Muhammad Allal al-Fassi (; 10 January 1910 – 13 May 1974) was a Moroccan politician, poet and Islamic scholar who was one of the early leaders of the Moroccan nationalist movement. Upon independence in 1956, he became leader of the Istiqlal Party representing it until his death in 1974. He served briefly as Minister of Islamic Affairs from 1961 to 1963.
Born into the prominent scholarly , he became involved in the Moroccan nationalist movement at a young age during his years as a student at al-Qarawiyyin. In response to the Berber Dahir, he helped to arouse protest and began to coordinate with other nationalists leading to the formation of nationalist parties like the . After riots broke out in 1937, al-Fassi was exiled to Gabon for 10 years. During his exile, the Istiqlal Party was formed and he was given the honorary role of zaʿīm.
Whilst in self-exile in Cairo, he collaborated with other nationalist leaders from the Maghreb. After independence, he was appointed head of the codification commission for the Mudawana. After his resignation as Minister of Islamic Affairs, al-Fassi became a prominent opposition leader against Hassan II's government. He died of a heart attack on a trip to Romanian leader Nicolae Ceaușescu.
He was a "neo-Salafist" who advocated for the synthesis of nationalism and reformist Salafism. As an advocate for an Arab-Islamic identity for Morocco, he wanted a Morocco that imposed Arabisation and ruled by Sharia. He developed the idea of Greater Morocco. He was also a prolific writer who wrote over forty books and articles.
He has been described as the "father of Moroccan nationalism".
Early life and education Muhammad Allal al-Fassi was born in Fes on 10 January 1910 to a prominent bourgeois Andalusian family known as the . This family claimed descent from the Umayyad general Uqba ibn Nafi. His father, Abd al-Wahid al-Fassi, was a judge and grand mufti who served as doctor of divinity at Qarawiyyin. Abd al-Wahid was also a merchant who founded the Nasiriyyah Free School in Fes. Allal al-Fassi's mother came from a prominent mercantile family known as the Ma'safirine family who held considerable influence in northern Morocco.
Al-Fassi entered a Quranic school at the age of five and had memorized the Quran by seven. Before attending Qarawiyyin, he was a student in the Nasiriyyah Free School. Beginning in 1924, he studied at the University of al-Qarawiyyin where he received a purely Arab education. In this time, as a student, al-Fassi was highly influenced by the Salafi thinker .
Career
Early nationalist activity According to al-Fassi, he became politically conscious in 1925 when the French authorities attempted to appropriate water from the Oued Fes to divert it to French companies. When he enrolled at Qarawiyyin University, he associated with older students who had begun their nationalist activities in 1919. Al-Fassi, describing the development of early nationalism in Morocco and the influence of the Salafiya, says:
In 1926, he set up a nationalist newsletter called Umm al-Banin. In 1927, along with other students at Qarawiyyin, al-Fassi founded the Students' Union which sought the purification of Islam and aimed to alter the teaching methods of the university. It joined with the Supporters of Truth, a student group in Rabat led by Ahmed Balafrej, in 1929 to form the Moroccan League. By 1930, al-Fassi began to lecture at mosques, Quranic schools and the Qarawiyyin on the theme of the Prophet and the Rashidun caliphs. He graduated with a degree in Islamic law in 1930 or 1932. He used the public lectures to express his political views, particularly his disdain for the French Protectorate. This was seen as a threat by the French administration and by 1933, the Resident-General passed a dahir forbidding al-Fassi along with two other Qarawiyyin lecturers from public speaking and he was later removed with some of his colleagues from their position as ulama at Qarawiyyin. He was also barred from entering Morocco in August 1933 after visiting France.
Beginnings of mass nationalist protest In 1930, the Berber Dahir was passed, officially codifying customary law in Berber tribal areas over the Sharia. According to the historian Susan Gilson Miller, The Berber Dahir proved to be a "foundational event in the unfolding story of Moroccan nationalism". In response to this dahir, Allal al-Fassi began coordinating with other nationalists, including Ahmed Balafrej, and organised public protest against the dahir. In al-Fassi's view, the dahir was "barbaric" and an "attempt at the annihilation of native people" by suppressing Arab and Islamic culture while replacing it with pre-Islamic Berber customs. Al-Fassi was arrested twice during these protests. As a result of the Dahir, he also met prominent Lebanese Pan-Arabist Shakib Arslan. Arslan maintained ties with a number of prominent nationalists, including Balafrej and Mohamed Hassan Ouazzani, and played a significant role in helping Moroccan nationalists develop a shared sense of struggle with the rest of the Arab and Muslim world. The Berber Dahir led to the formation of the first political party in Morocco, the (CAM) in May 1934 which al-Fassi co-founded and served as its president. It had between 200 to 300 members. In February 1934, al-Fassi met Mohammed V who was then Sultan of Morocco under the French protectorate. Al-Fassi described him as "a great monarch" and stated that the Sultan had promised to recover the rights lost by Moroccans.
