Berber Dahir

[1] According to pan-Arabist activists, the French colonial authorities sought to facilitate their takeover of the Berber tribes' property and to maintain a legal cover.

[1] The Berber Dahir was based on the colonial Kabyle myth[2] and reinforced a dichotomy in popular Moroccan historiography: the division of the country into Bled el-Makhzen, areas under the direct control of the Sultan and the Makhzen, or the state (especially urban areas such as Fes and Rabat); and Bled es-Siba, areas that were historically and geographically isolated and beyond the direct control of the Makhzen (the central state composed of warlords with aristocratic heritage) in which Berber languages were primarily spoken, Arab culture and norms were not adopted and dogmatic Islamic Sharia was not applied.

[1] Protests broke out in Salé, Rabat, Fes and Tangier, and international figures such as Shakib Arslan took it as evidence of an attempt to "de-Islamize" Morocco.

The purpose of the dahir was the recognition "Berber Justice," and their independence from the dispotic Arab, urban and Islamic law.

They elected the heads of their tribes at yearly circles and disliked beheading, stoning, amputation or other brutal Islamic penalties.

[4] The fundamental characteristic of the policy consisted in preserving the traditional autonomy of Berbers, primarily in the legal field, by disassociating them from the Islamic legislation or "Chrâa" and by maintaining their common law, or "Azref".

On Friday, June 20, 1930, Imam Ali Haj Awad presided at the Great Mosque of Salé and read the "Ya Latif."

Robert Rezette, in his book The Political Parties of Morocco wrote that the campaign against the Berber Dahir began with the recitation of "Ya Latif" in the mosques of Sale.

Moroccan activists mobilised to alert the international and Arab press, and Arslan made a brief stop in Morocco to inform and educate the nationalists.