The Mountain People of Northwestern Morocco: Tribesmen or Peasants?

Author(s): Henry Munson, Jr.

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Apr., 1981), pp. 249-255
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
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The MountainPeople of Northwestern

Morocco:Tribesmenor Peasants?*
Henry MunsonJr
It is frequently suggested that the pre-colonial Moroccan state was composed
solely of towns and tribes. Ernest Gellner, for example, writes that 'there was
no middle area of oppressed, subdued peasants, interveningbetween town and
tribe. Instead, tribal life extended to the city walls' (Gellner 1972: 18). We
contend that this view of pre-colonial rural Morocco is mistaken, as we shall
attempt to demonstratewith referenceto the Jbala-Arabic-speaking,sedentary
agriculturalistsin the hills of northwest Morocco. The term Jbala literally
means 'mountainpeople'.
THE CONCEPTS OF'TRIBE' AND'PEASANTRY'

The terms 'tribe' and 'peasantry' are inductively derived 'ideal types' imposed
upon the 'bloomin' buzzin' confusion' of the social world by anthropologists
and other social scientists. One might well ask: does it really matterwhetherwe
label rural Moroccan society as 'tribal' or 'peasant'? Isn't this simply a trivial
issue of nomenclature?Isn't our task to analyze the internalmechanics of precolonial rural Morocco, ratherthan to worry about what name to apply to this
society? Clearly, our central task is to analyze the mechanics of pre-colonial
ruralMorocco. But the question of whetherthis society was tribalor peasant is
not simply a trivial matterof taxonomy. It is fundamental.
Basic to the concept of a tribal society is the idea that such a society is a
'kinship society'. Such a society is structuredprimarilyin terms of functionally
generalizeddescent groups. And it is not effectively subordinateto a state with
specialized institutions of government(Sahlins 1968: 5-6). A peasant society,
on the other hand, is not a kinship society. Kinship continues to play an
important role in peasant society, but this role is clearly subordinateto other
more contractual relations. And a peasantry is subordinateto a state (Archetti
and Aass 1978: 108; Wolf 1972: 411; Sahlins 1968: 5-7). Also implicitin the
idea of a peasantry is the idea of agricultureorganized in terms of household
production.
The distinction we are making between tribal and peasant society is of
course in the tradition of Maine's 'from status to contract' and Morgan's
'societas and civitas'. And once again, it is stressed that it is an 'ideal typical'
* An earlierversionof this paperwas readat the panelon 'Local-LevelPoliticsin Tribaland
PeasantSocieties'at the 78thannualmeetingof the AmericanAnthropological
Associationon 1
December,1979.We wouldlike to thankGloriaRudolphFrazer,ErnestGellner,DavidHart,
GeorgeJoffe,David Seddon,RaymondSmithand ArthurTudenfor theircommentsuponthis
in northwestMoroccofrom
earlierversion.The paperis basedlargelyuponresearchundertaken
June 1976to December1977.Thisresearchwasfundedby the SocialScienceResearchCouncil
andthe Fulbright-Hays
Program.

250

MIDDLEEASTERNSTUDIES

contrast.There will inevitablybe marginalcases, for instance,the Balkan

highlands.But the contrastis nonethelessmeaningful.No one woulddescribe
ruralSpain as 'tribal',nor would anyone describethe pre-colonialNuer as
'peasant'.
Our distinction is also somewhat similar to Kroeber's celebrated
characterization
of peasantsas constituting'part-societieswith part-cultures'
(Kroeber1948: 284). Being part of a largersociety and cultureis indeeda
necessaryattributeof a peasantry,and this is impliedin our referenceto the
subordination
of peasantriesto states.
However,Kroeber'scharacterization
is inadequate.The Bedouintribesof
the Islamicworldare also 'part-societieswith part-cultures'.
Theirreligionis
also that of the towns; they have been involvedin marketexchangewith
townsmenfor millennia;and most of them have had at least tenuousties to
statesfor centuries.Yet, no one wouldcharacterizethe Bedouinas peasants.
Aside fromthe usualconceptionof peasantsas beingengagedin agriculture,
one principalreasonwe characterizeBedouinas tribesmenis that Bedouin
societyclearlywas a 'kinshipsociety'only nominallygovernedby states.And
conversely,the principalreasonfor characterizing
the Jbalaas peasantsis that
Jbalansociety was clearlynot a 'kinshipsociety'and clearlywas effectively
governedby thepre-colonialMoroccanstate.
THE WORD 'QABILA'

