CONTENTS OF Vol. 30, No. 1, 2005

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STUART SCHAAR: “`Abd Al-`Azīz Al-Tha`Ālbī: An early bridge between Indian, Middle Eastern and North African Islam”

ABSTRACT: Only after Habib Bourguiba (c.1903-2000), the first president of independent Tunisia was deposed on 7 November 1987, did scholars begin the serious work of correcting the one-sided rendering of history that the ‘Supreme Combatant’ imposed on his country. Shaykh `Abd al-`Azīz al-Tha`Ālbī (1876-1944), the prominent leader of early Tunisian nationalism, was one of the victims of Bourguiba’s rivalry, jealousy and animosity. ‘Court historians’, ordered to relegate him and others to the dustbins of history, rewrote the Tunisian past, while leaving out personalities whose memory might diminish the aura of greatness surrounding the president.
    With Bourguiba out of power, al-Tha`Ālbī’s long-hidden archives in the possession of Dr. Ahmad Ben Milad (1902-1994) surfaced, including a voluminous correspondence sent and received by the Shaykh, plus detailed records of the first Destour party, and revealed a complex and brilliant activist, scholar and Muslim reformer, on a par with the great seers of the Muslim world at the turn of the last century. This article, which concentrates on al-Tha`Ālbī’s early career before he founded the Destour Party, attempts to redefine the Shaykh’s lasting importance to Tunisian and Muslim history. In doing so, I have used part of his personal archive, summarized in a 1991 book by Ben Milad and Muhammad Driss, in addition to previously explored French archives.

MOSHE GERSHOVICH: “‘Like a Marabout visiting home’ Reflections on Oral History in the Moroccan countryside.”

ABSTRACT: On a sunny but cold winter day in March 2000, I left the compound at Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane where I was teaching and living, and travelled on the winding road that connects Fez and Marrakech, Morocco’s imperial capitals of yesteryear. I drove about 60 miles south to the township of Mrirt. Stuated 30 km north of Khenifra, in the midst of the Middle Atlas Mountains, Mrirt has grown considerably in recent years. According to the last three censuses, its population has risen from 4,837 in 1971, to 13,856 in 1982 and to 25,942 in 1994. It has become a magnet for rural inhabitants, forced from their hamlets in quest of employment. Many among them use Mrirt as a jumping-off point for further migration towards the Atlantic coastal urban areas around Casablanca, or even overseas. Among the residents of Mrirt and its immediate surroundings live several hundreds war veterans, Moroccans who served in the French army and participated in its wars. When I reached the centre of Mrirt I met my research assistant Hamid Nouamani, and together we headed towards the local Bureau that handles veterans’ affairs. There, during the course of the day we interviewed 12 veterans and integrated their stories into the gallery which, with the completion of my project, would include more than 150 individuals. This essay concerns the manner in which I conducted my oral history research project in Morocco. In it I discuss various methodological issues, practical problems and ethical concerns I encountered, as well as the ways in which I have sought to deal with them and the compromises I had to make in order to carry it through to completion. At various points in the paper I will return to the events of that day in Mrirt as illustration.

MOHAMED KABLY: “A propos du Makhzen des origines: Cheminement fondateur et contour cérémonial”

RÉSUMÉ: Par delà l’appréhension privilégiant le système makhzenien ‘moderne’ et l’isolant pratiquement de ses racines, l’on entreprend ici de restituer la partie immergente de l’iceberg. Une fois situé dans son contexte culturel global, le terme makhzen, tout en étant polysémique, paraît avoir été finalement réservé au système centralisateur apparu par suite de l’émergence, au tournant du VIe/XIIe siècle, d’un nouvel espace portant le nom, peu après, d’al-Maghrib al-Aqsà (Maghreb-Extrême). Appréhendé comme mode de gestion et de pouvoir, ce système, loin de se présenter d’emblée comme système accompli, aura été par contre généré au fil des siècles par diverses versions plus ou moins opposées et procédant, en gros, des mêmes données de structure essentielles. Implicite ou noyée dans la durée, une telle réalité transparaît sans peine au niveau du cérémonial adopté par chacune des dynasties concernées. Au point que le Makhzen des origines se démarque, de fait comme en image, du Makhzen chérifien qui lui fit suite. Néanmoins, tout en s’écartant de ce dernier sous ce double rapport, il ne pouvait guère éviter de lui léguer un certain nombre de traits apparemment indélébiles. Du fait qu’il privilégiait l’autorité par dessus tout, il aurait été conduit, peu à peu, à synthétiser ses propres versions opposées pour s’ouvrir, dorénavant, au pragmatisme tempéré par la parade et soutenu, le plus souvent, par la rigueur.

