Episode 71 The Rif Liberation War: From the Perspective of Hajj Ahmed Bouâiyachi

The Rif Liberation War: From the Perspective of Hajj Ahmed Bouâiyachi...

​The Suspension of Military Operations in the Rif and the Expansion of Spanish Forces on the Western Front

​The author states: "Let us temporarily leave aside the conflict in the Rif, which has led to a freeze on Spanish military movements while maintaining the positions the enemy has successfully secured in Tfersit, Midar, and Sidi Hssain. This latter base is coastal on the Mediterranean Sea, whereas Tfersit is inland, close to the Bin Taib base, and Midar is located on the route to Melilla. This was done by order of the new Madrid government to reduce the exorbitant military expenses borne by the Spanish government in its general budget, which was estimated at sixty-seven million pesetas annually, alongside an advance equivalent to twenty million pounds sterling."

​He then transitioned to discussing the western front, saying: "Amidst these events unfolding in the Rif, other movements by the invading armies were taking place along the Atlantic coasts and the outskirts of Gibraltar. Around the year 1911 AD, cavalry officer Captain Fernando Silvestre—a man of convoluted fins and improvisational ideas—disembarked on the coast of the city of Larache, occupying it on June 8, 1911 AD. He then advanced and occupied the city of Ksar El Kebir. Similarly, General Alfaw set out from Ceuta at the head of an army and occupied the city of Tetouan on August 2, 1913 AD. He then touched upon the appointment of the Sultanic Khalifa, Moulay Al-Mahdi bin Ismail, on April 27, 1913 AD. He then mentions Silvestre repeatedly, characterizing him with grand descriptors as the cavalry officer with the convoluted fins, stating: 'After Colonel Silvestre made the position of the Sultanic Khalifa a subject of bargaining with the Moroccan adventurer Moulay Ahmed al-Raisuli, the self-proclaimed leader of the Jbala tribes at that time.'"

​Critical Analysis of the English Historian's Account and the Imprisonment of Sharif al-Raisuli in Asilah

​He continues his discussion, saying: "Look at his statement: except that the Madrid government, upon seeing that al-Raisuli's proposal to replace the Sultanic Khalifa in northern Morocco was inappropriate, view al-Raisuli's personal character as unwelcome to the Moroccan court because from his early youth he sought to create troubles, which forced the court to throw him into the depths of underground prisons shackled between walls on Perejil Island."

​He continues his discussion of al-Raisuli, quoting the English historian in The Prison Island, while noting: "To call it an adventurous word, and unfairly detracting from the stature of the noble Mujahid, the Sharif al-Raisuli, with a magnitude befitting all of the free men and foreigners alike, and his statement about his adventure: derived from his statement of adventure: his killer and tyrant, yet he did not taste death nor did he experience the descriptions of the strong men of the powerful, which he places in the position of depreciation and defamation with ignorance of its linguistic meaning."

​He then adds regarding the author's narrative on the imprisonment of al-Raisuli in Asilah: "I wish the author had not chronicled Asilah in this sweeping, insulting manner, which makes me hate the scholarship of the Morgharians (Maghribis) who oppress al-Raisuli and bid farewell to his dark dungeons, thus gambling with his speech without clarifying the perspective of those who consider those prisoners to be the intelligence agents of Colonel Silvestre, and those of a similar ilk from the traitors who betrayed their country and brothers in favor of the occupying enemy, and that is the reason for Colonel Silvestre's affection for them and his consideration of them as his own people and for his own private interests. Indeed, it was the right of the noble Sharif al-Raisuli to treat them with the utmost severity because they were corruptors of their country and nation..."

​The Boiling Situation in the Region, the Royal Decoration, and al-Raisuli's Retaliation Against Collaborators

​"...strengthening it from an isolated isolation, and the situation in the region was boiling with a simmering pot, resulting from the burning enthusiasm that the locals showed against the Spanish occupation and its advancing armies. The Spanish government was content to ask the King of Morocco to grant al-Raisuli a high decoration, and the King complied with the request and issued a dahir granting him that medal. However, al-Raisuli was angered by that pitiful, lowly grant, considering it a regression from the condition of calm, and therefore his fury flared up, and he turned to pour his wrath upon those who cooperated with Colonel Silvestre during the days of negotiations as a revenge for the honor of the footwear, according to his claim. He treated them with the same severity, sending a detachment of his army to prevent them from retaliating against the collaborators who fell into his grip. Al-Raisuli was able to defeat the garrison of al-Watan, and then he submitted his complaints to the Spanish government through its minister in Tangier."

