Muhammad ibn Abd Al-Kabir al-Kattani

? - 1909

Idrisi sharif; head of the Kattaniya Sufi brotherhood; anticolonial leader in the period of the Moroccan Question.

As head of the Kattaniya Brotherhood, in 1904 Muhammad ibn Abd al-Kabir al-Kattani led the notables of Fez in opposition to France's reform plan presented to Morocco's sultan Abd al-Aziz. Disappointed with the sultan's acquiescence to French pressure, in 1907 - 1908 he led demonstrations at Fez in favor of deposing Abd al-Aziz and proclaiming Abd al-Hafid as sultan. He also sought to impose conditions on the latter when he assumed the throne, committing him to a program of unwavering opposition to European rule.

In 1909, Kattani's unrelenting public attacks on Abd al-Hafid led to the former's arrest and execution. Subsequent generations of Moroccan nationalists have, however, viewed him as a hero for his staunch opposition to French colonial rule.

Bibliography

Burke, Edmund, III. Prelude to Protectorate in Morocco: Pre-colonial Protest and Resistance, 1860 - 1912. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.

— EDMUND BURKE III