AbdelKrim_Khattabi

One of the greatest freedom fighters of the last century and a hero in Morocco as well as the Muslim world. His guerilla tactics are known to have inspired Ho Chi Minh, Mao Zedong, and Che Guevara.

Languages: Berber (Tamazight)

Job: Other

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Muhammad Ibn 'Abd El-Karim El-Khattabi (c.1882, Ajdir, Morocco –February 6, 1963, Cairo, Egypt) I was born in the Rif Mountains in Morocco to Abdelkrim El-Khattabi, a qadi (Islamic judge) of the Ait Yusuf clan of the Aith Uriaghel (or Waryaghar) tribe. I was educated both in traditional Islamic schools and in Spanish schools, continuing my education in the ancient university of Qarawiyin in Fez, and then spending three years in Spain studying mining and military engineering. I am very fluent in Spanish. I was working in the Spanish government in colonized North Morocco. I was appointed chief qadi for Melilla in 1915, as well as editor of the Arabic section of the newspaper El Telegrama del Rif. I then became opposed to Spanish domination and was imprisoned in 1917 for saying that Spain should not expand beyond its current dominions (which in practice excluded most of the effectively ungoverned Rif). I soon after escaped, and returned to Ajdir in 1919 and, with my brother, began to unite the tribes of the Rif under the banner of La ilaha illa Allah. In this cause, I tried to end existing inter-tribal feuds. In 1921, the Spanish sent their troops to attack me and the tribes of the Rif. I sent the Spanish General, Manuel Fernández Silvestre, a warning that if they crossed the Amekran River that I would consider this an act of war. Silvestre laughed, and shortly afterwards set up a military post across the river at Abarán. By mid-afternoon of the same day a thousand of my brother Islamic Rifains had surrounded it; hundreds of Spanish troops were killed, and the remainder were forced to retreat. Soon afterwards, I directed our forces to attack the Spanish lines, with great success — and in three weeks 8,000 Spanish troops were killed, and at Annual an army of 18,000 was destroyed by only 3,000 of my brother Rifians. Shortly after the battle, General Silvestre committed suicide. By 1924, the Spanish had been forced to retreat to their possessions along the Moroccan coast. France, which in any case laid claim to territory in the southern Rif, realized that allowing another North African colonial power to be defeated by natives would set a dangerous precedent for their own territories, and entered the fray. In 1925, a French force under Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain and a Spanish army, with a combined total of 250,000 soldiers, began operations against my brothers. Intense combat persisted for a year, but eventually the combined French and Spanish armies — using, among other weapons, MUSTARD GAS — defeated my forces, especially after they killed thousands of civilians. I surrendered to the French and was exiled to the island of Réunion (a French territory) from 1926 to 1947, I was given permission to live in the south of France, but succeeded in gaining asylum in Egypt instead, where I presided over the Liberation Committee for the Arab Maghreb, (Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya) and where I died in 1963, just after seeing my hopes of a Maghreb independent of colonial powers completed by the independence of Algeria. The embarrassing defeat of Spanish forces at Annual caused uproar in Spain, where crowds of people expressed their disillusionment with the Monarchy. Franco, future dictator of Spain and commander of the Spanish forces following the disaster at Annual, took full advantage of this outcry against the Spanish Government and ruled Spain from 1939 until his death in 1975.

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WHO IS ABDEL KRIM EL KHATABBI???