Moulay Abd al-Aziz bin Hassan
Sultan of Morocco
Moulay Abd al-Aziz bin Hassan, born on 24 February 1881 in Marrakesh and died on 10 June 1943 in Tangier, was a sultan of Morocco from 9 June 1894 to 21 August 1908, as a ruler of the 'Alawi dynasty. He was proclaimed sultan at the age of sixteen after the death of his father Hassan I. Moulay Abdelaziz tried to strengthen the central government by implementing a new tax on agriculture and livestock, a measure which was strongly opposed by sections of the society. This in turn led Abdelaziz to mortgage the customs revenues and to borrow heavily from the French, which was met with widespread revolt and a revolution that deposed him in 1908 in favor of his brother Abd al-Hafid. Shortly before his death in 1894 Hassan I designed Mawlay Adb al-Aziz his heir, despite his young age, because his mother, Lalla Ruqaya Al Amrani was his favorite wife. His mother is often confused to be Aisha, the favorite slave concubine of Georgian origins who was bought in Istanbul by the vizir Sidi Gharnat and brought to the Sultan’s harem circa 1876. By the action of Ahmed bin Musa, the Chamberlain and Grand Wazir of the former sultan Hassan I, Abd al-Aziz's accession to the sultanate was ensured with little fighting. Ba Ahmed became regent and for six years showed himself a capable ruler. In 1895, tribes of southern Morocco rose up in rebellion. At the head of an army, Abd al-Aziz marched south and defeated the southern rebels, triumphantly entering Marrakesh
in March 1896 with his regent Ahmed, capturing a large booty of horses and camels. On his death in 1900 the regency ended, and Abdelaziz took the reins of government into his own hands and chose an Arab from the south, Mehdi al-Menebhi, as his chief adviser. On the same year, the French administration of Algeria called for the annexation of the Tuat region, which was part of Morocco back then, and owned religious and tributary allegiance to the sultans of Morocco. The territory was annexed by France in 1901. Subsequently, in 1903, France began to expand westwards towards Bechar and Tindouf, defeating the Moroccan forces in the Battle of Taghit and Battle of El-Moungar. As urged by his mother, the sultan sought advice and counsel from Europe and endeavored to act on it, but advice not motivated by a conflict of interest was difficult to obtain, and in spite of the unquestionable desire of the young ruler to do what was best for the country, wild extravagance both in action and expenditure resulted, leaving the sultan with a depleted exchequer and the confidence of his people impaired. His intimacy with foreigners and his imitation of their ways were sufficient to rouse strong popular opposition. His attempt to reorganize the country's finances by the systematic levy of taxes was hailed with delight, but the government was not strong enough to carry the measures through, and the money which should have been used to pay the taxes was employed to purchase firearms instead. And so the benign intentions of Moulay Abdelaziz were interpreted as weakness, and Europeans were accused of having spoiled the sultan and of being desirous of spoiling the country. When British engineers were employed to survey the route for a railway between Meknes and Fes, this was reported as indicating the sale of the country outright. The strong opposition of the people was aroused, and a revolt broke out near the Algerian frontier. Such was the state of things when the news of the Anglo-French Agreement of 1904 came as a blow to Abdelaziz, who had relied on England for support and protection against the inroads of France.
The Moroccan Goumiers (French: Les Goumiers Marocains) were indigenous Moroccan soldiers who served in auxiliary units attached to the French Army of Africa. While nominally in the service of the Sultan of Morocco, they served under French officers. The term Goum designated a company of Goumiers. It originates from the Arab Maghreb gum and the Classical Arabic qawm, designating ”tribe” or ”people”. The term also refers to mounted contingents of Arab or Berber horsemen employed by tribal leaders during North African campaigns. The term tabor is originally a Turkish designation of tabur making reference to a battalion or by the intermediary Arab tabur, also originally a Turkish designation. The word originated in the Maghrebi Arabic word Koum, which means "people". The non-specific designation "Goumi" (French version "Goumier") was used to circumvent tribal distinctions and enable volunteers from different regions to serve together in mixed units for a "common" cause. In French military terminology, a goum was a unit of 200 auxiliaries. Three or four goums made up a tabor. An engine or groupe was composed of three tabors. A goum in this case was the equivalent of a company in regular military units and a tabor would thereby be equivalent to a battalion. A tabor was the largest permanent goumier unit.
The 'Alawi dynasty – also rendered in English as Alaouite, 'Alawid, or Alawite – is the current Moroccan royal family and reigning dynasty. They are an Arab sharifian 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 Dynasty. 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 colonial rule. The dynasty claims descent from Muhammad via Hasan, the son of Ali. The name 'Alawi stems either from the name of Ali (the father of Hasan), from which the dynasty ultimately traces its descent, or from the name of the dynasty's early founder Ali al-Sharif of the Tafilalt. The honorific title mawlay (also transliterated as mulay or moulay), meaning "my lord", was also commonly used in conjunction with the names of sultans.
Awards: Sash and star of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis, Stars of the Order of the Red Eagle and the Most Honourable Order of the Bath.
