The Black Guard or ''‘Abid al-Bukhari'' ( ar, عبيد البخاري, lit=Slaves of
al-Būkhārī; also known as ''‘Abīd al-Dīwān'' "slaves of the
diwan", ''Jaysh al-‘Abīd'' "the slave army", and ''‘Abid al-Sultan'' "the sultan’s slaves") were the corps of
black-African slaves and ''
Haratin
Haratin (), also referred to as Haratine, Harratin (singular: Hartani), are an ethnic group found in western Sahel and southwestern Maghreb. The Haratin are mostly found in modern Mauritania (where they form a plurality), Morocco, Western Sahar ...
'' slave-soldiers assembled by the
'Alawi sultan of
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
,
Isma‘il ibn Sharif (reigned 1672–1727).
They were called the "Slaves of Bukhari" because Sultan Isma‘il emphasized the importance of the teachings of the famous
imam
Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, ser ...
Muhammad al-Bukhari
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
, going so far as to give the leaders of the army copies of his book. This military corps, which was loyal only to the sultan, was one of the pillars of Isma'il's power as he sought to establish a more stable and more absolute authority over Morocco.
After Isma'il's death, the Black Guard became one of the most powerful factions in Moroccan politics and played the role of
kingmakers during the period of turmoil that followed. Over the course of the later 18th century and the 19th century their role in the military was progressively reduced and their political status varied between privilege and marginalization. Their descendants eventually regained their freedom and resettled across the country. While black Africans lived in the region long before Isma'il's reign, a long-term consequence of his policies was the introduction and eventual dispersal of a substantial new black population in Morocco.
Composition and training
The Black Guard descended from black captives brought to Morocco from
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...
, who were settled with their families in special colonies, at
Mashra' al-Raml, to have children and to work as
indentured servant
Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an " indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment ...
s.
At age 10, children began to be trained in certain skills: the girls in domestic life or entertainments, and the boys in masonry, archery, horsemanship, and musketry. Around the age of 16 (on average), the boys that passed their training were enlisted into the army.
(Some authors cite the ages of 15 or 18.
) They would marry, have children, and continue the cycle.
Considered more loyal than the local
Arabs
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...
or
Berbers
, image = File:Berber_flag.svg
, caption = The Berber ethnic flag
, population = 36 million
, region1 = Morocco
, pop1 = 14 million to 18 million
, region2 = Algeria
, pop2 ...
because of their lack of tribal affiliation, Isma‘il's black soldiers formed the bulk of his standing army and numbered 150,000 at their peak.
According to historical sources, Isma'il would declare to his black soldiers and their chiefs that "You and I are now servants of the ''
Sunna'' of the
Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monoth ...
". To this end, he gave them copies of ''
Sahih al-Bukhari
Sahih al-Bukhari ( ar, صحيح البخاري, translit=Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī), group=note is a ''hadith'' collection and a book of '' sunnah'' compiled by the Persian scholar Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl al-Bukhārī (810–870) around 846. Al ...
'' by
Muhammad al-Bukhari
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
, a famous compilation of the
''hadith''s ("discourses" or traditions) of Muhammad, and instructed them to keep and study it. They were required to swear their
oaths
Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to giv ...
to the sultan upon this book, and even encouraged to take their copies of it into battle. This was the origin of their popular designation as the ''
'Abid al-Bukhari'' or "Slaves of al-Bukhari".
History
Isma'il's reign
Isma'il, or Moulay Isma'il, ruled as
sultan
Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...
for 55 years between 1672 and 1727, one of longest reigns in Moroccan history.
Ruling from a new capital at
Meknes
Meknes ( ar, مكناس, maknās, ; ber, ⴰⵎⴽⵏⴰⵙ, amknas; french: Meknès) is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco, located in northern central Morocco and the sixth largest city by population in the kingdom. Founded in the 11th c ...
, he distinguished himself as a ruler who wished to establish a unified Moroccan state as the absolute authority in the land, independent of any particular group within Morocco – in contrast to previous dynasties which relied on certain tribes or regions as the base of their power.
He succeeded in part by creating a new army composed of slaves whose loyalty would be to him alone.
In 1699, he gave orders to enslave all black Africans in Morocco, even those who were born free or who were Muslim, and, consequently, he violated two of the central tenets of
Islamic law
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...
concerning slavery.
Moroccan registers show that Isma‘il enslaved over 221,000 black Moroccans between 1699 and 1705. In a study of these events, scholar Chouki El Hamel argues that Isma'il's efforts to justify these actions generated a potent new form of racist discourse in the region that associated black Africans with slavery.
