Episode 102: The Financial Resource of the Sharifian Leader Mawlay Ahmed al-Raysuni
Episode 102: The Financial Resource of the Sharifian Leader Mawlay Ahmed al-Raysuni
Introduction to Financial Resources in National Revolutions
The financial resource is considered one of the most vital elements for political movements and national liberation revolutions. It is imperative to search for financial resources—especially when national liberation revolutions emerge—to ensure the validity of the revolution, confirming whether it is built on a solid and national foundation or whether it is invalid if not based on such a foundation.
The Sharifian leader al-Raysuni was not among those leaders who depended on others for their revolutions, nor was he among the leaders of deceit and national betrayal. Rather, he was a man of sincerity, truth, loyalty, and self-reliance. He did not launch into armed revolution until he had prepared its financial backing during the four years in which he served as the governor of Asilah and the mountain tribes affiliated with it.
The source of those funds, which he collected and stored for the revolution in the banks of Tangier, was the wealth of agricultural production, numerous companies that grew livestock wealth in the producing tribes, and other sources such as the collection of Zakat, which state funds intervened in under his supervision while he was an official there. At that time, he was able to build one of the most magnificent palaces in the grand mountain of Tangier city—a palace where a settlement was reached between him and the Spaniards, who seized all of al-Raysuni's real estate, properties, and farms to offset their military losses that they suffered through his leadership of the mountain revolution, and his palace that he constructed in the city of Asilah.
Following numerous interventions with the General Residency, a settlement was concluded between him and his immortal son, whereby the General Residency relinquished the property and waived its claims. Thus, he took his luxury palace in the Grand Mountain of Tangier and his luxury palace in Asilah. As for his palace in Tangier, the Spanish state gifted it to the Sultanic Khalifa Mawlay al-Hasan for his wife, Lalla Fatima al-Zahra, on the occasion of their wedding, and it still belongs to her to this day. As for his palace in Asilah, the Ministry of Tourism rented it for a single dirham a year to humiliate Morocco and the Moraghens (Moroccans). During the circumstances in which he governed the city of Asilah and the Grand Mountain and its affiliated tribes in the capacity of a Pasha, he gathered massive funds, stored them for a long-term revolution, and built a Makhzenian (state-like) life independent of others—a life of comfort and luxury that no one of the Children of Israel (Bani Israel) had ever experienced.
Sources of Wealth and Financial Integrity
Al-Raysuni lived a revolutionary life rich with wealth, depending on agricultural resources that he extracted much from and stored in the treasuries of the lands around Asilah and the Grand Palace, placing them under the hand of trusted friends. During the days of the revolution, tribal Zakat came out regularly and was paid to him to assist in the war against the occupying enemy, in addition to what he obtained through spoils in the victories achieved by the Mujahideen. What he obtained through peace treaties and pacts was never acquired by looting the Muslims' funds or forcing the Mujahideen beyond their capacity. His integrity and abstinence from using endowment (Awqaf) funds in managing the revolution—even if Sharia law permitted their inclusion—were proven.
Therefore, it is appropriate in this chapter to discuss his financial resources, which served as a path to slipping into every disgrace, if I did not prepare its provisions from afar, unlike the leader Mawlay Ahmed al-Raysuni. Every revolution is in need of an economic resource and organization, and both form its solid foundation.
We were informed by his trusted secretary, who served as the supervisor of the revenues of the Raysuniyah Zawiya, al-Sayyid al-Hasan ibn al-Hajj Ali ibn Taha al-Khamsi, that the Sharif al-Raysuni had funds deposited in one of the foreign banks in Tangier. He had deposited them there on the day he was commander of the Anjra tribe during the reign of Mawlay al-Hasan, commander of the Fahs tribe during the reign of Mawlay Abd al-Aziz after his release from the Essaouira prison, Pasha and governor of the mountain tribes during the reign of Sultan Mawlay Abd al-Hafid before the signing of the protectorate treaty. This was in preparation for what he anticipated of armed revolution by the mountain tribesmen—those who were certain that they were ready for it and that no one possessed leadership of the revolution except him, because he saw through the circumstances that the days were forging.
Methods of Funding and Logistics During the Revolution
To prepare for this, he gathered the funds deposited in one of the banks in Tangier through his agent, secretary, and sincere friend, al-Hajj Qasim al-Dukkali. Al-Dukkali used to send funds to him regularly at the beginning of every month while al-Raysuni was in the village of Tazrut during the circumstances of the armed revolution. The funds reached him regularly via the organized postal service, which assigned some Mujahideen of the armed revolution to transport them. His agent and secretary, the aforementioned al-Hajj Qasim, used to send him every month ten sacks of sealed lead bullets, and for every thousand sacks, a thousand Riyal Hassani of duration at Tazrut. There was another financial resource in the port of the city of Tangier—an endowment (Hubus) established for the Zawiya of Tazrut until the French influence abolished it after the protectorate. The endowment deed remains in their hands to this day, and this resource was spent on himself in his private property, as well as on the guards and regular employees in his private property. Furthermore, there was an endowment of agricultural land known as al-Kharrouba, near the site of the famous battle of Wadi al-Makhazin, which still belongs to the Zawiya to this day.
