Product Code Database
The Alawi dynasty () – also rendered in English as Alaouite, Alawid, or Alawite – is the current Morocco royal family and reigning dynasty. They are an Arab Sharifism dynasty and claim descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandson, Hasan ibn Ali. Their ancestors originally migrated to the Tafilalt region, in present-day Morocco, from Yanbu on the coast of the Hejaz in the 12th or 13th century.
The dynasty rose to power in the 17th century, beginning with Mawlay al-Sharif who was declared sultan of the Tafilalt in 1631. His son Al-Rashid, ruling from 1664 to 1672, was able to unite and pacify the country after a long period of regional divisions caused by the weakening of the Saadi Sultanate, establishing the Alawi Sultanate that succeeded it. His brother Isma'il presided over a period of strong central rule between 1672 and 1727, one of the longest reigns of any Moroccan sultan. After Isma'il's death, the country was plunged into disarray as his sons fought over his succession, but order was re-established under the long reign of Muhammad ibn Abdallah in the second half of the 18th century. The 19th century was marked by the growing influence of European powers.
The 'Alawis ruled as sovereign sultans up until 1912, when the French protectorate and Spanish protectorate were imposed on Morocco. They were retained as symbolic sultans under Colonialism rule. When the country regained its independence in 1956, Mohammed V, who had supported the nationalist cause, resumed the 'Alawi role as independent head of state. Shortly afterwards, in 1957, he adopted the title of "King" instead of "Sultan". His successors, Hassan II and Mohammed VI (the current reigning monarch), have continued the dynasty's rule under the same title. Today, the Moroccan government is officially a constitutional monarchy, but the king retains strong Authoritarianism power over the state and public affairs, despite some political reforms in recent decades.
The honorific title mawlay (also transliterated as mulay or moulay), meaning "my lord", was also commonly used in conjunction with the names of sultans.
Little is known of 'Alawi history prior to the 17th century. In the early 15th century they appear to have had a reputation as holy warriors, but did not yet have a political status. This was the example of one family member, Ali al-Sharif (not to be confused with the later 'Alawi by the same name below), who participated in battles against the Portugal and Spanish in Ceuta and Tangier and who was also invited by the Nasrid dynasty of Granada to fight against Castile on the Iberian Peninsula. By the 17th century, however, they had evidently become the main leaders of the Tafilalt.
Their status as shurafa (descendants of Muhammad) was part of the reason for their success, as in this era many communities in Morocco increasingly saw sharifian status as the best claim to political legitimacy. The Saadian dynasty, which ruled Morocco in the 16th century and early 17th century prior to the rise of the 'Alawis, was also a sharifian dynasty and played an important role in establishing this model of political-religious legitimacy.
While their father remained in exile, al-Sharif's sons took up the struggle. His son Sidi Mohammed (or Muhammad II), became the leader after 1635 and successfully led another rebellion which expelled Abu Hassun's forces in 1640 or 1641 (1050 AH). With this success, he was proclaimed sultan in place of his father who relinquished the throne to him. The Dala'iyya invaded the region again in 1646 and following their victory at Al Qa'a forced him to acknowledge their control over all the territory west and south of Sijilmasa. Unable to oppose them, Sidi Mohammed instead decided to attempt expansion in other directions.
Mawlay Sharif died in 1659, and Sidi Mohammed was once again proclaimed sovereign. This provoked a succession clash between Sidi Mohammed and one of his younger half-brothers, Al-Rashid. Details of this conflict are lengthy, but ultimately Al-Rashid appears to have fled Sijilmasa in fear of his brother. He eventually managed to secure an alliance with the Banu Ma'qil Arab tribes who had previously supported his brother and also with the Ait Yaznasin (Beni Snassen), a Zenata Amazigh tribe. These groups recognized him as sultan in 1664, while around the same time Sidi Mohammed made a new base for himself as far west as Azrou. The power of the Dala'iyya was in decline, and both brothers sought to take advantage of this, but both stood in each other's way. When Sidi Mohammed attacked Angad to force his rebellious brother's submission on August 2, 1664, he was instead unexpectedly killed and his armies defeated.
Al-Rashid was left in control of the 'Alawi forces and in less than a decade he managed to extend 'Alawi control over almost all of Morocco, reuniting the country under a new sharifian dynasty. After much campaigning in northern Morocco, Al-Rashid secured the surrender of Fez in June 1666. He made it his capital. He defeated the remnants of the Dala'iyya and destroyed their capital in the Middle Atlas in June 1668. In July, he captured Marrakesh. His forces took the Sous valley and the Anti-Atlas in the south, forced Salé and its pirate republic to acknowledge his authority, while in the north he controlled most territory except for the European coastal enclaves. Al-Rashid had thus succeeded in reuniting the country under one rule. He subsequently died young in 1672.