The principalreason many anthropologistshave contendedthat 'triballife

extendedto the city walls'in pre-colonialMoroccois that all of ruralMorocco
was divided into entities known as qaba'il (singularqabila). (In Berberspeakingareas,we findBerbercognatesof the Arabicwordqabila,e.g.,taqbilt
and dhaqbitsh.)The termqabilaoriginallyreferredto effectivelyautonomous
groupsof Bedouinstructuredin termsof functionallygeneralized,'corporate'
descent groups all of which were ideologicallydefinedin terms of their
genealogicalrelationship
to the eponymicpatrilinealancestorof the qabilaas a
whole. Thus, as employedin its originalBedouincontext,the termqabilais
quitelegitimately
translatedas 'tribe'.
But when the Arabs conqueredthe Berbersof North Africa in the late
seventhandearlyeighthcenturies,they appearto haveappliedthe termqabila
to territorialand administrative
entitiesthat were in no way genealogically
defined.This absenceof genealogicaldefinitionis particularly
characteristic
of
the sedentaryagriculturalist
highlandsof Morocco,such as the Jbalanhillsof
northwestern
Morocco(see Hart1976: 11-12, 235).
THE ABSENCE OF GENEALOGICAL DEFINITION OF THE JBALAN 'QABILA'

The Jbalanqabila of Bni Msawwar,about thirty kilometerssouthwestof

Tangiers,is a typicalJbalanqabila.It coversan areaof 272 squarekilometers
and had a populationof 13,065 in 1960 (Morocco 1971: 87-88). The name
Bni Msawwarliterallymeans'the Sons of the Image-Maker'.
No one in the
qabilaat the presenttime has the slightestidea how the qabilareceivedthis

THEMOUNTAINPEOPLEOF NORTHWESTERN
MOROCCO

251

name. A Spanishstudy writtenin 1934 (northernMorocco was a Spanish

'Protectorate'
from 1912 to 1956) cites a legendin whicha merchantnamed
Msawwarmigratedto this area from the Sus valley in southernMorocco.
Accordingto this story, the merchantwas the patrilinealancestorof the
populationof the qabila of Bni Msawwar('the Sons of Msawwar').But we
havenevermeta Msawrifamiliarwiththis legend.Moreover,the qabilais not,
and does not appearto ever have been, internallystructuredin terms of
genealogy.And despitethe fact that one wouldlogicallyexpectthe name'the
Sons of Msawwar'to referto people,it is in fact treatedas a place namein
MoroccanArabic, as is true of the names of all Jbalanqaba'il.Thus, for
example,peoplesay, 'We are goingto Bni Msawwar'(Ghadinimshiwni Bni
Msawwar).
Bni Msawwaris dividedinto two primarysectionsknown as 'quarters'
(rbu): the 'quarter'of 'The UpperWall'(Hayt al-Fuqi)and the 'quarter'of
'The LowerWall'(Hayt as-Sifli).Thesenamesare derivedfromthe fact that
the hillsof TheUpperWallaregenerallyhigherthanthoseof TheLowerWall.
And the quarterof The Upper Wall was traditionallyfurtherdividedinto
smallersegments,also knownas rbu',or 'quarters':the westernquarterof al'Ulliq,i.e., 'The BlackberryBushes',and the easternquarterof Bni Harshan,
i.e.,'TheSonsof Harshan'.
As in the case of the qabila,the rba', or 'quarter',is simplya territorial
entity,the inhabitantsof whichhaveno traditionsof commonancestry.Andas
in the nameBni Msawwar,Bni Harshanis treatedas a placenameandno one
can explainits origin.However,it couldmean'the Sons of Scratchiness'since
Harshancomesfromthe rooth-r-sh, 'to scratch,to be roughto the skin'.The
noun al-harishmeans'scrubforest'or 'matorral',whichcoversmost of the
hillsof theJbalanregion.
Thereare42 villagesin the quarterof The UpperWall.Likethe qabilaand
the rba',the village,or dshar,is not usuallya genealogicallyconceivedentity.
Anyone from anywhere(providinghe was a Muslim)could traditionally
migrateto a villageif he obtainedthe approvalof the villagecouncilcomposed
of all the adultmalesof thevillage.It is truethatsevenof the 42 villagesof The
UpperWall are inhabitedsolely by membersof a singlepatronymicgroup,
but the overwhelmingmajority are inhabitedby a number of different
patronymicgroups with no genealogicalties, putative or demonstrable,
betweenthem.We findfourteendifferentpatronymicgroupsin the villageof alMnazil,eightdifferentpatronymicgroupsin the villageof Ayn Snadandsix in
the village of as-Sakhra.This heterogeneityof local communitiesis also
characteristic
of the Berber-speaking
Rif severalhundredkilometerseastof the
Jbalanhills.EmilioBlancoIzaga notes that some Rifiancommunitiesinclude
'... as manyas twentydifferentkingroupsandstrangeraccretionsof the most
diverseorigins'(BlancoIzaga 1975: 132).And, as in the Jbalanregion,these
'differentkingroups'arein no way linkedby ties of putativecommondescent.
The absenceof genealogicaldefinitionof the Jbalanqabila,rba'(quarter)
anddshar(village)becomesevenmoreobviouswhenwe considerthenatureof
the entitieswe havereferredto as 'patronymicgroups'.
A patronymicgroup('irq)is a widelydispersedgroupof peoplewho claim,

