Madani El Glaoui

That year, Sultan Moulay Hassan's twenty-five-day stopover in Telouet in November 1893, on his return from an expedition in Tafilalet and in the middle of a snowstorm, was a major turning point in Si El Madani's career.

[12] As governor of Tafilalet, a position to which Moulay Abdelaziz appointed him by a dahir of 19 Safar 1318 (18 June 1900),[13] Si El Madani played an important role in maintaining civil peace in this region after the French annexation of the Touat-Tidikelt-Gourara oasis complex.

[14] Between April and December 1903, at the head of a mehalla (military expedition) of 50,000 men, he fought a series of battles against the rogui Bou Hmara and the tribes allied with him between Fez and Oujda and liberated the city of Taza after being wounded three times.

[17] Its main objectives were to liberate the country from the French occupations of Oujda and Chaouia, to abolish the Treaty of Algeciras the system of protections, to annul the maqs (tax and gate duties) and in general, to defend the Islamic religion.

After he accompanied the sultan on a military expedition that ended in failure, he then began to doubt Abdelaziz's political abilities and decided to switch sides, supporting Abd al-Hafid instead.

[1] As soon as he took power in August 1907, Moulay Hafid appointed him to the post of "allaf al kebir" (i.e. Minister of War) and married his daughter, Lalla Rabia, with whom he had three children.

Si El Madani's awareness of the need to undertake institutional and fiscal reform stemmed from knowledge of the upheavals brought about by technical progress in Algeria, which he had visited, and through his contacts with the French military mission, whose technical and operational superiority he had been able to observe.« Et Sid el-Madani me raconte qu'il a commandé pendant quelques mois les contingents envoyés contre le Rogui.

»[19]His desire for reform was met with frontal opposition from the majority of the ulema and, according to Edmund Burke III destined to failed given the absence of a modernist social group similar to the Young Turks.

Aware of the danger of depending solely on French military assistance, the Sultan and Si El Madani tried to contain the latter by resorting to Turkish expertise to reorganize the regular army.

A dispatch from Gaillard to De Billy, chargé d'affaires of the French Reoublic in Tangier, dated 26 May 1911, describes his dismissal as follows:« Le Sultan a décidé la révocation du Grand Vizir.

Aujourd'hui, il lui a fait dire de ne plus se rendre au Makhzen jusqu'à nouvel ordre.