The idea of a professional army composed of slaves who were loyal only to the sultan was inspired by the historical precedents of other
Middle Eastern and
North African
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...
military bodies recruited from slaves. Isma'il's army was inspired in particular by the example of the
Janissaries
A Janissary ( ota, یڭیچری, yeŋiçeri, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultan's household troops and the first modern standing army in Europe. The corps was most likely established under sultan Orhan ( ...
in the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
, to which it is sometimes compared.
The ''‘Abid al-Bukhari'' or Black Guard or were mainly in charge of collecting taxes and patrolling Morocco's unstable countryside; they crushed rebellions against Isma‘il's rule not only by dissident tribes but also by Isma‘il's seditious sons, who defected from service as his provincial governors to insurrection as would-be usurpers of his throne. The Black Guard were the personal guard and servants of Sultan Isma‘il, they might have also participated in campaigns against the European-controlled fortress enclaves dotting his empire's coast (such as
Tangier
Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the cap ...
, taken over after the English withdrew from it and
distressed it in 1684 in response), although tasks of this kind were often allocated to European slaves (called ''‘aluj'' ar, العلوج, plural of ''‘alj'', meaning "white Christian slave") and loyal Moroccan tribal soldiers, considered more military and cavalry-able. They were well-respected, well paid, and politically powerful. Around 1697-1698 they were even given the right to possess property.
After Isma'il's death
After Isma‘il's death in 1727, the ''‘Abid'' played a key role in the political turmoil that engulfed Morocco, frequently shifting allegiance between different claimants to the throne.
The turmoil lasted mostly between 1727 and 1757, when Isma'il's sons fought for control of the sultanate, with few of them ever holding onto power for long.
The ''
'Abid'' of Isma'il's reign came to wield enormous power and were able to install or depose sultans according to their interests throughout this period, though they also had to compete with the ''
guich
''Guich'' tribes, ''Gish'' tribes, or ''Jaysh'' tribes ( jaysh, literally "Army"), or sometimes ''Makhzen'' tribes, were tribes of Arab origin organized by the sultans of Moroccan dynasties to serve as troops and military garrisons, as well as t ...
'' tribes and some of the Amazigh (Berber) tribes that the sultans also relied on.
Abdallah, one of the most successful rulers during this conflicted period, was initially supported by the ''
'Abid'' but eventually made enemies of them after 1733. Eventually he was able to gain advantage over them by forming an alliance with the Amazigh tribe of Ait Idrasin, the Oudaya ''guich'' tribe, and the leaders of
Fez
Fez most often refers to:
* Fez (hat), a type of felt hat commonly worn in the Ottoman Empire
* Fez, Morocco (or Fes), the second largest city of Morocco
Fez or FEZ may also refer to:
Media
* ''Fez'' (Frank Stella), a 1964 painting by the moder ...
.
This alliance steadily wore down the ''
'Abid''
's power and paved the way for their submission in the later part of the 18th century.
The military quality of the ''‘Abid'' also went downhill over time, as they were no longer paid as well. Some became
brigand
Brigandage is the life and practice of highway robbery and plunder. It is practiced by a brigand, a person who usually lives in a gang and lives by pillage and robbery.Oxford English Dictionary second edition, 1989. "Brigand.2" first recorded us ...
s, others quit and moved to the cities. Subsequent leaders attempted and some succeeded in resurrecting the group. However, they were never as formidable as they were in Isma‘il's time.
Order was more firmly re-established in Morocco under Abdallah's son,
Mohammed ibn Abdallah (Mohammed III), who became sultan in 1757.
Many of the ''
'Abid'' had by then deserted their contingents and joined the common population of the country, and Mohammed III was able to reorganize those who remained into his own elite military corps.
Later, in 1775, he tried to distance the ''
'Abid'' from power by ordering their transfer from Meknes to Tangier in the north. The ''
'Abid'' resisted him and attempted to proclaim his son Yazid (the later
Moulay Yazid) as sultan, but the latter soon changed his mind and was reconciled with his father. After this, Mohammed III dispersed the ''
'Abid'' contingents to garrisons in Tangier,
Larache
Larache ( ar, العرايش, al-'Araysh) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast, where the Loukkos River meets the Atlantic Ocean. Larache is one of the most important cities of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region.
Many ...
,
Rabat
Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...
,
Marrakesh
Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...
and the
Sous
The Sous region (also spelt Sus, Suss, Souss or Sousse) ( ar, سوس, sūs, shi, ⵙⵓⵙ, sus) is an area in mid-southern Morocco. Geologically, it is the alluvial basin of the Sous River (''Asif n Sus''), separated from the Sahara desert ...
, where they continued to cause trouble until 1782.
The descendants of the ''
'Abid'' continued to be a powerful military contingent under the reign of
Moulay Slimane (r. 1792–1822), but they were no longer the sultan's only pillar of military strength. Slimane took measures to curtail their power, such as recruiting tribal levies (as had been common practice before Isma'il's reign) to act as a counterbalance. Some of the ''
'Abid'' continue to hold powerful positions in both central and local government.
