Crossing the Strait Studies in the History and Society of the Maghrib Series Editors Amira K. Bennison, University of Cambridge Léon Buskens, University of Leiden Houari Touati, École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris VOLUME 2 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/shsm Crossing the Strait Morocco, Gibraltar and Great Britain in the 18th and 19th Centuries By James A. O. C. Brown LEIDEN • BOSTON 2012 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brown, James A. O. C. Crossing the Strait : Morocco, Gibraltar and Great Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries / by James A.O.C. Brown. p. cm. — (Studies in the history and society of the Maghrib ; v. 2) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-20893-3 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Diplomatic and consular service, Moroccan—Gibraltar—History. 2. Great Britain— Foreign relations—Morocco. 3. Morocco—Foreign relations—Great Britain. 4. Morocco— Commerce—History. I. Title. II. Series: Studies in the history and society of the Maghrib ; v. 2. DT317.B76 2012 327.6404—dc23 2012003769 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.nl/brill-typeface. ISSN 1877-9808 ISBN 978 90 04 20893 3 (hardback) ISBN 978 90 04 21601 3 (e-book) Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhofff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. contents v CONTENTS List of Tables and Figures . vii Acknowledgments . ix Abbreviations . xi Introduction . 1 1. Trade and the Moroccan State before 1790 . 21 2. Moroccan Trade and Foreign Policy after 1790 . 55 3. The Moroccan Consulate at Gibraltar . 95 4. Trade between Gibraltar and the Gharb Ports . 121 5. Jewish and Muslim Intermediaries between the Gharb and Gibraltar . 143 6. Gibraltar, the British and the Politics of the Gharb . 165 Conclusion . 185 Bibliography . 195 Index . 207 vi contents acknowledgments vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figures 1. Value of Goods Imported into Morocco, 1834-53 . 134 2. Value of Goods Exported from Morocco, 1834-53 . 135 3. Volume of Shipping in Morocco by Nation, 1835-52. 136 4. British Trade in Morocco, 1834-44 . 139 Tables 1. British Ships Calling at Moroccan Ports . 138 2. Number and Average Size of Ships at Moroccan Ports, 1837-43 . 138 3. Number and Average Size of Moroccan Merchant Ships, 1836-45 . 140 4. Average Trade of Moroccan Ports, 1836-45 . 140 5. Merchants Guaranteed by the Moroccan Consulate at Gibral tar, 5 December 1831–1 December 1832 . 151 6. Moroccan Merchants Admitted to Gibraltar in 1832 and 1834 . 153 7. Applications by Moroccans for Extended Stays in Gibraltar, 1832 and 1834-35 . 154 viii contents acknowledgments ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is impossible to acknowledge here all who have helped me to complete this book. Without doubt there are those who deserve my thanks but whom I have forgotten, as a result of poor memory or inflated ego. There are others whom the course of life had already taken away before it was fijinished, who certainly deserve my thanks but to whom I sadly cannot express them. To the former I apologise and about the latter I express my regret. It is equally impossible to indicate the extent of my debt to those whom I can gladly acknowledge; but it is nevertheless a pleasure to try. The Arts & Humanities Research Council provided generous fijinancial support without which I would not have been able to conduct the research for my doctoral thesis that formed the foundation of this book. The Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge has been a very supportive host to my immediate post-doctoral career, enabling me to transform the one into the other. I very grateful to all those colleagues who have taken a generous interest in a nascent career: fijirstly, and above all, to Dr. Amira Bennison, whose guidance and patience have been invaluable during the many hours of advice and experience she has shared as my doctoral supervisor and then as a senior colleague; to Dr. Michael Brett, who cheerfully interrupted his retirement to guide my fijirst faltering steps into Moroccan history; to Prof. William Clarence-Smith and Dr. William O'Reilly, both of whom gave excellent advice and encouraged me to see the bigger picture; Dr. Kate Fleet kindly pointed an outsider in the right direction on points of Ottoman history; and Prof. David Abulafijia gave helpful feedback and support after I completed my doctorate. Prof. Mohammed El Mansour deserves particular thanks: fijirstly since it was his ground-breaking work on Mawlay Sulaymān that encouraged