12 Facts About Ali Amhaouch

Sidi Ali ibn al-Mekki Amhaouch was a Moroccan religious leader who opposed the French conquest of Morocco.

Ali Amhaouch backed two rebellions against the Moroccan government and later fought against the French occupying forces.

Ali Amhaouch declared a defensive jihad against France during the Zaian War but died of natural causes in 1918, three years before the war ended in the tribesmen's defeat.

Ali Amhaouch was a member of the Imhiwach, a dynasty of marabouts that dominated central Morocco from around 1715 to 1932.

Ali Amhaouch was born in 1844 and became widely known as a religious figure, of the Darqawa sufi order, who commanded respect across Morocco and was one of the few people capable of bringing peace to warring tribes.

Ali Amhaouch made his own prophecies and considered the Jbel Toujjit mountain, the source of the Moulouya River, to be a sacred site.

Ali Amhaouch supported the Ait Sukhman tribe against the rival Zaian Confederation in intermittent warfare lasting from 1877 to 1909.

Ali Amhaouch was a key backer of Si Mhand Laarbi, a member of the Alaouite dynasty, against Moroccan government forces in the 1880s.

Ali Amhaouch supported another revolt against the Moroccan sultan in 1908, leading troops of the Melwiya to join the uprising led by Moulay Lahssen el Sabaa in the east of the country until forced to return home due to Sabaa's defeat at the hands of the French troops in Menhaba and Boudenib.

Ali Amhaouch declared a defensive jihad against the French upon the outbreak of the First World War.

Ali Amhaouch's men were engaged and defeated by French columns commanded by Colonels Noel Garnier-Duplessix and Henri Claudel in late 1914.

Ali Amhaouch's descendant, Sidi Mohand Ali Amhaouch, is a religious leader in modern Morocco.