Bou Hmara

Jīlālī bin Idrīs al-Yūsufī al-Zarhūnī
الجيلالي بن إدريس اليوسفي الزرهوني
Pretender
Bornc. 1860
Oulad Youssef, Morocco
Died1909

Jīlālī bin Idrīs al-Yūsufī al-Zarhūnī (Arabic: الجيلالي بن إدريس اليوسفي الزرهوني; c. 1860 – 1909), commonly known as El Rogui, El Roghi or Bou Hmara, was a pretender to the throne of Morocco in the period 1902–1909, during the reign of Abdelaziz and Abd al-Hafid.[1]

Name

His given name was Jilali ibn Idris al-Yusufi al-Zarhuni[1][2] deriving from his birth place being the village Ouled Youssef in the Zerhoun area near Fes. It is alternatively written as Djilali ben Driss Zerhouni el Youssefi.[3] Alternatively, his given name was Omar ez-Zarhouni.[4]

He was known as El Rogui (الرُقي ar-Ruqī) meaning "the pretender".[1] This name comes from an earlier pretender from the Gharb region in Morocco called Jilali al-Rughi who was from Rawagha fraction of the Sufyan, hence the nisba al-Rughi.[5]

He was also known by the nickname Bou Hmara (بو حمارة Bū Ḥmāra)—also spelled Bu Himara, Bou Hamara, Bouhmara or Abu Himara —meaning the man on a female donkey[1] because like many religious rebels in North Africa he rode a donkey.[6] Riffians referred to him as Bu Tghyutsh for a similar reason.[7]

Early life

Jilali ibn Idris al-Yusufi al-Zarhuni was born in 1865[8] and was from an Arab clan known as the Awlad Yusuf which settled near Zerhoun.[2] According to Eugène Aubin, he was an Arabized Berber.[3] He was educated at Al-Qarawiyyin.[9] He originally held the position of secretary to Moulay Omar, brother of Sultan Moulay Abdelaziz and was a minor makhzen official and an ex-talib al-muhandis (student engineer).[2] He was imprisoned in 1894 by Ba Ahmed for forgery.[2][8][9]

Pretender

After release, he went to Algeria, whence he returned (riding a female donkey) to Taza in the northeast of Morocco with the idea of impersonating Moulay Mohammed, another brother of the Sultan. Moulay Mohammed was venerated by the Moroccan public as a saintly figure, but although still alive and well, he kept to the royal palace in Fes and was almost never seen in public. Under this assumed identity, Bou Hmara proclaimed himself Sultan of Morocco. This was at the end of 1902, when he was about 40 years old.

He is said to have ruled ruthlessly in Taza and the surrounding area of the Rif and Nekor. He persecuted the Jews, who had to take refuge in neighbouring areas. He is said to have executed some of his opponents by soaking the victims in petrol, then setting them alight at night.[10]

While ensconced in Taza, he was able to repel all attempts by the Sultan's army to invade his domain.[11] However, by 1909, he had enlarged his area of control, and could not retain the loyalty of all the many different tribes it encompassed. In addition, he had alienated some of these tribes by selling mining concessions to Spanish interests.[12]

By then the Sultan was Moulay Abdelhafid, a more vigorous ruler than Abdelaziz. Abdelhafid first attempted to discredit Bou Hmara by taking the real Moulay Mohammed, who was up until now imprisoned by the Sultan Abdelaziz, to a public mosque; but this caused a near riot and was not repeated. Fearing that Bou Hmara was expanding towards Fes, Abdelhafid sent another army against him, armed with cannon manned by French artillery instructors. During the resulting battle, the cannon were used to shell a religious shrine where Bou Hmara had taken refuge, and he was captured.[10]

Bou Hmara's men were either decapitated on the spot, or taken hostage. It is said that 400 prisoners began the march to Fes but only 160 arrived, the remainder having been ransomed. Once at Fes, one-fifth of the captives were punished at a public mutilation, a hand and opposing foot being cut off (hirabah), and the others imprisoned.[10]

Bou Hmara himself was for some time kept imprisoned in a small cage in which he could not stand. There are conflicting stories about how he was eventually executed. The most popular has it that he was thrown to the lions in the Sultan's menagerie, then shot when they proved too slow to kill him.[13] Another account says that, too weak to hold himself upright, he was propped up in a metal tub normally used for the lions' feed, allowed to recite the shahada, then immediately shot in the head with a pistol.[10] In both accounts, the body was later burned with a mixture of wood and the curtains from the Sultan's harem.[10]: 218 

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Miller, Susan Gilson (2013). A History of Modern Morocco. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-139-62469-5. OCLC 855022840.
  2. ^ a b c d Burke III, Edmund (2009-02-15). Prelude to Protectorate in Morocco: Pre-Colonial Protest and Resistance, 1860-1912. University of Chicago Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-226-08084-0.
  3. ^ a b Aubin, Eugène (2004). Le Maroc dans la tourmente: 1902-1903 (in French). Eddif. pp. 139–140. ISBN 978-9981-896-48-2.
  4. ^ Suolinna, Kirsti; Lahtinen, Tommy (2008-01-01). "Tangier as a Meeting Place for North African and European Cultures During the Time of the Last Sultans of Morocco". In Houtsonen, Jarmo; Antikainen, Ari (eds.). Symbolic Power in Cultural Contexts: Uncovering Social Reality. Brill. p. 194. ISBN 978-90-8790-266-7.
  5. ^ Shinar, Pessah. Modern Islam in the Maghrib. Max Schloessinger Memorial Foundation, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. p. 165. ISBN 9789657258026.
  6. ^ Pennell, C. R. (2013-10-01). Morocco: From Empire to Independence. Simon and Schuster. p. 132. ISBN 978-1-78074-455-1.
  7. ^ Hart, David Montgomery (1976). The Aith Waryaghar of the Moroccan Rif: An Ethnography and History. University of Arizona Press. p. 361. ISBN 978-0-8357-5290-9.
  8. ^ a b Gordon, Matthew S. "Bu Hamara". In Mattar, Philip (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East & North Africa. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). Macmillan Inc. p. 542. ISBN 0028659872.
  9. ^ a b Pennell, C. R. (2000). Morocco Since 1830: A History. Hurst. pp. 127–128. ISBN 978-1-85065-273-1.
  10. ^ a b c d e Le Glay, ref. cited below.
  11. ^ See article on T'hami El Glaoui.
  12. ^ Article by Dunn cited below.
  13. ^ See e.g. Maxwell's book, cited below.

References

  • Dunn, Ross E. "Bu Himara's European Connexion: The Commercial Relations of a Moroccan Warlord", The Journal of African History, Vol. 21, No. 2 (1980), pp. 235–253
  • Dunn, Ross E. "The Bu Himara Rebellion in Northeast Morocco: Phase I", Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1 (1981), pp. 31–48.
  • Le Glay, Maurice. La Mort du Rogui. Berger-Levrault, Paris (consulted 7th edition, 1926).
  • Maxwell, Gavin. Lords of the Atlas. (A modern classic, various editions, ISBN 0-907871-14-3).
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