Meknes continued to be one of their main bases during this period. During the later years of his reign, as he faced mounting rebellions and crises, Slimane sought to revive Isma'il's military policies and to re-enlist the ''Haratin'' (free black people) into the army. However, political instability rendered this task difficult and the number of Haratin that were enlisted does not appear to have been significant.
Slimane's successor, Abd ar-Rahman, also attempted to re-enlist black soldiers in order to strengthen the military in response to the
French conquest of Algeria
The French invasion of Algeria (; ) took place between 1830 and 1903. In 1827, an argument between Hussein Dey, the ruler of the Deylik of Algiers, and the French consul escalated into a blockade, following which the July Monarchy of France inva ...
that began in 1830.
The trafficking of slaves also remained vigorous during throughout the early 19th century, and Abd ar-Rahman rebuffed British diplomatic requests to end the slave trade.
However, after the defeat at the
Battle of Isly
The Battle of Isly () was fought on August 14, 1844 between France and Morocco, near the . French forces under Marshal Thomas Robert Bugeaud routed a much larger, but poorly organized, Moroccan force, mainly fighters from the tribes of , but als ...
(1844) and as contacts with Europe increased over the rest of the century, later 'Alawi sultans attempted to reform the military into a "modern" standing army with salaried soldiers instead of the traditional tribal levies. In the process, the number of black 'Abid soldiers also decreased. Under the reign of
Moulay Hassan (r. 1873–1894) only about 5000 of them were still serving in the sultan's standing army, generally as cavalrymen. A French scholar who visited Morocco in the 1880s claimed that this number would increase during times of war.
Over time, most of the former ''
'Abid'' and their descendants had left the army and gained their freedom. They scattered and resettled across the country. As former slaves, their free status was sometimes questioned, but Moroccan
religious scholars generally affirmed that they were free.
Some black individuals and families continued to hold powerful positions in the Moroccan government. The most notable example is
Ahmad ibn Musa, also known Ba Ahmed, whose family monopolized the office of the sultan's ''
hajib
A ''hajib'' or ''hadjib'' ( ar, الحاجب, al-ḥājib, to block, the prevent someone from entering somewhere; It is a word "hajb" meaning to cover, to hide. It means "the person who prevents a person from entering a place, the doorman". The ...
'' (a
chamberlain
Chamberlain may refer to:
Profession
*Chamberlain (office), the officer in charge of managing the household of a sovereign or other noble figure
People
*Chamberlain (surname)
**Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927), German-British philosop ...
and
vizier
A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was a ...
) under multiple sultans in the 19th century. Ba Ahmed himself acted as ''
de facto
''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
'' ruler of Morocco during the first four years of the reign of
'Abd al-Aziz (r. 1894–1908), whom he helped install on the throne.
The
trans-Saharan slave trade
During the Trans-Saharan slave trade, slaves were transported across the Sahara desert. Most were moved from Sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa to be sold to Mediterranean and Middle eastern civilizations; a small percentage went the other ...
continued throughout the 19th century, even in the face of European
abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The British ...
pressure, but by 1900 it had been significantly reduced.
Slavery was officially abolished in Morocco in 1912, after the imposition of
French colonial rule.
Some descendants of the ''
'Abid'' continued to serve in the government afterwards in various positions.
Present day
The Black Guard name was changed to
Moroccan Royal Guard
The Moroccan Royal Guard ( ar, الحرس الملكي المغربي, french: Garde royale marocaine, es, Guardia Real Marroquí) is officially part of the Royal Moroccan Army. However it is under the direct operational control of the Royal Mili ...
after Morocco regained its independence in 1956, but this unit is no longer composed of descendants of black slaves since its members are now selected from elite units within the Moroccan Army.
References
Further reading
* Wilfrid Blunt, ''Black Sunrise: The Life and Times of Mulai Ismail, Emperor of Morocco 1646-1727''
* Giles Milton, ''White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and North Africa's One Million White Slaves''
* Chouki El Hamel, ''Black Morocco : A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam''
See also
*
Moroccan Royal Guard
The Moroccan Royal Guard ( ar, الحرس الملكي المغربي, french: Garde royale marocaine, es, Guardia Real Marroquí) is officially part of the Royal Moroccan Army. However it is under the direct operational control of the Royal Mili ...
*
Military of Morocco
The Royal Moroccan Armed Forces (, ) are the military forces of the Kingdom of Morocco. They consist of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Royal Gendarmerie, and the Royal Guard.
The Royal Moroccan Armed Forces are large, expensive and well ...
{{Morocco Military
Royal guards
Private armies
Military history of Morocco
Military units and formations disestablished in 1956
Slave soldiers
Military slavery
Slavery in Morocco