Ahmed al-Hiba

This article is about the pretender to the Moroccan throne. For the Egytian archeological site, see El Hiba.

Ahmed al-Hiba
The French periodical Le Petit Journal's portrayal of al-Hiba's call to arms to his partisans. 1 September 1912.
Born9 September 1877
Died26 June 1919
Military career
Years of service1910–1919
Battles / warsBattle of Sidi Bou Othman

Mawlay Ahmed Haybat Allah ibn Ma al-Aynayn[a] (9 September 1877[b] – 26 June 1919), was a leader of an armed resistance to the French colonial power in Western Sahara, and was the Blue Sultan of Morocco.[1]

In English texts he is usually named simply El Hiba. In addition to his revolutionary activity, Ahmed al-Hiba was a prolific poet.[3]

Early life

Ahmed Haybat Allah ibn Ma al-Aynayn[4][5] was born on 9 September 1877.[1] He was the son of Ma al-'Aynayn, a religious leader of the Sahara who led an armed uprising against the French in the first decade of the twentieth century.[2]

Resistance

Shortly after Ma al-Aynayn's death, in 1912 the French imposed the Treaty of Fez on the Moroccans and took virtual control of the country. Ma al-'Aynayn's son al-Hiba then decided that this effectively vacated the position of Sultan of Morocco, and proclaimed himself Sultan at Tiznit (Morocco) as his father had done before him.

A letter by Ahmed al-Hiba bin Ma' al-Ainayn to the Pasha of Salé at-Tayib as-Sabīhī written in musnid Maghrebi script dated 8 Muharram, 1329 (8 January 1911).

A general uprising in the south of Morocco saw al-Hiba recognized as Sultan in Taroudannt, Agadir and the Dades and Draa regions. He gained a powerful ally in Si Madani, head of the Glaoua family. With his tribal army he entered Marrakech on 18 August 1912 and was proclaimed Sultan there also.

The decisive Battle of Sidi Bou Othman with the French took place near Marrakech on 6 September 1912. al-Hiba's forces were defeated by the French commanded by Charles Mangin, with the loss of some 2,000 tribal warriors.

In January 1913, he was driven out of Taroudant, where he had taken refuge after fleeing Marrakech, by troops led by Thami El Glaoui, Taïeb el Goundafi, and Haida Ou Mouis.

He was finally welcomed in 1915 in Kerdous, in the Anti-Atlas, by a local notable, Addi Ou Ahmed[6]. In January, he received a German delegation seeking allies against the French. He was not the only one approached during this period, including Sheriff Muhammad al-Hijami, Mohammed Al-Mamoune (al-Hibba's cousin), and Moha Ou Hammou Zayani.

At the end of 1916, "Captain Chleuh", Léopold Justinard, was sent to Tiznit to monitor the Sultan of Kerdous, whom the German mission led by Edgar Proebster was trying to supply with weapons by landing from a submarine at the mouth of the Dra River[7]. In 1917, he miraculously escaped the aerial bombardment of Kerdous. He died of natural causes on June 23, 1919, in Kerdous, where his tomb is located. His brother Merebbi Rebbo succeeded him.

  • José Ramón Diego Aguirre, El Oscuro Pasado del Desierto. Approximación a la Historia del Sáhara. Casa de África, Madrid, 2004. ISBN 84-95498-64-2.

Notes

  1. ^ Arabic: مولاي أحمد هيبة الله بن ماء العينين, romanized: Mawlāy Aḥmad Haybat Allāh ibn Māʾ al-ʿAynayn; known simply as Ahmed al-Hiba (Arabic: أحمد الهيبة, romanized: Aḥmad al-Hība) and by the nickname The Blue Sultan (Arabic: السلطان الأزرق).[1]
  2. ^ According to the Second Edition of the Encyclopedia of Islam, al-Hiba was born on Ramadan 1293 or 1294 which is some time in September or October in 1876 or 1877.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c "الشيخ أحمد الهيبة بن الشيخ ماء العينين" [Shaykh Ahmad al-Hiba ibn Shaykh Ma al-Aynayn]. Al Jazeera (in Arabic). Retrieved 5 March 2021.
  2. ^ a b Deverdun, Gaston (2004). "Aḥmad al-Hība". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume XII: Supplement. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 47–48. ISBN 978-90-04-13974-9.
  3. ^ Haybah, Muḥammad bin al-Shaykh Aḥmad (2010). Dīwān al-shaykh Muḥammad bin al-Shaykh Aḥmad al-Haybah. Tiznīt: Jamʻīyat al-Shaykh Māʼ al-ʻAynayn lil-Tanmīyah wa-al-Thaqāfah.
  4. ^ Burke, Edmund (29 June 2018). "Moroccan Resistance, Pan-Islam and German War Strategy, 1914–1918". Francia: 448. doi:10.11588/FR.1975.0.48386. ... where his true name, Mawlāy Ahmad Haybat Allāh ibn Mā al-ʿAynayn is given.
  5. ^ Moreau, Odile; Schaar, Stuart, eds. (13 December 2016). Subversives and Mavericks in the Muslim Mediterranean: A Subaltern History. University of Texas Press. p. 212. ISBN 978-1-4773-1091-5.
  6. ^ Rachid Agrour (2023). Le mouvement hibiste. Jihad et résistances dans le Sud marocain (1910-1934). Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes. p. 118. ISBN 978-2-7535-9332-9.
  7. ^ Léopold Justinard (1951). Un grand chef berbère. Le caïd Goundafi (in French). Casablanca: Atlantides.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.