252

MIDDLEEASTERNSTUDIES

but cannotdemonstrate,commonpatrilinealdescentfroman eponymicsaint

(siyyid). Thus, the patronymicgroup is reminiscentof a dispersed,noncorporatepatrilinealclan. But thereis usuallyconsiderabledoubt as to the
identityof the ancestralsaint,exceptin the case of shurfa,who areconsidered
to be descendantsof a prominentsaint, who is in turn consideredto be a
descendant of the prophet Muhammad. Shurfa traditionallyderived
considerablestatusfromtheirdescent.Moreover,theywereentitledto a share
of the offeringsto the tomb of the ancestralsaint,as well as to a shareof the
revenuefrom the mortmainland (hbus)associatedwith this tomb.And they
wereexemptfromtaxes (al-Bu'Ayyashi 1975:237-242). Thus,to the extent
that membership
in such sharifianpatronymicgroupsdid implycertainrights,
one couldconsiderthemas 'corporategroups'.
But non-sharifian
patronymicgroupswerein fact nothingmorethanpeople
with the same surname.They werein no way corporate.The mortmainhbus
landscontrolledby shurfawerethe only landscontrolledby descentgroups.
Otherwise,all cultivablelandwas boughtandsoldfor cashby individuals.
And
this was alreadytruein the eighteenthcenturyandprobablylong beforethat
(see Michon 1968-69: XVI, 63; Hart 1976: 507; Michaux-Bellaire1911:
161-164). As for the extensivescrubforestin the hills,it was villagelandto
whichany villagerhad access, regardlessof his patronymicgroup,providing
he obtainedthe permissionof the villagecouncil.
In additionto the patronymicgroupsnamed after a putativepatrilineal
ancestor,we also finda smallernumberof peoplenamedafterthe qabilafrom
whichthey or theirforefathershad migratedto Bni Msawwar.We findseven
people named al-Yidri, indicating that they originally came from the
neighbouringqabila of Bni Yidir. We find twelve people named al-Anjri,
indicatingthatthey originallycamefromthe near-byqabilaof Anjra.Andone
could cite many othersimilarexamples.It shouldbe stressedthat thereis no
stigmaattachedto migrantsto Bni Msawwar.The man who dominatedthis
qabilafor the firsthalfof thetwentiethcentury,the qaidal-'AyyashiZillal,was
himselfa migrantfrom the Jbalanqabila of Bni Zarwal.Nor are migrants
graftedonto autochthonousdescent groups,becausethere are, in fact, no
autochthonousdescentgroups,since even those patronymicgroupsdeemed
the oldest in the qabila claim descent from saints from various parts of
Morocco.In short,the Jbalanqabilawas in no way a genealogically
conceived
entity.
THE SUBORDINATION OF THE JBALAN QABILA TO THE MOROCCAN STATE

