[3] His father was the qaid of Telouet, Mohammed ben Hammou, known as Tibibit,[4] and his mother was Zouhra Oum El Khaïr, a black slave.

[6] In the autumn of 1893, Sultan Moulay Hassan and his army were crossing the High Atlas mountains after a tax-gathering expedition when they were caught in a blizzard.

[7] In 1902, Madani, T'hami and the Glaoua force joined the imperial army of Moulay Abdelaziz as it marched against the pretender Bou Hamara.

This was achieved in 1907 with the enthronement of Abdelhafid of Morocco, who rewarded the Glaoua by appointing Si Madani as his Grand Vizier, and T'hami as Pasha of Marrakesh.

Moulay Hafid accused Madani of keeping back tax money, and in 1911 stripped all Glaoua family members of their positions.

Later that year, the pretender El Hiba entered Marrakesh with his army and demanded of the new Pasha, Driss Mennou (who had replaced T'hami), that he hand over all foreign Christians as hostages.

Only Si Hammou, Madani's son-in-law, managed to remain in his position as qaid of the Glawa (Aglaw in Tashelhit), based in Telouet (and therefore in charge of its arsenal).

His position as Pasha enabled him to acquire great wealth by means which were often dubious,[7] with interests in agriculture and mineral resources.

His personal style and charm, as well as his prodigality with his wealth, made him many friends among the international fashionable set of the day.

He visited the European capitals often, while his visitors at Marrakesh included Winston Churchill, Colette, Maurice Ravel, Charlie Chaplin.

[8] The Pasha attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II as a private guest of Winston Churchill, the two had met during the latter's trips to Marrakech, often to paint.

[7] According to his son Abdessadeq, one of the principal means by which he acquired great landholdings was that he was able to buy land at cheap prices during times of drought.

Their opposition to the nationalists was based on conservatism:[8] Thami was not opposed to nationalism (in the sense of being against French colonialism) in itself, but was offended that it seemed to be associated with an upset of the established temporal and spiritual authority of the Sultan.

Prior to this, Moulay Larbi El Alaoui, a member of the Makhzen had reportedly primed the Sultan to expect trouble from T'hami.

T'hami then sent his assembled tribespeoples and subordinate qaids' home without waiting for the customary public demonstration of loyalty; this action was construed by the palace as open mutiny.

[8] From that moment on he conspired with Abd El Hay Kittani [ar] and the French to replace Mohammed V with a new sultan, an elderly member of the royal family named Ben Arafa.

The great mistake made by T'hami and his associated pashas and qaids, according to his son Abdessadeq, was that unlike Mohammed V they simply failed to realise that by 1950 Moroccan society had evolved to the stage where feudal government was no longer acceptable to their subjects.

[7] He was shaken, however, by the political "reforms" which the French began to demand to consolidate their hold on power, which would have had the same outcome as what he had feared from the nationalists: the eventual removal of the pashas and qaids.

[8] The next day, as soon as T'hami had addressed the Council of the Throne, the announcement was read out by Abdessadeq to a waiting crowd and simultaneously released to the media by nationalists in Cairo.

He took a tithe of the almond, saffron and olive harvests in his vast domain, owned huge blocks of stock in French-run mines and factories, and received a rebate on machinery and automobiles imported into his realm.