​He adds: "The Spanish government considered everything that Colonel Silvestre committed against al-Raisuli to be characterized by foolishness and military madness, and consequently, the Madrid government summoned him to investigate and research all the details, supplied him with its instructions, and returned him to his headquarters in Asilah. He imprisoned al-Raisuli in Asilah, describing him as being packed with prisoners whom the colonel rescued..."

​The Division of Citizens into Two Wars and the Justification of Immediate Discipline Against Enemy Collaborators

​"...and those whom destiny swallowed up and dropped beneath his hands, casting them into the darkness of prisons where there is neither mercy nor tenderness for their condition, leaving them to endure hunger and thirst."

​He states: "The citizens during the era of occupation were divided into two wars: a war of those who fought alongside the enemy and the occupier, which was the general administration's war led by Colonel Silvestre and his men, who were residing in the prison of Asilah, driving them to perform the orders of Colonel Silvestre; and another war of those who preferred death over a lowly life under the rule of the occupying enemy, who were that group of Muslims who recognized God as their Lord, and their leader al-Raisuli and his followers in the work of Jihad, and they were those who were alive with God and the nation. The noble Sharif al-Raisuli was sincere in his work for God, the homeland, and Islam, and his party was the Mujahideen everywhere, and among them was that group of patient believers who prepared their provisions to meet their occupying enemy, Colonel Silvestre and his soldiers. That group of citizens loved the occupying enemy and his war, and al-Raisuli said about them: 'They suffered from hunger and thirst, so this is their recompense because they brought evil upon their country and brothers from the occupying enemy.' The Moroccan citizen, if he belongs to the party of the occupying enemy, must be disciplined immediately without trial."

​The Story of Sidi Abd al-Salam and the Renaming of the Shrine by the Dominites in Asilah (1911 AD)

​...from the descendants of Sidi Omar bin Isa bin Abd al-Wahhab, who immigrated to Asilah and settled there when the Sharif al-Raisuli was working as an agent for him, and one of his friends whose name was Muhammad residing in the house of his father-in-law Al-Harash. After the military battles broke out between the Mujahideen and Colonel Silvestre in Arbaoua Ayacha, Sidi Muhammad sneaked out one day and accompanied some friends from a faction of Al-Badur called Amzoura, where he owned a house and arable land, and entered the rule of Colonel Silvestre. He seized his family's property of what was there from Bani Urus, except what Colonel Silvestre enabled him to take, and out of knowledge of the Mujahid man for the country and its people, he assigned the military base at the Monday Souk of Al-Yamani, and the owner of the cattle knew the man who took the cattle and knew the father of the resident in the city of Asilah. He then went to the ruler of the city of Asilah and informed him that his cattle had been taken. He then recognized the man who lived in the city of Asilah, and he knew him as a friend of the Sharif al-Raisuli. He was a man who showed outward righteousness among the citizens, and his son was the one who took the cattle with certainty. He was arrested and dragged into prison in Asilah until his son returned the cattle to its owner, Mr. Al-Mazroui, and he was unable to get his son to inform him of what he was doing and what befell him because of it. His inevitable death caught up with him while he was in prison, so he ordered him to be taken and buried in the open sand; as people walked by and insulted him as an insult to him. Since a group of believers knew his virtue and goodness, they began to make a barrier for him so that passing people would not harm him in their going and coming, and they called him Sidi Abd al-Salam. His burial there was an insult to him and his honor, and when the Dominites passed over them and found them making a barrier and a mound of stones from the stones, what are you doing? They informed him that the righteous saint "Sidi Abd al-Salam" was buried there, so he dug it and said to them: "Sidi Wallu." The name "Sidi Wallu" was launched upon him from that day by order of the Dominites, the ruler of the city of Asilah, on the date of the year 1331 AH corresponding to 1911 AD.

​Refutation of British Consultant MacLain's Claims Regarding the State Treasury and Currency

​...the force opposing Colonel Silvestre and the soldiers of the occupation on that history, which is the first of January 1911 AD, which erupted in the early days of May 1913 AD.

