managed to capture many 1913, Moha Ou Hammou began targeting the French artillery equipments and rifl es. French forces under Aubert north of Tadla and Aft er the French defeat Moha ou Hammou their soldiers led by colonel Mangin in Oued Zam. sought refuge in the region of Taoujgalt recruiting Th e French colonial authorities were not able to more men and prepare for further attacks against limit the extent of the Zayan resistance until the French army. During his fi ght against the General Lyautey made the Middle Atlas Mountains French, Itto, Moha’s daughter, played a key role in

ZZ-DAB-Z.indd-DAB-Z.indd 231231 99/30/2011/30/2011 88:59:12:59:12 AMAM 232 ZAYANI, MOUHA OU HAMMOU coordinating his military campaign and communi- scene in the middle of the eleventh century was the cating with his soldiers. Despite the harsh winters fragmentation of the Maghreb into several entities and snow Moha ou Hammou continued to resist that were more or less autonomous and in constant the French presence in the Middle Atlas Mountains. struggle with one another for power. One of these Lyautey was conscious of the fact that to begin any entities was the Maghrawa people, who reined over economic development central Morocco he had various parts of Morocco. Led by Yusuf Ibn Watas, to pacify the Mountains. In November 1916, he the Maghrawas invaded Aghmat, an affl uent cultural appointed Colonel Joseph Poeymireau to head the center. Th e victory enabled Ibn Watas not only to pacifi cation of the Middle Atlas. Poeymireau had govern Aghmat, but also to take as a concubine been Henrÿs’s second-in-command at Meknès. Zaynab, one of the most beautiful women in the city. Leaving from Meknès, Poeymireau met with Ibn Watas, however, was not to enjoy governing another French army under Colonel Paul Doury Aghmat or the company of Zaynab for very long. who started his mission from Boudnib on the east- History repeated itself twice more, with Aghmat fall- ern border of the Mountains along the Algerian ing to Lagout, prince of the Banu Ifrens, the fi rst border. Both armies met at the River of Malwiya. Muslim Berber dynasty (790–1066), who also mar- Th e Zayan confederation began to break up. In ried the beautiful Zaynab. Lagout in turn lost Aghmat 1917 three sons of Moha Ou Hammou held talks and Zaynab to Abu Bakr, the Almoravid leader. with Lyautey and in 1920 they became his and Th e end of the reigns of the Maghrawas and the Makhzan loyal Berber representatives in the Banu Ifrens marked the ascent of the Almoravids. Middle Atlas. Moha ou Hammou refused to sign Starting out as a religious doctrine, the Almoravid any agreements with the French. During one of the movement became one of the largest Moroccan internal tribal fi ghtings in Azelag-N-Tazemourt, dynasties, in large part because of Zaynab’s political near Taoujgalt, Moha Ou Hammou was killed on ingenuity. Yahya Ibn Ibrahim, leader of the Lamtuna 27 March 1921. He was buried at Ben Cherro near tribe, charged Abdallah Ibn Yasin, a puritan maliki Tamalakt, Taoujgalt, where a mausoleum and a religious leader, to teach his Lamtunas fellows the mosque were built around his tomb. Moha Ou discipline of the Qurʾan. Little by little, through Hammou is among many Berber leaders (such as skillful handling of the sword and the word of God, ʿAbd al-Karim al-Khattabi and ʿAssou Ou Baslam) the Almoravids managed to conquer fi rst the who led their tribal confederations in their fi ght Southern tribes, before turning north for further against French and Spanish colonial authorities conquests. Aft er taking over Taroudant, the Sous during the 1920s. capital, Abu Bakr ibn ʿUmar conquered Aghmat, despite the inhabitants’ strong resistance. [ See also Khattabi, Muhammad ben ʿAbd al-Karim It was in Aghmat that Abu Bakr Ibn ʿUmar heard al-; and Lyautey, Louis-Hubert.] intriguing rumors about Zaynab. Known in Aghmat bibliography and in the neighboring ethnic groups, many strange stories circulated about her. Some believed that B e r n i e , G . Moha ou Hamou, guerrier berbère. she was a kahena (soothsayer), others that she C a s a b l a n c a : G . G a u t h e y , 1 9 4 5 . was a witch, or that she was a jinn ’s companion. B i m b e r g , E d w a r d L . Th e Moroccan Goums: Furthermore, she was described as a beautiful, Tribal Warriors in a Modern War . Westport, intelligent, pleasant, and wealthy woman. With Conn. : Greenwood Press , 1999 . such a reputation, she received numerous propos- aomar boum als of marriage from tribal princes and shaikhs, only to reject them all, explaining that she would Zaynab al-Nafzawiyya (d. 1072 ) , known also under only marry the man who could reign over the total- the names of Zainab, Zeineb, Zineb, and Zaynab ity of Morocco. Th us, when Abu Bakr proposed to bint Ishaq al-Hawwariyya, was the wife of the great her, she not only accepted, but also promised to Almoravid leaders Abu Bakr ibn ʿUmar and then off er him a great fortune. Blindfolding him, she led his cousin, Yusuf ibn Tashfi n. As a political advisor him to a subterranean house and showed him his to both her husbands, historians describe her as the gift by candlelight: a suite of rooms full of gold, queen of the Almoravid Empire, one of the largest silver, jewelry, and rubies. Abu Bakr, who had never empires in Moroccan history. seen such wealth, was dumbfounded. Zaynab Th e historical context that brought Zaynab explained to him that all this treasure was his, given al-Nafzawiyya to the front of the Moroccan political to her through God for him to spend as he wished.

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