Sidi Mohammed's opening of Morocco to international trade was not welcomed by some, however. After his death in 1790, his son and successor Mawlay Yazid ruled with more xenophobia and violence, punished Jewish communities, and launched an ill-fated attack against the Spanish city of Ceuta in 1792, in which he was mortally wounded. After his death, he was succeeded by his brother Suleyman (or Mawlay Slimane), though the latter had to defeat two more brothers who contested the throne: Maslama in the north and Hisham in Marrakesh to the south. Suleyman brought trade with Europe nearly to a halt. Although less violent and bigoted than Yazid, was still portrayed by European sources as xenophobic. After 1811, Suleyman also pushed a fundamentalist Wahhabism ideology at home and attempted to suppress local Sufism orders and brotherhoods, in spite of their popularity and despite his own membership in the Tijaniyyah.
In the latter part of the 19th century Morocco's instability resulted in European countries intervening to protect investments and to demand economic concessions. Sultan Hassan I called for the Madrid Conference of 1880 in response to France and Spain's abuse of the protégé system, but the result was an increased European presence in Morocco—in the form of advisors, doctors, businessmen, adventurers, and even missionaries.
After Sultan Abdelaziz appointed his brother Abdelhafid as viceroy of Marrakesh, the latter sought to have him overthrown by fomenting distrust over Abdelaziz's European ties. Abdelhafid was aided by Madani el-Glaoui, older brother of T'hami, one of the Qaid of the Atlas. He was assisted in the training of his troops by Andrew Belton, a British officer and veteran of the Second Boer War. For a brief period, Abdelaziz reigned from Rabat while Abdelhafid reigned in Marrakesh and Fez and a conflict known as the Hafidiya (1907–1908) ensued. In 1908 Abdelaziz was defeated in battle. In 1909, Abdelhafid became the recognized leader of Morocco.
In 1911, rebellion broke out against the sultan. This led to the Agadir Crisis, also known as the Second Moroccan Crisis. These events led Abdelhafid to abdicate after signing the Treaty of Fes on 30 March 1912, which made Morocco a French protectorate. He signed his abdication only when on the quay in Rabat, with the ship that would take him to France already waiting. When news of the treaty finally leaked to the Moroccan populace, it was met with immediate and violent backlash in the Intifada of Fez. Mohammed Kenbib. "Fez Riots (1912)." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online, 2014 His brother Youssef was proclaimed Sultan by the French administration several months later (13 August 1912). At the same time a large part of northern Morocco was placed under Spanish control.
Mawlay Youssef died unexpectedly in 1927 and his youngest son, Muhammad (Mohammed ben Youssef or Mohammed V), was acclaimed as the new sultan, at the age of 18. By the guidance of the French regime, he had spent most of his life growing up in relative isolation inside the royal palace in Meknes and Rabat. These restrictions on his interactions with the outside world continued in large part even after he ascended to the throne. However, over the course of his reign he became increasingly associated with the Moroccan nationalist movement, eventually becoming a strong symbol in the cause for independence. The nationalists, for their part, and in contrast with other anti-colonial movements like the Salafi movement, saw the sultan as a potentially useful tool in the struggle against French rule.
Some of Mohammed V's initial interactions with nationalists came during the crisis caused by the so-called "Berber Dahir". Among other things at this time, the sultan received a delegation from Fez which presented a list of grievances about the new French policy, and had discussions with Allal al-Fassi where he apparently expressed that he had been misled by the French residency when signing it and vowed to cede no further rights of his country. The sultan refrained from openly associating with the nationalist movement in the 1930s, but nonetheless resisted French attempts to shift the terms of the Protectorate during the Interwar period years. He reaffirmed Morocco's loyalty to France in 1939, at the beginning of the World War II. After the fall of France to the Germans and the advent of the Vichy France, however, the sultan increasingly charted his own course, successfully pushing some reform initiatives related to education, even as the Vichy regime encouraged him to make several well-publicized trips abroad to bolster his legitimacy and that of the colonial system. In 1942 the Operation Torch as part of their invasion of North Africa against Axis powers occupation. This momentous change also allowed the sultan more political manoeuvring room, and during the Anfa Conference in 1943, which Allied leaders attended, Mohammed V was left alone at one time with President Roosevelt, who expressed support for Moroccan independence after the war. The encounter was the sultan's first face-to-face interaction with another head of state without the mediating presence of the French officials. In the fall of the same year, the sultan encouraged the formation of the official Istiqlal ("Independence") Party and the drafting of the Manifesto of Independence that called for a constitutional monarchy with Democracy institutions.
