Moulay Abd al-Aziz bin Hassan (; 24 February 1878 – 10 June 1943) was 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.
Early life Abdelaziz was born on 24 February 1878 or 18 February 1881 to Hassan I of Morocco and Lalla Ruqaya who was a Circassian concubine who became Hassan's favorite wife.. "When 'Abd al-'Aziz came into his majority in 1900 upon the death of the regent, he was only nineteen years old and had spent most of his young life within the confines of the royal harem. His mother was Lalla Raqīya, a beautiful and intelligent Circassian slave woman who had been the favorite wife of Mawlay al-Hasan during the last years of his life. She had originally joined forces with Ba Aḥmad to insure the proclamation of her son and continued to have considerable influence over his decisions until her own death in 1902."
Shortly before his death in 1894 Hassan I designated Moulay Abdelaziz his heir, despite his young age. Previously, Hassan's other son Moulay Mahammad was the accepted successor of Hassan. However, he was dismissed because he was allegedly a poor commander and half-hearted Muslim. Abdelaziz was chosen over his brothers because he was Hassan's favourite son.
Abdelaziz's education was mostly focused on religious subjects rather than the practice of government affairs. His teachers included a pro-reform scholar from Marrakesh, al-Faqih Mufaddal al-Susi, who would later provide fatwas on the legality of Abdelaziz's proposed reforms. The aspect of his education that had the biggest effect on his rule was his isolation from the people preventing him from understanding what behaviours were appropriate for a sultan to display publicly.
Reign In academic literature, Abdelaziz's reign is often referred to as the "prelude to Protectorate". Historians both before and after colonialism often write about this period as if the fall of the makhzen was inevitable due to the accumulation of forces preventing reform.
Early reign Abdelaziz's accession to the sultanate was ensured with little fighting because of his mother, Lalla Ruqaya, and Ba Ahmed, the chamberlain and grand vizier of Hassan I. 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 a mahalla with support from the large Mtougga tribe, Abdelaziz 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. The new makhzen appointed by Abdelaziz favoured reform as the best way of preserving Moroccan independence. Originally, a cousin of Ba Ahmed became grand vizier but was replaced by an elderly Andalusian official Muhammad al-Mufaddal ibn Muhammad Gharnit. The minister of foreign affairs, , who supported refoms, and minister of finance, Abd al-Salam al-Tazi, remained in their positions. The most important figure in government was the royal favourite , an Arab from the south, and young mukhzani of rural origin who became his aide-de-camp and chief adviser. Menebhi like Abdelaziz supported reform and he was given the position of minister of war. Another important figure in this time was the Scottish drill sergeant "Qaid" Harry Aubrey de Vere Maclean who became part of Abdelaziz's inner circle providing him with entertainment and whatever he desired abroad. French diplomat described the makhzen as weak and one of "professional politicians, intriguing against one another, adopting different attitudes, and playing on the inexperience of the sovereign".
On the same year, the French administration of Algeria called for the annexation of the Tuat region, which was part of Morocco back then,Frank E. Trout, Morocco's Boundary in the Guir-Zousfana River Basin, in: African Historical Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1 (1970), pp. 37–56, Publ. Boston University African Studies Center: « The Algerian-Moroccan conflict can be said to have begun in 1890s when the administration and military in Algeria called for annexation of the Touat-Gourara-Tidikelt, a sizable expanse of Saharan oases that was nominally a part of the Moroccan Empire (...) The Touat-Gourara-Tidikelt oases had been an appendage of the Moroccan Empire, jutting southeast for about 750 kilometers into the Saharan desert » and owed religious and tributary allegiance to the sultans of Morocco. The territory was annexed by France in 1901.Claude Lefébure, Ayt Khebbach, impasse sud-est. L'involution d'une tribu marocaine exclue du Sahara, in: Revue de l'Occident musulman et de la Méditerranée, N°41–42, 1986. Désert et montagne au Maghreb. pp. 136–157: « les Divisions d'Oran et d'Alger du 19e Corps d'armée n'ont pu conquérir le Touat et le Gourara qu'au prix de durs combats menés contre les semi-nomades d'obédience marocaine qui, depuis plus d'un siècle, imposaient leur protection aux oasiens » 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,FIGHT EXPECTED AT FEZ.; Rebels Only Four Hours from Capital at Last Report. LONDON TIMES -- NEW YORK TIMES Special Cablegram. January 2, 1903American Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events, Volume 19; Volume 34, D. Appleton, 1895, p.501 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.