MOTAZZ A. SOLIMAN: “Libyan Foreign Policy from the Middle East to Africa: History, Transition and Implications”

ABSTRACT: Having chanting Pan-Arabist ideology and slogans since 1969, the regime of Muammar Qaddafi set its eyes on creating a regional leadership role for Libya in the Middle East. However, through diplomatic activity in the 1990s, Libya has more explicitly sought to redefine itself in the context of an African entity, while distancing itself from the Arab world. As a result, African leaders have drawn closer to Qaddafi than other Arab leaders and Libyan relations with Arab counterparts still appear somewhat cold. This dramatic shift occurred alongside the heyday of the Pan-Africanist struggle against imperialism and whit-minority regimes in the ‘Black Continent’, with Libya leading Arab efforts in assistance for the struggle of African self-determination. At the conclusion of the Cold War order, the shift in Libya’s orientation reached dramatic heights as Qaddafi repeatedly renounced his country’s old traditions and banners, above all, Pan-Arabism. Multiple factors may account for this shift, namely: 1. Libya’s political system and its implications on a Pan-African basis; 2. The history and evolution of Libyan-Egyptian relations since 1969 and Libya’s eventual isolation in the Middle East; 3. Qaddafi’s ideology; 4. Common Arab and African experiences; 5. Libya’s international isolation and African friendship since the 1980s. Further complicating Libya’s international relations are the country’s recent political rapprochement, and expansion of economic ties, with the west. These two developments come at a time when the United States has redefined its security interests concerning Africa in a post-9/11 framework of thought. No known relationship between the 9/11 tragedy and Libya exists. Yet a new, complex “love-hate” Libyan-West relationship, given Libya’s capacity as a potential peace-broker or destabilizing agent on regional (African, Middle Eastern) and international levels on the one hand, and as a valuable economic partner on the other. Both economic expansion and political rapprochement appear to be unclear and undefined, or at least seem to be moving at a confusing speed while giving mixed signals. This research paper specifically attempts to explore in depth the reasons behind Libya’s overtures to Africa and what implications these overtures may have for its relations with the Middle East and West. Conversely, the paper also poses the question of what implications the new Libyan-West “honeymoon” may have for Libya’s status in the Middle east and Africa.

JILLALI EL ADNANI: “Les rites de pluie et le champ politico-religieux au Maroc du XIXe siècle: quand la pluie tue le Sultan”

RÉSUMÉ: Le présent article tente de revisiter les rapports entre le pouvoir du makhzen et celui de la tribu mais en s’appuyant sur la relation entre ciel et terre et surtout sur un type de magie qui renvoie à la succession de la sécheresse, de la pluie et du pouvoir politico-religieux. C’est dire que les oppositions classiques entre pays makhzen et pays de l’anarchie ou encore entre la plaine et la montagne ne seront pas souvent prises en compte. La priorité sera donc donnée à cette alliance entre le sacré et le profane qui a pu souvent venir en aide à un pouvoir politique en proie à des difficultés internes auxquelles les textes sacrés ne trouvent pas de remède.
      Notre connaissance actuelle est loin de cerner les questions liées au flux et au reflux du pouvoir du Makhzen et des tribus sous l’effet de l’abondance et de la rareté des pluies. Le pouvoir du sultan se rétrécit au cours des saisons pluvieuses quand la tribu est “rassasièe” et peut entrer en révolte, sinon c’est le sultan qui soumet le pays en “mangeant” les tribus affamées. Faut-il donc se fier à l’historiographie marocaine qui s’est accordée sur un consensus plaidant pour une expression devenue célèbre: “le sultan qui gràce à la famine et la sécheresse arrive à soumettre le pays”? Ne s’agit-il pas là d’une règle qui ne s’applique qu’aux moments de crises? Sinon, quels sont les enjeux et les mécanismes d’un équilibre au niveau des rapports entre les tribus et le Makhzen? Enfin, peut-on parler d’une histoire marocaine faite d’une incessante succession de périodes de paix et de périodes de révoltes? Autrement dit, dans quelle mesure peut-on considérer une historiographie, largement préoccupée par l’enregistrement des révoltes, des sécheresses et des famines, comme le reflet de la situation d’un pouvoir makhzenien toujours en proie à sa tendance dominatrice et d’un pouvoir tribal souvent à la recherche d’une “autonomie”? C’est à partir de cette vision historienne et anthropologique que cette étude tentera de retrouver les lacunes, les divergences et les convergences qui ont souvent rendu difficile l’étude de la relation tribus-Makhzen.

STEPHEN CORY: “Language of Power: The use of literary Arabic as political propaganda in Early Modern Morocco”

ABSTRACT: Some of the most prolific sources for the history of the pre-modern Maghreb are the volumes of panegyric literature produced in the sultans’ courts and used to under-gird their political legitimacy. Since this literature tends to be extremely partial, filled with fantastic and unbelievable assertions and stories, highly complex, and very stylized, historians have often considered such documents to be of marginal value in providing historical information.
    This paper argues that, contrary to such a conclusion, the panegyric documents produced in the courts of pre-modern sultans can provide a wealth of information to the historian, not only in helping us understand the political ideologies promoted by these monarchs, but also in supplying insights into historical events. The paper examines the text of sixteenth century bay’a (oath of allegiance) used by the Moroccan Sultan Mawlay Ahmad al-Mansur to under-gird his own authority and that of his heir apparent. Although this bay’a document has repeatedly been overlooked by historians, it provides a clear presentation of al-Mansur’s doctrine of political legitimacy, a doctrine which continues to be used to justify political authority in Morocco to the present day. The bay’a also demonstrates how the sultan used insha’ literature as a “language of power” whose very nature confirmed the astounding claims that the bay’a document made for the sultan.

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