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Pan-Islam and Moroccan resistance to French colonial penetration, 1900–19121

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Affiliation:
Merrill College, California
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Extract

This article marks a beginning at tracing the links between Near Eastern and African Islamic resistance, through an analysis of the ways in which Pan-Islamic agents from Egypt sought to intervene in support of indigenous Moroccan efforts to resist French imperialism during the period 1900 to 1912. The first section explores the general patterns of Pan-Islamic ideology and political action, and places the study of Pan-Islam in the context of studies of African resistance to imperialism. Succeeding sections review Moroccan relations with the Near East, trace the stages of growing Near Eastern involvement in support of Moroccan resistance, which culminated in an abortive general rising in 1912, and assess the strengths and weaknesses of Pan-Islam as a transitional movement of political resistance to imperialism.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , January 1972 , pp. 97 - 118
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

2 African resistance and Islam are discussed in the following: Holt, P. M., The Mahdist State in the Sudan, 1881–1898 (Oxford, 1958);Google ScholarLewis, I. M., The Modern History of Somaliland (London, 1965)Google Scholar for the Mad Mullah; Evans-Pritchard, E. E., The Sanusi of Cyrenaica (Oxford, 1954),Google ScholarBaroja, J. Caro, ‘Un Santon Sahariano y su familia’, in Estudios Saharianos (Madrid, 1955), 285–335, for Mā al ‘Aynayn.Google Scholar

3 On Islamic resistance in the Near East and North Africa, see Keddie, Nikki R., An Islamic Response to Imperialism: Political Religious Writings of Sayyid Jamal al-Din al Afghani (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968);Google ScholarKedourie, Elie, Afghani and Abduh (London, 1966);Google ScholarShinar, Pessah, ‘ʽAbd al-Qādir and ʽAbd al-Krīm: Religious Influences on their thought and action’, Asian and African Studies, i (1965), 139–74,Google Scholar and Abun-Nasr, Jamil, The Tijaniya, a Sufi Order in the Modern World (Oxford, 1965).Google Scholar

4 Connexions between Near Eastern and African resistance have been noted by ProfessorMartin, B. G., among others. See his ‘Muslim Politics and Resistance to Colonial Rule: Shaykh Uways b. Muḥammad al-Barāwī and the Qādirīya Brotherhood in East Africa’, J. Afr. Hist. x (1969), 471–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The approach which will be taken here owes much to Keddie, N. R., ‘Pan-Islam as Proto-Nationalism’, Journal of Modern History, XLI (1969), 17–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Ibid. pp. 19–20.

6 Ibid. See also Hourani, A., Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939 (London, 1962), 106–8Google Scholar (on the first variety) and 155–6 (on the second), Blunt, W. S., The Future of Islam (London, 1882).Google Scholar

7 Lewis, Bernard, The Emergence of Modern Turkey (London, 1961), 341–2.Google Scholar

8 The sources on which this article is based include British, French, and German diplomatic correspondence, European periodical and secondary literature, and Arabic published materials. The European diplomatic materials are especially detailed on Moroccan internal politics owing to the tensions of the Moroccan Question. When cross-checked, and then compared with materials on Egypt it is possible to trace the links between Moroccan resistance and the Near East. A Study of Near Eastern materials might be equally promising for assessing Pan-Islamic activities elsewhere in Africa.

9 For Ranger's thesis, cf. his ‘Connexions between “primary resistance” movements and modern mass nationalism in East and Central Africa’, J. Afr. Hist. ix (1968);Google Scholar‘African reaction to the imposition of colonial rule in East and Central Africa’, in Colonialism in Africa, 1870–1960, ed. Gann, L. H. and Duignan, P., vol. 1 (Cambridge, 1969).Google Scholar Eric Stokes has sought to extend it to the Indian Mutiny. See his ‘Traditional Resistance Movements and Afro-Asian Nationalism: The Context of the 1857 Mutiny Rebellion in India’, Past and Present (August 1970), 100–18.

10 Other Islamic responses to the problem of transcending the barriers of local folk Islamic practices and beliefs include mahdism, jihād movements, rural puritanical movements like Wahhabīya and Sanusīya, and urban reformist Islam (Salafīya).

11 Haim, S., Arab Nationalism (Berkeley, 1964), 6.Google Scholar

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14 Ibid. III, 343–72. Also Martin, A. G. P., Quatre Siècles d'Histoire marocaine (Paris, 1923)Google Scholar, which is very important for Moroccan relations with Touat and Mauretania.

15 Miège, , op. cit. IV, 173–9.Google Scholar

16 Cf. Guillen, Pierre, L'Allemagne et le Maroc, 1871–1905 (Paris, 1967)Google Scholar for a survey of Ottoman attempts (generally through German mediation) to initiate diplomatic relations with Morocco during the nineteenth century.

