21

The ‘Alawid or Filālī Sharīfs

1041–/1631–

Morocco

As the two Sa‘did makhzans based on Marrakech and Fez crumbled in the middle years of the seventeenth century (see above, no. 20), Morocco was rent by internal factions, usually with strong religious, maraboutic bases. It was the ‘Alawids or Filālī Shorfā, of the same Hasanī descent as the declining Sa‘dids, who finally succeeded in imposing order from an original centre in Tafilalt, the valley of the Wādī Zīz in south-eastern Morocco (whence the name Filālī). Mawlāy al-Rashīd was the first of the family to assume the title of sultan. He began the work of pacification and attempted a restoration of central authority throughout Morocco, but this proved an extremely lengthy process, so deep-rooted had become provincialism and anarchy. A strong figure like Mawlāy Ismā‘īl tried in vain to solve these problems by recruiting, in addition to the gīsh (jaysh) or the sultans’ military guard of Arabs, a standing army which included among other elements black slave troops, the ‘abīd al-Bukhārī (colloquially known as the Bwākher), descendants of black slaves imported by the Sa‘dids; it was also Ismā‘īl who developed Meknès as the capital and the favoured place of residence for himself and his eighteenth-century successors. But he failed to dislodge the Christians from the ports held by them, and, after his death, Morocco was plunged into its nadir of anarchy and brigandage, with a succession of rival, ephemeral rulers.

Some degree of order and prosperity was restored towards the end of the century; the last foothold of the Portuguese on the Atlantic coast at Mazagan (al-Jadīda) was taken over in 1182/1769, but the Spanish could not be dislodged from Ceuta and Melilla. Morocco was opened up to a limited extent for trade with Europe, and the new town of Mogador or Essouaira (al-Suwayra) was founded to accommodate and isolate the infidel merchants and consuls whom the sultans were compelled reluctantly to admit. However, with an essentially mediaeval polity, hardly touched by the influences which during the course of the nineteenth century affected such Islamic lands as those of Egypt, the Ottoman empire and Persia, Morocco was ill-prepared for the two disastrous wars which she fought with France (1260/1844) and Spain (1277/1859–60). By the end of the century, the ‘Alawid dynasty was tottering, with the sultans’ power challenged by various pretenders and the country forming the locale for such international incidents as that of Agadir (1911). The French Protectorate proclaimed in 1330/1912 saved the ‘Alawid dynasty itself from disappearing and Morocco from disintegration and possible dismemberment by outside powers, although the work of pacification and restoration of the sultan’s authority took twenty years; it was 1930 before the makhzan was fully in control and before the modernisation of Morocco’s infrastructure could proceed properly. Sīdī Muḥammad V in 1934 aligned himself with the growing Moroccan nationalism of the Istiqlāl or Independence Party. After the end of the Second World War, friction between Moroccan nationalism, eager for independence, and the more cautious attitude of the French Protectorate authorities, grew. Conservative, traditionalist Moroccan forces lent support to the decision in 1953 to depose Muḥammad V, but it was soon apparent that the overwhelming mass of Moroccan opinion was behind the sultan and the desire for full independence, and he had to be restored two years later. Morocco became independent in 1956, and in 1957 Sīdī Muḥammad assumed the title of king, so that Morocco under his son and successor al-Ḥasan II is one of the few monarchies surviving today in the Arab world.

Lane-Poole, 60–2; Zambaur, 81 and Table C; Album, 18–19.

EI² ‘Alawīs’ (H. Terrasse), ‘Hasanī’ (G. Deverdun), with a genealogical table; ‘al-Maghrib, al-Mamlaka al-Maghribiyya. II. History’ (G. Yver*), ‘Shurafā’’ (E. Lévi-Provençal and Chant al de La Véronne).

H. de Castries and Pierre de Cenival (eds), Les sources inédites de l’histoire du Maroc …, Series II, Dynastie filalienne. Archives et bibliothèques de France, Paris 1922–31.

H. Terrasse, Histoire du Maroc, II, 239–406.