These moves were strongly opposed by the French, but the sultan continued to steadily defy them. Another watershed event was the Tangier Speech of 1947, delivered in the Mendoubia of Tangier during the first visit of a Moroccan sultan to the city since Mawlay Hassan I in 1889. The speech made a number of significant points including support for Arab nationalism, a generally anti-colonial ideology, and an expression of gratitude for American support of Moroccan aspirations while omitting the usual statements of support for the French Protectorate. In the following years the tensions increased, with French officials slowly acknowledging the need for Moroccan independence but stressing for slower reforms rather than rapid sovereignty. The French enlisted many powerful collaborators such Thami el-Glaoui to organize a campaign of public opposition to the sultan and demands for his abdication – also known as the " Qaid Affair" – in the spring of 1953. The political confrontation came to a head in August of that year. On August 13 the royal palace in Rabat was surrounded and closed off by Protectorate military forces and police, and on August 16 Thami and allied Moroccan leaders formally declared Mohammed Ben 'Arafa, a little-known member of the 'Alawi family, as sultan. On August 20 the French resident-general, Auguste Guillaume, presented demands to the sultan for his abdication and his agreement to go into exile. The sultan refused to abdicate, and that afternoon he and his sons were escorted at gunpoint from the palace and onto a plane. He and his family were eventually exiled to Madagascar.
The exile of the sultan did not alleviate French difficulties in Morocco, and an insurgency broke out which targeted both the regime and its collaborators with boycott campaigns as well as acts of violence. Several assassination attempts were made against the new puppet sultan, Mohammed Ben 'Arafa, and one of the boycott campaigns was aimed at the country's mosques due to prayers being said in the new sultan's name. Eventually, with the decolonialization process under way in Tunisia and the Algerian War, the French agreed to negotiate Morocco's independence at a conference on August 23, 1955. By October 1 Mohammed Ben 'Arafa had abdicated and later that month even Thami el-Glaoui supported Mohammed V's return. The sultan landed at Rabat-Salé Airport at 11:42 am on November 16, greeted by cheering crowds. The French-Moroccan Declaration of Independence was formally signed on March 2, 1956, and Tangier was reintegrated to Morocco later that year. In 1957 Mohammed V adopted the official title of "King", which has since been used by his successors, Hassan II and Mohammed VI.
Hassan was soon compelled to promulgate a constitution, which was approved by popular referendum in 1962. The constitution had been written by officials appointed by the king and in practice it cemented the monarchy's rule by granting it far-reaching executive powers. Hassan II worked to improve relations with France and position Morocco as an ally of the West, but relations with neighboring Algeria deteriorated over border issues and resulted in the Sand War in 1963. Tensions also rose internally during the 1960s and 1970s, with leftist opposition mounting against the conservative monarchy. This in turn was met with increased political repression and Hassan II largely relied on the army and police as instruments of power. The period from roughly 1975 to 1990 is known as the "Years of Lead", as state violence was regularly deployed against dissenters and political opponents were jailed or disappeared. Two attempted coups d'état against the king failed in 1971 and 1972.
Upon the withdrawal of the Spanish from Spanish Sahara in 1975 and the declaration of independence of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Hassan II used the opportunity to publicly galvanize nationalist sentiment by pressing Morocco's irredentism claims to the territory, over the objections of the local Sahrawi people and of the Algerian and governments. He organized the Green March, which saw around 350,000 Moroccans crossing the southern border to settle inside the territory, triggering a war with the Polisario Front, the armed front of the Sahrawi people. A ceasefire was negotiated in 1989, but the conflict remains unresolved today, with most of the territory under de facto Moroccan control while the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic controls the easternmost zones. During the 1990s Hassan II changed course in domestic politics and publicly promoted an agenda of reform. A new constitutional reform, approved by referendum, was enacted in 1993. Another amendment to the constitution was passed in 1996 to create a Bicameralism, with the lower house elected directly by voters and an upper house chosen indirectly by regional assemblies and professional organizations.
Hassan II died in 1999 and was succeeded by his son, Mohammed VI, the current reigning king. The new monarch's reign began with promises of further liberalization and reform; however, the extent of political reforms has been limited and popular engagement with electoral politics has been inconsistent. Another constitutional reform was passed by a referendum in 2011 in response to protests inside the country, in the wider context of the Arab Spring. Today, the 'Alawis remain the only monarchy in North Africa. They officially rule in a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, but Authoritarianism and absolutist characteristics are still noted by scholars and observers, with effective power largely remaining in the hands of the king, a situation that has been compared to the pattern of Hashemites monarchy in Jordan.
After capture of Marrakesh in 1668, Sultans of Morocco:
Under the French protectorate (1912–1956):
From Morocco (1955 onwards):
|
|