In the pre-colonialperiod, the Jbalan qabila was governedby an official

appointedby the Moroccansultan.This officialwas the qaid.Sometimes,the
qaid governeda town as well as the neighboringqaba'il,or sometimes,he
governedonly a singleqabila.He was often an urban-bornbureaucrat.The
qaidwouldappointshyukh(singularshaykh)to governeach rba'of the qabila
or qaba'il he governed(Michaux-Bellaire1911: 42). Unlike the qaid, the
shaykhwas almostalwaysa local manwho hadlivedin the rba'he governed
formanyyears.

THE MOUNTAIN PEOPLE OF NORTHWESTERN MOROCCO

253

In addition to these officials of the Moroccan state, there were also a series
of local councils, each such council being known as a jma'a, or 'gathering'.
Each village had a jma'a composed of all the adult males of the village, but
dominated by the wealthiest and most powerful men, who usually represented
their village in the jma'a of the rba', or quarter,which was held at the weekly
market attendedby most of the villagersof the rba' (ibid.: 43-44). This weekly
meeting of the jma'a of the quarter was presided over by the shaykh of the
quarter. And finally, there was the jma'a of the qabila as a whole, which only
met on special occasions such as the public reading of a letter from the sultan
or the qaid (ibid.).
In the Berber-speakingRif, these local councils, particularlythe councils of
the quarters, were the primary institutions of local government (Hart 1976:
283-8). The Rifian councils had the power to impose fines and other
sanctions in punishment of theft, murder, adultery and other crimes (ibid.).
But among the Arabic-speakingJbala, these powers were held by the qaids,
shyukh and judges (qudat). (These judges of Islamic law were appointedby the
qaids upon the recommendation of the jma'a of the qabila.) This claim is
substantiatedby a wide variety of historical sources.
Early in the sixteenth century, the Moroccan historian best known in the
west as Leon L'Africain said of the Jbala that 'they are subjects of the King of
Fez [the Moroccan sultan] and the burden of the taxes that they pay is very
heavy' (Leon L'Africain 1956: I, 269). Leon, who had himself served as a
bureaucratin the Moroccan state, even notes how much certain Jbalan qaba'i
paid in taxes each year. Significantly,he refers to these qaba'il as 'mountains'
ratherthan 'tribes'.Thus, he says of the Jbalan qabila of Rhuna, 'this mountain
brings in three thousand ducats a year for the King of Fez, which are allotted
to the governor [qaid] of Ezaggen to maintainfour hundredcavalrymenin the
King's service' (ibid.). Speaking of the qabila of Bni Zikkar, he notes, 'this
mountain brings in six thousand ducats a year, half of which is assigned to the
captain of Ezaggen and the other half of which is remittedto the treasuryof the
King of Fex' (ibid.). It should be kept in mind that the pre-colonialMoroccan
state was a tax-farming or 'prebendal'state, in which officials such as qaids
and shaykhs did not receive salaries, but were entitled to a share of the taxes
they collected. Individualswould literally purchase such positions in the hope
of recoupingthe money paid to purchase them, and making a substantialprofit
as well, from their share of the taxes they would collect (Forbes 1924: 101).
Most ethnographerswould probably agree with Sahlins' contention that 'the
tribal condition ... is transcended the moment a state apparatus is
differentiated from and imposed upon society at large' (Sahlins 1968: 15).
Assuming this is the case, then it is clearly contradictoryto assert that the precolonial Moroccan state was composed solely of towns and tribes. That is, the
fact of tribes being effectively governed by officials of a state is a contradiction
in terms. Aware of this, many ethnographers have suggested that these
officials-the qaids and the shaykhs- did not effectively govern the qaba'il of
rural Morocco. But with respect to the Jbalan region, at any rate, the historical
record makes it quite clear that they did. The historian an-Nasiri notes that the
despotism of a qaid in the Jbalan qabila of al-Akhmas sparked a revolt in that