The system of obligatory Zakat was applied effectively in the tribes that were under the rule of the leader al-Raysuni during the era of armed revolution. It was a right of Allah upon every Muslim and Muslimah at every turn of the year, and he established collectors who collected it from the tribes in the legitimate Islamic manner. He appointed an official in every tribe to collect it at its prescribed legal times, and they did not object to its extraction and delivery to the workers. There was no hypocrite who preferred the laws of the occupiers over the rulings of Allah except that they were present in the tribes of al-Khulot in large numbers, as discussed previously regarding their seeking refuge with the enemy of Allah, Sir George Maclean.
He appointed reliable jurists of deep religious knowledge—such as the prominent scholar Sidi Muhammad al-Shaddadi al-Sharif al-Omrani from the Sharifian clan—at the head of the workers assigned to collect Zakat from the tribes. The storage houses for their grain were in Madshar Abu Jabl, near the Souq al-Khamis, and residents still recognize the location of their treasuries.
The Sharif Sidi Abd al-Rahman al-Raysuni, known as Mawlad al-Fasiyah, was the assistant in collecting Zakat. The Sharif al-Raysuni had established in Madshar Tazrut a Sunday market, where some neighboring individuals came to purchase some of their necessary needs. The village contained shops for buying and selling, and Tazrut was considered an exemplary village containing the Zawiya of Jihad founded by the righteous saint Sidi Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Raysun.
All the Zawiyas in Morocco serve as citadels for the lesser and greater jihad in Islam. Three Zawiyas were prominent for making jihad their slogan:
- The first is the Tamaslout Zawiya.
- The second is the Tadla Zawiya.
- The third is the Tazrut Zawiya in Beni Arous.
These are the Zawiyas that gathered for their people the rosary and the rifle. As for the others, they were a shelter for those who remembered Allah, and after the protectorate, they became a refuge for hypocrites and a graveyard for the apostates. If prayer was absent in them, they were disliked according to the school of our Imam Malik.
The Sharifian leader al-Raysuni resided in this Zawiya as a refugee for the sake of jihad, and he populated a house from the endowment of the Zawiya. He did not own a house, real estate, or an inch of land in the village of Tazrut, and he stayed there for the duration of his jihadist life against the occupying enemy from the day he took up arms against his enemy, Silvestre, in the year 1331 AH until he departed from it on the 4th of Rajab al-Haram in the year 1343 AH, for a period estimated at about thirty years.
Spiritual Foundation and Ideological Resilience
Alongside the jihad, the laws of the Islamic sharia were established during this entire period, complying with the words of Almighty Allah:
"And judge, [O Muhammad], between them by what Allah has revealed and do not follow their inclinations..." (Surah Al-Ma'idah: 49).
Those blessed days were active for its people despite what was in them of jihad and combat, because the people at that time were imbued with the religion of Islam. Death in jihad was more beloved to them than a miserable life under the influence of the occupying enemy.
Those days were considered a blessing from the grandfather Sidi Muhammad ibn Ali, the founder of the Zawiya, for perhaps Allah had revealed that he would emerge from his loins Yahya, the year of jihad for the Zawiya. Thus, Allah achieved that through the hand of the Sharifian leader Mawlay Ahmed al-Raysuni, another one who fought the occupying enemy and established the justice of Islam. This is the testimony of the fearful and those who know Allah, which was dictated to us by the scholars of our country—may Allah have mercy on them—paying no heed to the rumors of the general public influenced by colonial propaganda that filled land, sea, plain, and rough terrain, turning facts upside down and instilling them in the minds of the oblivious.
The Burden of Injustice and Historical Truth
Some people's hearts among the general public were swayed by foreign propaganda without having a meeting time or place, nor even a witness to attest to his knowledge. Because of that, the testimony of the general public is not considered in matters of character amendment, disparagement, or falsifying lies. Nor is it considered except through the testimony of prominent, certified witnesses renowned for virtue by pious trustees.
Some see that some of us defend the oppressed Sharifian leader al-Raysuni with historical exaggeration, but it is not exaggeration along with recognizing the truth for its people, displaying it at its proper level without injustice, depreciation, or deviation. Often, people have gone astray in this door from the truth through the testimony of the masses who do not prove the truth—especially in our era, which has been influenced by inverted colonial propaganda that has made the good look ugly and the ugly look good.
Perhaps we find among the traces left by the righteous predecessors those who held fast to the truth and turned away from falsehood. Among that is what was narrated to us from Imam Ali, may Allah ennoble his face, that the hypocrites were the people who hated him most during the era of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, until it was said: "We did not know the hypocrites except by their hatred of Ali," out of pure jealousy from within themselves.
Among the rulings of Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, regarding his wisdoms:
"Know the truth before you know the men,"
and his saying:
"Know the men by the truth."
Some of them said regarding the condition of the general public, ancient and modern, absolutely:
"They do not understand and they do not care."
Conclusion of Episode 102
The historical overview of Mawlay Ahmed al-Raysuni’s financial administration demonstrates that his long-term armed revolution was sustained through a meticulously organized structure of self-reliance, legitimate agricultural yields, and traditional Islamic revenue systems like Zakat and endowments (Awqaf). Rather than depending on foreign powers or exploiting public treasury funds improperly, al-Raysuni maintained strict financial integrity while navigating the complex geopolitical landscape of colonial Morocco. Despite subsequent distortions by colonial propaganda, objective historical analysis reveals a leader whose economic logistics and governance were deeply anchored in both strategic foresight and adherence to Islamic jurisprudence.
"We are very close to the end, dear readers. Let us continue digitizing the history of this great figure, so please stay with us."
See also the previous episodes linked below
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