​He says: "As for what the British consultant MacLain stated regarding his saying twenty thousand pounds sterling from the state treasury... and had he had any way of verifying what he quotes: meaning that the Moroccan state did not deal in the sterling currency! The Moroccan treasury did not possess it, nor did the Moroccan currency even possess it to pay the debts incurred by it from the two neighboring countries, France and Spain, and to cover all the imports of the Sharifian Arab State, along with what was added to that of the ministry's plunder during the era of Minister Awwad Al-Marrakushi and the reign of his counterpart Abu Hamara? The purpose is that the British government led the Sharif al-Raisuli with the sterling currency equivalent to thirty-five thousand Louisa of the Azizia currency, but he kept it and returned it to the Moroccan treasury during the era of the Hafiziyyah state. I have presented all of this talk in detail, so there is no need to repeat it here."

​The Defeat of Colonel Silvestre's Forces and the Critique of Spanish Flattery Toward al-Raisuli

​The tribes, and they were walking behind the inner linings of evil that bear no conscience nor deterrent for them to commit abominations. As for the other ego of the military ruler, the knights' morale collapsed, and he fled with the wind, and the "Wild Ox" triumphed over his enemy Silvestre, who was able to win the battle without fighting his enemy Silvestre, who said: "Blame does not fall on anyone except those cowardly cowards who occupy the chairs of government in Madrid, and look at things with a paper telescope, and do not see them with a decisive sniper telescope."

​He says: "The expression 'inner lining of evil' is not true in reality except for someone who was a traitor to his country, his religion, and his conscience, and the leader Sharif Moulay Ahmed al-Raisuli was not described by any free citizens as anything other than that, nor was he described by that except those who harmed their brothers and homeland in the way of elevating the occupying enemy and glorifying him on their land and homeland. Look at how he describes the enemy of God, Silvestre, with the greatest descriptions, and mentions him by the most beautiful name, such as: cavalry officer! For that was flattery to the Spanish enemy so that he would be rewarded for it; because the Spanish enemy handed over the reins of government to the authority of independence and left the country to no turning back, and where is he now?"

​The Establishment of Military Operations in Dar Ben Kraych and the Sharifian Response to Spanish Threats

​Tetouan and assigned its leadership to the Sharif Sidi Muhammad bin Sidi Al-Hasan from the Beni Urus tribe, and made the headquarters of his military operations in the village of Dar Ben Kraych. Spain attempted by various means through the Governor-General General P. F. V. and his intelligence officer in Tetouan to move his jihadist movement, so he sent threatening messages to him, but he responded with enthusiastic enthusiasm to one of the messages we found responding to the threats of the General Administration, which is dated 26 Muharram 1332 AH corresponding to December 25, 1913 AD, and its text reads: "From the commander of the mujahideen in *Ribat Dar Ben Kraych al-Salam on those who followed guidance, and after: Make sure that the response we sent to the representative of the Spanish General Administration in Tetouan has reached your milestone that threatened us first, and second, that we now confirm in your third book that you are determined to launch bombs, heavy guns, and other explosives from balloons and airplanes, and that will be general in the tribes, markets, and villages, and you have done that with no mercy on our Muslim women and boys, and you have set that day on Friday next. And we inform you that we do not fear death as long as our slogan is Jihad for the sake of God, so that the word of God and the word of those who disbelieved shall be the lowest, and until our speech is pronounced with the word that there is no god but God, and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God, for God has bought from us our wealth and our souls for Paradise, and all those who die in Jihad have paid the price of the contract that was concluded with God and acquired the price which is Paradise, in which you will prevent it when you burn us in the fire of flames, and we do not expect from the fruit of Jihad except one of the two best things, and war is a bouts day for us and a day against us, and as for what you mentioned about launching bombs and balloons from the balloons and airplanes, that is all as a means of death we welcome it from the Muslims, and you hate it because you are described as infidels, and all of that does not concern us, and whatever of your hostility to us and your hostility against us and our country, and that is only from the lack of your minds, and the abundance of your injustice and your aggression against us as Muslims other than what you have scripted in your book, and from that we decided that death and war is the decisive arbiter between us and you, so none of us will die until ten of you die, or dozens, in addition to the corruption of money that is done by those bombs and others, which will mostly fall in the wilderness, and from our side the Muslim does not die except for his religion, or his homeland, or his children, and we see your determination to own Muslims, and control their necks and properties, and divert them from their religion, the signatures: Muhammad bin al-Hasan bin Abd al-Wahhab."