me to tackle this topic and to which this book is hugely indebted; and secondly for his perceptive and kindly criticisms of an earlier draft. The work of Dr. Nadia Erzini was similarly invaluable to me, as was her very kind assistance at various points of my research and writing. Others also gave crucial advice and help during the research process, particularly Ustadha Hasna Daud in Tetuan; Dr. Khalid Ben Srhir in Rabat; and Dr. Sam Benady in Gibraltar. The stafff at the National Archives, the British Library and the Gibrlatar Government Archives were unfailingly professional and helpful; those at the Direction des Archives Royales and the Bibliothèque Royale in Rabat x acknowledgments equally so and wonderfully hospitable besides. During frequent moments of self-doubt and frustration, I was extremely fortunate always to be able to rely on the intellectual, emotional and culinary support of friends from Cambridge, SOAS, and elsewhere in particular Avais Amin, Bilal Badat, Dr. Mohsin Badat, Igor Chestich, Dr. George Damoulakis, Dr. Lejla Demiri, Dr. Chiara Formichi, Dr. Shahid Hanif, Dr. Ashraf-ul-Hoque, Hasan Khoee, Dr. Samir Mahmoud, Tahmer Mahmoud, Aiysha Malik, Faris Nasrallah, Amina Nawaz, Dr. Mike Perfect, William Rook, Arash Sedighi and Mujadad Zaman. Above even these dear and kind friends, I am hugely grateful for the love and support of my wife, Karima Sbitri, and her family. But perhaps most of all I am grateful to my parents, Dr. Barbara Cottman and Professor Paul Brown, whose love, encouragement and practical support have been unfailing, and to whom I could never adequately express my thanks. From all these people, I should have learned much more; their effforts to teach and help me are not sufffijiciently reflected in this book, the responsibility for the errors and shortcomings of which is, of course, mine alone. abbreviations xi ABBREVIATIONS BL British Library EI2 Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edn. EJ2 Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edn. GGA Gibraltar Government Archives HCPP House of Commons Parliamentary Papers KH Al-Khizāna al-Ḥasaniyya MM Ma‘lamat al-Maghrib / Encyclopédie du Maroc MWM Mudīriyyat al-Wathā‘iq al-Malikiyya NA National Archives SIHM Les sources inédites de l’histoire du Maroc Transliteration and Spellings Arabic is transliterated here according to the Encyclopaedia of Islam sys- tem as modifijied by the International Journal of Middle East Studies. The names of well-known places and dynasties are spelled according to nor- mal English usage rather than transliterated (e.g. Tetuan and Sa‘di, not Tiṭwān and Sa‘dī); names of places with no common English spelling are transliterated (e.g. al-Qaṣr al-Kabīr). Adjectives of place referring to Arabic place names are given in the Anglicised form of the Arabic adjec- tive (e.g. Fesi, Tetuani). The transliteration of names in general reflects classical Arabic usage rather than local Moroccan pronunciation wher- ever possible (e.g. al-‘Arabī and Muḥammad, not al-‘Arbī and M’ḥammad). Wherever an Arabic name is known only from an English source and its Arabic spelling is not obvious, it is given fijirst in inverted commas (e.g. ‘Amegiau’, thereafter Amegiau). References to letters written in English addressed to Moroccans give the spelling of the name as it appears in the source in brackets after its transliteration (e.g. GGA Misc. 1807, Hew Dalrymple, acting governor of Gibraltar, to ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ‘Ash‘āsh, gov- ernor of Tetuan [‘El Hadgee Abdarhaman Hash Hash’], 16 December 1806). Jewish names are spelled according to the usage of the Encyclopaedia Judaica wherever possible, and in other cases according to their spellings as they appear in the sources. xii abbreviations Dates Dates are given according to the Common Era, except for original sources dated according to Anno Hijrae, in which case the reference gives the A.H. date followed by the C.E. equivalent in brackets. introduction 1 INTRODUCTION On 6th December 1844, Mawlay ‘Abd al-Raḥmān, sultan of Morocco between 1822 and 1859, dispatched a letter to the governor of Tetuan. The letter gave notice of the appointment of a new Moroccan consul in the British colony of Gibraltar. In it, the sultan mentioned the declining capacity of the existing consul, a Moroccan merchant named Haddū Gassūs, to fulfijil his duties due to old age, and emphasised the importance of appointing a suitable consul at Gibraltar because “it dominates our trade and is the gateway of exports and imports” (li-annahu mu‘ẓam al-tijāra wa-bāb al-ṣādir wa-‘l-wārid).