Ihhan tribes rebelled against the Makhzen authority
The rebellion of the Ihhan tribes continued after the death of the leader, Abdullah Obeihi, for a period of nearly five years. And the inability of the central warehouse to impose its authority and subjugate the rebellious tribes. It is certain that the foreign violations constituted one of the reasons for the instability of the situation in the Badia. The performance of the imposition of excise duties at the gates of Essaouira caused great resentment among the inhabitants of the Desert. During the sixties of the nineteenth century, the severity of the drought increased. The need and the Ihhan tribes at that time were under the control of the leader, Muhammad Obhi, who assumed leadership after the death of his father in 1868. Khalifa Abdullah Obihi initially led a rebellion in which he sacked the Obihi stronghold at Azgar.
In the spring of 1881, the rebellion that was brewing among the Ahhan tribes exploded to turn into a massive uprising, and the Amtogha tribe joined the uprising, and Azgar was completely destroyed. Soon the city of Essaouira itself became threatened by that uprising. When a crowd of residents came to the city in early June and threatened to cut off the water to the city if their relatives who were imprisoned in its prison were not released, and the stored authorities responded to their request, so the prisoners were released, most of whom were undoubtedly imprisoned because of the debts owed by them to foreigners and protected persons, and because of the shortage in the number of soldiers, the inability of the commander Essaouira about facing the crowds of people who filled the city.
A few weeks later, a delegation of one hundred men from the Ihhan tribes entered Essaouira, and they slaughtered three bulls in front of the representatives of the Makhzani authorities, then declared their loyalty to the Sultan. Commander Muhammad Obhi.
There are many reasons that prompted the warehouse to make imposing its monitoring on Ihhan one of its first priorities. On the one hand, the safety and prosperity of Essaouira is linked to the rule of security and tranquility in the Ihhan area, and on the other hand, monitoring the central warehouse facilitates the situation in Souss. In addition to this and that, the store was in dire need of collecting taxes, whether in Ahhan itself or in the surrounding areas. It was found out to the Makhzen that Commander Muhammad Obihi is unable to manage the affairs of Ihhan, in addition to the news that the Sultan had received news about Commander Obihi’s appropriation of the Makhzen’s money and the possibility of his contribution to transferring it to dissidents in the south, so he decided to permanently remove him from service. Calm returned, albeit temporarily, to the region, and the central store wanted to establish new alliances and serve its purposes by raising this party against others, especially since the Ihhan region contains 12 tribes, each of which seems to have governed itself by submitting to one of its local leaders.
The appointment of a new Makhzen commander, Muhammad ibn al-Tahir al-Dublali, was only a temporary alternative, as the unrest continued in the area extending north of Agadir, and when the banditry and besieging of the followers of Outkazrin were repeated, the Makhzen summoned military aid from Souss and Essaouira.
And the effects of the general chaos in Ahhan extended to the heart of the city of Essaouira itself. In March 1872, disturbances broke out during the celebration of Ashura in the city, and news was reported of the arrival of crowds of Bedouin people to the city, so they stormed the house and cursed the Jews. Hands in front of the strength and clamor of the fight, and in the year 1873 it became clear that the situation in Ihhan was in dire need of stability.
When Sultan Sidi Abd al-Rahman died in Marrakesh in 1873, his son was at that time camped in Abi Ruqi in the lands of Ihhan, and there he was pledged allegiance to the chiefs of the tribes, and he returned to Marrakesh to succeed his father in power. The new sultan promised to appoint senior Ahhan chiefs as leaders before returning to Marrakesh. But on the 15th of October, the revolution broke out again in Adogurdh as a result of the decision of the new sultan, which requires dividing Ahhan between four sheikhs:
Abdul Malik Obhi
bankrupt
Otkazarin
And Boal-Eshrat
So the four generals entered the city of Essaouira, and when the news of the appointments reached the Ihhan tribes, the city became threatened with falling under siege.
The number of rebels rose rapidly, and they besieged the city. Anfalus and Attazarin left the city to return to their homes in the desert, and then the disturbances continued for several days before the city authorities were able to establish security and calm.
And the policy of imitating senior figures from the people of the desert, the tasks of power, led to the emergence of new leaders opposed to the store, and Mubarak Anflus is considered the largest dominant force in the region, as all the inhabitants quickly fell under his authority, while the other commanders submitted to a smaller number of followers, and dozens died at the end the same year,
And when Abd al-Malik Obhi was imprisoned after the people after his appointment as a leader, Anfalus threatened him with besieging the city (Essaouira). Two weeks later, the two leaders reached a kind of settlement between them.
In the year 1875, Anfalus began arbitrarily exercising his authority over lands that fell within the jurisdiction of Otkazrin. Claims and mutual accusations multiplied between Anfalus and Otkazerin during the year 1877 regarding theft of camels, herds of cattle and firearms.
In sum, the rebellion that took place in Ahhan was a reaction to what the population was living in of extreme poverty under the weight of heavy taxes, and it was a protest against the state and its new political system that it tried to impose. Moreover, this rebellion of the Haitians reflects a severe wave of uprisings expressing the anxiety and resentment that prevailed among the social circles in Morocco during the nineteenth century AD.
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