17 Goldschmidt, Arthur, ‘The Egyptian Nationalist Party, 1882–1914’, in Holt, P. M. (ed.), Political and Social Change in Modern Egypt (London, 1967), 308–33, especially 325–8.Google Scholar

18 F.O. 371/1637 Kitchener to Grey, 27 Apr. 1913, no. 38. For a general appreciation of North Africans in Egypt, cf. Raymond, A., ‘Tunisiens et Maghrebins au Caire au dix-huitième siècle’, Cahiers de Tunisie (1959), 335–71.Google Scholar

19 René-Leclerc, Charles, ‘La commerce et l'industrie à Fez’, Renseigneinents coloniaux supplement to Afrique Française (1905), 233.Google Scholar Also, La Tourneau, Roger, Fès Avant le Protectorat (Casablanca, 1949), 429.Google Scholar

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21 If the number of hājjīs mentioned in the standard Moroccan Arabic chronicles is any indication, there must have been many thousands who made the pilgrimage during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The new rich bourgeoisie of the ports appears to have participated in this movement in far greater proportion than its numbers. A study of the hājj and Morocco is urgently needed.

22 Raymond, op. cit.; Great Britain, Foreign Office Archives (London), F.O. 371/1637, Note communicated by Cambon, 23 Jan. 1913 in Kitchener to Grey, 27 Apr. 1913, no. 38; Le Tourneau, op. cit. 445.

23 Peretié, A., ‘Les Medrasas de Fès’, Archives Marocaines, xviii (1912), 369–72.Google Scholar

24 Moroccan resistance to French penetration is treated more extensively in the author's Ph.D. dissertation, ‘Moroccan Political Responses to French Penetration, 1900–1912’, Princeton University, 1970, which is being prepared for publication.Google Scholar

25 al-Kattānī, Muḥammad Baqir, Tarjamah al-Shaykh Muḥammad al-Kāttanī (1962), 92–4.Google Scholar Archives of Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Paris (hereafter cited as M.A.E.), Maroc, Politique Etrangère. Relations avec la France, XV, G. Saint-René-Taillandier to Delcassé, 10 Dec. 1904, no. 248.

26 ‘Le fetoua des oulama de Fes’, Archives marocaines, iv (1905), 141–3.Google Scholar On the role of the culamā see my ‘Political Role of the Moroccan ‘Ulamā’, 1900–1912’ forthcoming in Keddie, N. R. (ed.), Saints, Scholars, and Sufis (Berkeley, 1972).Google Scholar

27 The Times (London), 22 Dec. 1904 (article by W. B. Harris), and Guillen, op. cit. 821.

28 Muhammad ibn Jaʽfar al-Kattānī, author of Salwat al-Anfās wa muḥādathat alakyās bi-man ukbir min al-‘ulamā’ wa al-ṣulaḥā bi fās. Fez, 3 vols., 1316 A.H.

29 The Times (London), 28 Dec. 1904. Article by W. B. Harris.

30 Guillen, op. cit. 827.

31 Saint-René-Taillandier, , Les Origines du Maroc Français (Paris, 1930), 244–6;Google Scholar also, Anon. ‘La France au Maroc’, La Nouvelle Revue (1905), n.s., xxxv, 148–57.Google Scholar

32 al-Kattānī, op. cit. 199.

33 Ramsaur, E. E., The Young Turks (Princeton, 1957),Google Scholar and Ahmad, Feroz, The Young Turks: The Committee of Union and Progress in Turkish Politics, 1908–1914 (London, 1969).Google Scholar

34 Stoddard, Philip, ‘The Ottoman Government and the Arabs, 1911 to 1918: A Preliminary Study of the Teskilat-i Mahsusa’, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1963. Also Goldschmidt, op. cit.Google Scholar

35 Deny, Jean, ‘Instructeurs militaires Turcs au Maroc sous Moulay Hafidh’, Memorial Henri Basset (Paris, 1928), i, 222.Google Scholar Based largely on the Turkish memoirs of a participant.

36 Afrique Française (1910), 141. Archives of the Ministère de la Guerre. (Hereafter cited as Guerre). Serie C-22, Mangin to Guerre, I Apr. 1910, no. 20.

37 Deny, , op. cit. 224.Google Scholar

38 German Foreign Ministry. Political Archives (Bonn). A.A. M4 Bd 190 A7984, 19 May 1911 and Bd 191 A8517 Seckendorff to Bethman-Hollweg, 29 May 1911. I am indebted to Mr Neil Lewis for this reference.

39 Deny, , op. cit. 224–5.Google Scholar

40 M.A.E. Maroc. Affaires Politiques. Politique Général. XXXVI, Defrance to Poincaré, 8 May 1912, no. 202. (A retrospective summary.)