The CAM published the Plan of Reforms () in 1934 in both Arabic and French. Al-Fassi was one of its ten signatories and, together with , presented a copy to the Resident-General. The demands of the reform plan included the abolition of the Berber Dahir, the unification of legal system under Maliki law, the expansion of educational opportunities to Moroccans, the establishment of municipal councils, the appointment of Moroccans to positions of authority, and the recognition of Arabic as an official language. The reform plan did not call for independence, but instead sought reform and the full implementation of the 1912 Treaty of Fes.. "Strikingly, the Plan did not call for an independent Morocco or separation from France; instead, it aimed at 'restoring confidence in the work of France in Morocco' and demanded greater Moroccan participation in government, a more cooperative relationship with the Residency, and a more faithful execution of the provisions of the 1912 Treaty of Fez...The decision to work within the framework of the Residency was sincere, for at that moment, the nationalist leadership still did not visualize Morocco without France. But that did not mean a relationship of servility or abuse. At a fundamental level, the Plan launched a frontal assault on the colonial mentality and the corrupt practices it had engendered; namely, the racism, discrimination, and anti-liberalism that allowed Moroccans to be treated as inferiors.". "It summarized their reformist agenda, which still accepted and assumed a Franco-Moroccan protectorate framework but appealed to the “protector” to do a better job of fulfilling the mandate of the Treaty of Fes.". "The Plan de Réformes called not for independence but for a true application of the Treaty of Fez, a real Protectorate. Its long preamble explained that Moroccan sovereignty had not been extinguished in 1912, and that under the treaty, the Sultan continued to embody the Moroccan identity. The purpose of the Protectorate was reform, which was also the wish of the Moroccan population, so that a 'real' Protectorate was therefore a democratic demand. Nowhere was there any recognition of a possible conflict between these democratic ideals and the authority of the Sultan." According to the Treaty of Fes, the purpose of the protectorate was to "establish a stable regime founded on internal order and general security that will permit the introduction of reforms and will assure the economic development of the country" while also simultaneously preserving the theoretical sovereignty of the sultan. Commenting on the reform plan, al-Fassi says:
The plan was rejected by the French administration and by 1937, the nationalist movement started to split with the CAM also outlawed by the French protectorate in October 1937. The CAM split into the which al-Fassi co-led and the Popular Movement (later becoming the Party of Democracy and Independence) which was led by al-Fassi's former ally Mohamed Hassan Ouazzani. Those who followed Allal al-Fassi in the split self-styled as the Allaliyin or Wataniyin, while al-Fassi was known to his followers as "Shaykh Allal" or "Hajj Allal".. "After a split in the movement in 1936, those who followed Allal al-Fassi were often referred to as the Allaliyin, and al-Fassi was called Sheikh Allal or Haj Allal (Julien 1952, 138)....Wataniyin (nationalists) was the name given to the main branch of the movement that followed Allal al-Fassi following the split with Ouezzani in 1936." "Although the zāwiyas have generally been opposed by nationalists in North Africa, significantly the organisational model of the zāwiya was employed in Morocco by the Istiḳlāl or Independence Party [see ḥizb. i, at Vol. III, 525]. Its leader ʿAllāl al-Fāsī [q.v. in Suppl.] was referred to as the s̲h̲ayk̲h̲, and party members, self-styled ik̲h̲wān, called themselves ʿAllāliyya and ʿAllāliyyūn, organised local chapters known as ṭāʾifas, and levied dues known as ziyāra.". "More interesting for the future of the party was the introduction of recruitment techniques in the bled, perhaps not purposefully, not unlike the procedures used by the brotherhoods. Al-Fassi was frequently referred to as "sheikh," leading members as "Allaliynes," and the dues as "ziara," all terms used by the brotherhoods." Traditionally, the split has been explained ideologically for example by the orientalist Robin Bidwell and according to the political scientist Adria Lawrence, it has been often charactered as being between "traditionalists" and "Westernists". However, according to a number of scholars including Mohammed Zade and , the split was likely more to do with personality differences and disagreements over the structure of leadership. On the surface, al-Fassi's party remained reformist, while Ouazzani's party claimed to be more radical; in fact, the two parties were ideologically similar. Out of the groups that split, al-Fassi's faction was able to garner the most success recruiting as a result of it having an administrative structure, an annual national congress, a council that met quarterly and a permanent executive committee.
Exile After riots broke out throughout Morocco in 1937 in response to the French attempting to reroute the water supply of the Meknes area to irrigate French farms, Allal al-Fassi was exiled to Gabon. The French justified the exile by accusing al-Fassi of conspiring to overthrow the protectorate to crown himself king. This was unlikely as al-Fassi had not made demands for independence at this point nor was he opposed to the monarchy. It is more likely he was exiled because his opposition to the French caused political instability. He also spent part of his exile in the Congo. Despite his exile, he continued to exert influence over the nationalist movement. The scholar Ian Shaw says "His years of exile had given him the mystique of political martyrdom". He was isolated during this exile only being allowed to speak to his father but that too was restricted. During al-Fassi's exile, starting from 1941, Charles de Gaulle entered into contact with him hoping to use al-Fassi in a coup against the Vichy government in Morocco to bring it to the Free French fold. However, out of suspicion that al-Fassi was in contact with a foreign power, De Gaulle broke off this contact.