The Sufi Resistance in the Maghreb - On How Accepting Defeat Can be the Most Heroic Act

Warrior Shaykhs, martial tariqas and various Sultans all play a role in the resistance against the French colonial invaders in the Maghreb.

Join this conversation with Abdelkadir Harkassi, a Masters Student in Historical Research at SOAS, around the Sufi resistance of the French invasion in the Maghreb and learn how sometimes the most heroic act is to accept defeat. 

This is a crucial narrative and one from which many parallels can be drawn to our current time. 

 

Timecode Guide

2:35 The french invasion into North Africa through the military invasion of Algeria without any diplomacy

3:22 The geopolitical importance of Morocco

4:00 The severe economic repercussions of defeat to the French and Spanish

4:50 Morocco is bankrupt and had to ask the European powers for loans with all their resources being shipped away

5:10 The conflict between the young Sultan Moulay Abdelaziz and his brother Moulay Abdelhafidh supported by Shaykh Al Kitani and Madani El Glaoui

06:30 What was the French interest in North Africa?

06:35 The French interests, ideology, the French revolution and modernity.

07:18 The wealth of North Africa and the appropriation of land, raw materials, goods and trade routes

08:16 The Hafidhiyya Movement

08:54 The abolition of Zakat and the reaction from the Ulema

09:42 Drawing parallels between the case in the Maghreb and the Tanzimat era of the Ottoman Empire

11:37 Some examples of the Awqaf in the Ottoman empire

13:26 The Awqaf in North Africa and French attempts to purchase the land and then trying to dismantle the various Waqfs through changing the legal definitions

15:40 There wasn’t a welfare system. The people themselves had created a basic foundation for all of society to stand on

16:22 The first university in the world the Qarawiyyin of Fez was an endowment

17:18 Moulay AbdelHafidh defeats his brother and takes the throne

17:46 The conditional bayat of the Ulema to the new Sultan. The Sultan had to uphold a number of conditions including no negotiations with the French, but also the establishment of a Parliament which Moulay AbdelHafidh rejected.

19:23 The importance to the Sultan of the backing of the nobles, the ulema and the Sufi Shaykhs. He did not rule alone. 

19:57 Moulay AbdelHafidh inherits a throne without access to the treasury

20:54 The sincerity of Moulay AbdelHafidh in trying his best to maneuver against the French with what he had available 

21:38 The betrayal of Al Kitani and his execution

22:55 The Sufi military struggle

23:58 Sultan AbdelHafidh’s letter to the Sufi Jihadi 

25:08 The modern idea of Sufism 

25:41 The very different reality of Sufism - always engaged in the politics of their time or on the battlefield or mediating etc.

26:49 The Sufi military tariqahs and the history of their fight against innovation and foreign invasions

27:59 The military tariqahs of the Maghreb and specifically the Chaouia region

31:00 The military resistance of the Sufis against the French and 1907 Bombardment of Casablanca as justification for a military invasion

33:22 The military expansion of the French in Morocco

33:50 1911 Tribal revolt against the Sultan as an excuse for the French to move their armies into the heart of the country and the Protectorate Treaty in 1912

35:30 The meetings of the Ulema and the Sufis that led to the decision of some fighting the French and the others protecting the Deen

38:03 The new situation in Morocco with the French after the defeat of the Sufis in the last Jihad in the Maghreb and how the Sufis stopped fighting and decided to protect the Deen in order to save more bloodshed. 

39:25 The difficult thing was to accept that you were defeated and that you couldn’t fight. And then you turn to Allah

39:47 The use of the Nasiri Du’a, the Wird al-Latif and the recitation of The Shifa of Qadi Iyad for the preservation of the Deen

41:52 The nationalist movement that began in 1936 based on French ideology via the salafi movement in Egypt

42:53 Muhammad V becoming the image of the nationalist movement and his exile from Morocco to Madagascar

43:31 Muhammad V’s meeting with Shaykh Muhammad ibn al Habib and the advise the Sultan received

45:07 Moroccan independence from France and the Monarchy fully reestablished

45:29 Muhammad VI and his father Hassan II bringing the Sufis back to the forefront of society

51:00 Morocco today under the rule of King Muhammad VI

53:37 Modernity is a fight against the past so that we can progress into a "better" existence

54:22 The King's protection of the library of Shaykh Muhammad ibn al Habib

55:19 A Dua for King Muhammad VI of Morocco

 

Music by Ian Cattanach