ABU HIMARA

Arabic for "the man on the she-ass," a nickname of the leader of the 1902–1909 Moroccan rebellion that helped discredit the governments of the sultan Abd al-Aziz and his successor Abd al-Hafid.

Jilali ibn Idris al-Yusufi al-Zarhuni, the real name of Abu Himara, was a minor Moroccan official and former engineering student with a talent for mimicry and some skills as a thaumaturge. Following a 1902 incident, he declared himself to be the mahdi (legendary imam who returned to restore justice) and launched a rebellion among the tribes to the northeast of Fez. Subsequently he declared himself to be the sultan's elder brother Muhammad, a claim that, although false, was generally accepted by his supporters.

Between 1902 and his eventual defeat in 1909, Abu Himara (also called Bu or Bou Hmara) ruled much of northeastern Morocco from his base at Salwan, near Mellila. His rebellion derailed a 1901 British-sponsored reform program, and opened the way for the French colonial offensive. The inability of Sultan Abd al-Aziz and his successor, Abd al-Hafid, to defeat him played a significant role in the Moroccan Question.

His unusual sobriquet derives from a precolonial Moroccan tradition, according to which recaptured army deserters would be paraded around camp mounted sitting backwards on a she-ass, to the jeers of the troops. The cultural referent is obscure, but may be a satiric inversion of the Maghribi (North African) tradition that states that the mahdi would appear from the west, mounted on a she-ass.

see also abd al-aziz ibn al-hassan; abd alhafid ibn al-hassan; fez, morocco; mahdi; moroccan question.

Bibliography

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

Dunn, Ross E. "The Bu Himara Rebellion in Northeast Morocco: Phase I." Middle Eastern Studies 17 (1981): 31–48.

Maldonado, Eduardo. El Roghi. Tétouan, Morocco, 1952.

Edmund Burke III