41 M.A.E. Maroc. Defense Nationale. IX, Defrance to Cruppi, 7 Junae 1911, no. 297, Annex. I am indebted for this reference to Mr Neil Lewis.

42 M.A.E. Allenagne. Relations avec la France. N.S. 36. X, Defrance to DeSelves, 27 July 1911, no. 372.

43 Martin, , op. cit. 561–76;Google ScholarWeisgerber, F., Au Seuil du Maroc moderne (Rabat, 1947), 264–366.Google Scholar

44 M.A.E. Maroc. Affaires Politiques. Politique Générale. XXXVI. Defrance to Poincaré, 8 May 1912, no. 202. Also Defrance to Poincaré, 23 May 1912, no. 235.

45 F.O. 413/57, Kennard to Grey, 6 Sept. 1912, no. 239, Most Confidential, and F.O. 371/1167, Kitchener to Grey, 4 Nov. 1911, no. 109. Rifa't was the son of Maḥmud Bey Rifaʽt, and a relative of Rifaʽt Bey, a judge in the Egyptian Court of Appeals. He was a graduate of the Khedival School at Cairo, and a member of the Association of Egyptian Students in London while he was a student at Cambridge (1906–10). After the failure of the Egyptian Congress in Paris in 1911, he went to Morocco, and first sought to go to the Sous Valley.

46 M.A.E. Maroc. Affaires Politiques. Politique Générale. XXXVI, Regnault to Poincaré, 14 May, 1912, no. 32, Enclosure.

47 The first official circular warning of the possibilities of a general rising came from Lyautey. Guerre. Série EM-2, Lyautey to Regional Commanders, 31 Aug. 1912, no. 1069 B.M.2.

48 F.O. 413/57 Kennard to Grey, 6 Sept. 1912, no. 239. Most Confidential.

49 See the anonymous article ‘Le panislamisme et la France’, in Le Temps (Paris) 2 Nov. 1972Google Scholar, as well as F.O. 473/57, Kennard to Grey, 6 Sept. 1912, no. 239, Most Confidential.

50 F.O. 371/1114, Cheetham to Grey, 30 June, 1911, no. 68, Secret and Confidential. (A long confidential report on secret societies in Egypt prepared by British intelligence. It was brought to my attention by Professor Arthur Goldschmidt.)

51 Afrique Française (1912), 354–6, 361. The role of Spain in the events of August 1912 points to the role of dissidents among the Spanish industrialists who deeply resented their government's giving in to French desires with regard to Morocco. These groups had begun to associate themselves closely with German firms in favour of a more aggressive German role from 1904. The Tangier Spanish businessman, Saturinino Ximenes, may have been connected with the 1912 events, as he was with the 1904 merger discussions. Until Spanish archives are made available, it is unlikely that we shall be able to do more than speculate. On the earlier Spanish role, Guillen, P., op. cit. 782–7.Google Scholar

52 Anon., ‘Le panislamisme et la France’, op. cit.; ‘also Le Temps, 12 Sept. 1912 on the role of the Spanish consuls. The pages of Afrique Française for the period May-Oct. are informative on this subject as well.

53 F.O. 174/282, White to Lennox, 22 Sept. 1912, no. 22.

54 La Vigie marocaine (Casablanca), 5 09 1912Google Scholar, Anon. (‘De Bonne Source’).

55 F.O. 413/57, Kennard to Hunter, 13 Aug. 1912, Urgent and Confidential. ʽāif Bey was also the correspondent for al-Muʽayyad who wrote about Morocco and Moroccan resistance, as noted above.

56 See Lyautey's testimony on the complicity of ʽal-ḥafīẓ, Abd in Lyautey, P. (ed.), Lyautey l'Africain, 4 vols. (Paris, 1953–1957), vol. i, 31.Google Scholar

57 Guerre. Série E-2, Lyautey to Guerre, 27 Aug. 1912, no. 397 B.M. Also F.O. 413/57, Kennard to Grey, 14 Sept. 1912, no. 245.

58 Stoddard, op. cit.

59 For discussion of German attempts to foment a rising against the French in Morocco during the First World War by a German participant, see Bartels, Alfred, Fighting the French in Morocco, English translation (London, 1932).Google Scholar For a general view, see my ‘Pan-Islam, Moroccan Resistance, and German War Strategy, 1914–1918’, Francia (Munich), 1(2), (1972), forthcoming.Google Scholar

60 Landau, Jacob, ‘Prologomena to a Study of Secret Societies in Egypt’, Middle Eastern Studies, i (1965).Google Scholar An interesting but tentative distinction which might be advanced between transitional and pre-transitional Near Eastern political forms is that between the masonic–carbonarist style cell organization favoured by late nineteenth century (urban) resisters, and the sufi tarīqa, favoured by earlier (and rural) groups.