While privately owned printing presses had been allowed since 1872, Abdelaziz passed a dhahīr in 1897 that regulated what could be printed, allowing the qadi of Fes to establish a board to censor publications, and requiring that the judges be notified of any publication, so as to "avoid printing something that is not permitted." According to Moroccan historian Abdallah Laroui, these restrictions limited the volume and variety of Moroccan publications at the turn of the century, and institutions such as al-Qarawiyyin University and Sufi zawiyas became dependent on imported texts from Egypt.
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.
Foreign policy
In order to ensure the success of his reform programme, Abdelaziz sought to mend their diplomatic disputes to as well as obtain French support to inspire British confidence and to gain financial commitments. In June 1901, Abdelaziz sent his minister of war, al-Menebhi, to the United Kingdom and he was received by King Edward VII. Immediately after being sent to the UK, al-Menebhi's mission visited Berlin. The reception was unenthusiastic in both the UK and Germany as the UK was occupied with the Boer War and events in the Far East. Simultaneously, the foreign minister, Abd al-Karim ibn Sulayman, was sent to Paris and St. Petersburg. In Paris, the Ibn Sulayman delegation entered into negotiations over the Morocco-Algerian frontier. Despite an accord being concluded on July 20 which temporarily resolved the situation over the frontier, France did not commit itself to the Moroccan reform programme. This mode of diplomacy where Morocco engaged with multiple European states was designed to maintain the balance of power between these European states.
Algeciras Conference
On the advice of Germany, Abdelaziz proposed an international conference at Algeciras in 1906 as a result of the First Moroccan Crisis in 1905, to consult upon methods of reform, the sultan's desire being to ensure a state of affairs which would leave foreigners with no excuse to interfere in the control of the country and thereby promote its welfare, which he had earnestly desired from his accession to power. This was not, however, the result achieved, and while on June 18 the sultan nonetheless ratified the resulting Act of the conference, which the country's delegates had found themselves unable to sign, the anarchic state into which Morocco fell during the latter half of 1906 and the beginning of 1907 revealed the young ruler as lacking sufficient strength to command the respect of his turbulent subjects.
The final Act of the Conference, signed on 7 April 1906, covered the organisation of Moroccan police and customs, regulations concerning the repression of the smuggling of armaments and concessions to the European bankers from a new State Bank of Morocco, issuing banknotes backed by gold, with a 40-year term. The new state bank was to act as Morocco's Central Bank, with a strict cap on the spending of the Sherifian Empire, and administrators appointed by the national banks, which guaranteed the loans: the German Empire, United Kingdom, France and Spain. Spanish coinage continued to circulate. The right of Europeans to own land was established, whilst taxes were to be levied towards public works. Opposition
Rebellion of Bu Hmara
Jilali bin Idris al-Yusufi al-Zarhuni, also known as Bu Hmara, emerged in north-east Morocco in 1902. He claimed to be the older brother of Abdelaziz and the rightful heir to the throne. Having spent time in Fes, he had become familiar with Makhzen politics. The pretender established a rival Makhzen in a remote area between Melilla and Oujda. He traded with Europe, collected customs duties, and imported arms. He also granted Europeans mining rights for iron and lead in the Rif Mountains, and he claimed to be the Mahdi. His armies easily defeated those sent by Abdelaziz to capture him and even threatened the capital, Fes, proving the Minister of War al-Manabhi to be an incompetent general. The rebellion continued until Abd al-Hafid, Abdelaziz's successor, defeated and executed Bu Hmara in 1909.
Rebellion of Ahmed al-Raysuni