Images of Power in the Colonial Space: The Legitimation of the Authority of the Khalifa in Spanish Morocco (1912-1925)

• Published in: Pasado y memoria no. 18; pp. 113 - 133
• Main Author: Irene González González
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Catalan; Spanish
• Published: Universidad de Alicante 01.06.2019
• Subjects: autoridad jalifa; colonialismo; españa; islam; marruecos; protectorado
• ISSN: 1579-3311; 2386-4745
• DOI: 10.14198/PASADO2019.18.06

The establishment of the French-Spanish Protectorate in Morocco and the Tangier International Zone was accompanied by a number of changes that affected the system of power and the structure of authority in the Sherifian Empire. The division of the territory into three differentiated administrative zones reduced the direct power of the sultan over Morocco as a whole. As a consequence of a ‘subleasing’ arrangement in which France ceded some parts of Morocco to Spain, the sultan, who lived in French Morocco, delegated his power and authority in the northern zone to a representative designated by the sultan on the basis of proposals from the colonial authorities. The political and religious powers assigned to the khalifa in Spanish Morocco gave him a legitimacy that derived from the sultan and that the Spanish authorities tried to harness. The following pages examine the intervention and control system created and employed by the Spanish colonial authorities over the khalifa, taking into account three particular points: the way in which the process of legitimizing the khalifa was articulated; the symbolism used by the Spanish colonizers to ensure compliance with his political and religious authority; and the system to control the population established by the Spanish authorities through the figure of the khalifa, complemented by military, educational and religious policies.