254

MIDDLEEASTERNSTUDIES

qabila in 1793. But within a year, this revolt had been suppressedby
governmenttroops(an-Nasiri1956:VIII, 95-6). The Jbalanscholarand Sufi
mysticAhmanIbn 'Ajiba(1747-1809), fromthe qabilaof Anjra,notesin his
thatwhenthe residentsof the villageof Zimmijin the qabilaof
autobiography
Anjrawantedto stop him frombuildinga housein that villagein 1801,they
complainedto the governorof Tangiers,whosesoldiersexpelledhim fromthe
villageand destroyedhis house(Michon1868-69: XVI, 63). Ibn 'Ajibaalso
notes that in this same year a memberof the DarqawiSufi 'brotherhood'
stabbeda shaykhof the qabilaof Anjra.This act was punished,not by the
shaykh'skinsmen,norby the councilof Anjra,butby thegovernorof Tangiers
(who also governedthe neighboring
Jbalanqaba'it),who had all the Darqawi
Sufisin Anjraarrestedandfinedthe individualwho had stabbedthe shaykh
200 mithqals(ibid.).In the late nineteenthcentury,Moulierasnotedthat the
qaid of the qabilaof Bni Msawwarwouldhave his policemen(mkhazniyya)
beat and imprisonanyonewho could not pay the taxes demandedof them
(Moulieras1899: II, 607-8). Clearly,one cannot characterizethe Jbalan
qaba'ilas havingbeenonly'nominally'subordinate
to the Moroccanstate.
In fact, not only wereJbalanqaba'ilclearlysubordinateto the Moroccan
state, their very boundaries were often established by the state.
Michaux-Bellaire
has describedin considerabledetail how the state would
sometimesincludethe mountainof Jbil Sarsaras a 'quarter'of the Jbalan
qabilaof Masmudaand sometimesas a 'quarter'of the adjacentqabilaof Ahl
Srif (Michaux-Bellaire
1911: 328-9). It is a well-documented
fact that many
of the Moroccanqaba'ilin the vicinityof towns were createdby Moroccan
sultansfor administrative
purposes(see LeCoz 1965).Thismaywellhavebeen
the case in the Jbalanhighlandsas well.It is at any rateclearthatthe Jbalan
qabila was a territoriallydefined administrativedistrict rather than a
genealogically
definedautonomous'tribe'.
CONCLUSION

We have,in this paper,attemptedto demonstrate

thatthe widelyheldviewthat
all pre-colonialrural Moroccan society was tribal ratherthan peasantin
characteris baseduponthe erroneousassumptionthatthe Arabicwordqabila
had the same meaningin the sedentaryagriculturalist
highlandsof Morocco
that it had in the desertsof Arabia.Whereasthe qabilaof the desertBedouin
was indeeda 'tribe'in that it was an effectivelyautonomous,genealogically
structuredentity,the qabilaof the sedentaryagriculturalist
Jbalawas simplya
definedadministrative
territorially
districtof theMoroccanstate.
We wouldemphasize,moreover,thatthe issueof whetherpre-colonialrural
Moroccois to be regardedas 'tribal'or 'peasant'is not simplya questionof
nomenclature.It is, rather, central to the understandingof pre-colonial
Moroccansocietyas well as to the understanding
of contemporary
Moroccan
society.EchoingMorganandMaine,Fortesobservesthat:
... there is a crucial dividing line between social systems in which

citizenship,or, to putit moreformally,statusin thepolitico-jural

domain,

THE MOUNTAINPEOPLEOF NORTHWESTERN

MOROCCO

255

is conferredby membershipin a corporatedescentgroupor by some

othergenealogicallydeterminedtitle, and those in whichit is otherwise
mediated ... (Fortes 1969: 40).

To speakof the Jbalaas 'tribesmen'is to attributeto kinshipa centralrolein

Jbalansociety,whereasin fact the role of kinshipwas clearlysubordinateto
institutions.
othermorecontractual
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