​And thus the mujahideen resolved on martyrdom against the Spanish army, the camp in Tetouan under the command of General Felipe F. V., the Governor-General in Tetouan, and all the Jbala tribes were fortified.

​The Strategic Importance of Dar Qureish and the Heroic Resistance led by Sharif Sidi Walid Ahmed al-Kharraz

​Mujahideen of the Al-Murabitin at the center of Qureish, so it became the center of Qureish, a military value, and it was the first center that disturbed the sleep of the Spanish army, and from it erupted that strong spark in the face of the Spanish army, and the spirit of Jihad emerged in it, and crushed that onslaught of regular forces in the face of the Spanish army, and those military operations originating from the determination of the fighters caused terror and panic in the ranks of the Spanish enemy, and he began to fear the movements of the Jbala tribes, especially when the line of fighting from Tetouan to the city of Ksar El Kebir expanded, and the forces of General Alfaw did not exceed two thousand and five hundred, and the war evolved and Jbala tribes began to flock to the combat centers continuously whenever the fire was seen burning in the peaks of the mountains, and as a harbinger of the enemy's movements at his centers, and there was at the fort of Ain Al-Jadida a guard of police soldiers of the column to supervise communications between Tangier and Tetouan, and when they learned that the mujahideen gathered at Ribat Dar Qureish, they feared for themselves and withdrew from the guard center and entered the city of Tetouan.

​Then the General-Governor undertook the first attack on the village of Al-Dashrin, and those mujahideen confronted the Spanish armies, and fierce battles took place between the two sides resulting in the defeat of the Spanish army, and the mujahideen pursued them until they retreated behind the walls of the city until the shouting and cheering of the mujahideen was heard. Then the General reinforced his forces with Reclarias forces, which were mostly composed of Moroccan mercenaries, and attacked the Central Lozin center again, and fierce, more intense battles occurred than what happened before at the Al-Dashrin center, and he made it a major base for the launch of the occupying Spanish armies, and that was on the dates of 6, 7, and 8 of Rajab Al-Haram in the year 1331 AH corresponding to 6-11-1913 AD, and at the head of the mujahideen was that heroic leader, the Mujahid Sharif Sidi Walid Ahmed al-Kharraz, who is considered one of the leaders of the Beni Urus tribe. It is said that he did not miss a battle from those advancing battles which resulted in heavy losses in the Spanish army and its war equipment that fell as spoils into the hands of the mujahideen to the extent that it was said when al-Raisuli knew of this procedure, etc.

​Appointment of General Kroms Kerdan in Tetouan and Final Critical Remarks on Authorial Contradictions

​...and if he wants in number (19) vol. 2: "The government of Madrid appointed General Kroms Kerdan at the head of the general administration in Tetouan, who provided great assistance at first to the Spanish army. Following a meeting held between him and al-Raisuli on 20-5-1916 AD after the Spanish army captured Ain Al-Jadida, which is considered the bottleneck for communication between Tetouan and Larache, it paved the way for the occupation of a section of the Anjra, Al-Hawz, and Wadrass tribes, and the Spanish army assisted in the attack on the houses of the Anjra tribe..."

​...and he ignores the commander Walid Ahmed al-Kharraz, and the Sharif al-Raisuli, and sometimes he mentions this and ignores others, and thus you find a defect in his description that he is the head of the gang of thieves who leads groups of adventurers, and then he denies that in another place from his book, and you find his speech contains a mixture of contradictions, then he denies that in another place. Look at the soundness of his words: Is that the blind camel hitting with the same, and hitting everyone who is characterized by a word in his saying or his action of a rope of blindness, and treating death with medicine? I ask you to judge the sound logic: Did you see in your time an author of this kind of confusion until he bewildered people in his understanding of what thing? Proving in the personality of the Sharif al-Raisuli described by this confusion and distortion, which he outputs to the markets from the hands of his sons, so that their minds are misguided and they inherit from some of them the sincere Mujahid Sharif al-Raisuli, and they were busy reading a thousand nights and a night, finding nothing good in his book which was characterized by contradictions of thoughts......

 End of part one, to be continued

See also the previous episode linked below

 https://northern-morocco-archive.blogspot.com/2026/07/episode-70-deterioration-of-general.html

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