Born on 1 February 1897 in Beni Ansar, son of Bel Qasem al-Zahrawi al-Mazzuji al-Qale'i, the caïd of the Mazzuja tribe,[2] called by the Spanish Mizián "el Bueno" ("the Good One").

He promptly took the side of the rebel faction and in his first battle of the Spanish Civil War, he stormed the seaplane base of Atalayón in Melilla where the commanders had refused to join the rebellion.

After the battle for Navalcarnero American historian John Thompson Whitaker wrote that among the Spanish Republican prisoners were two young militia women that Mizzian personally interrogated, after which he handed them over to his men.

When Whitaker expressed his concern about the fate of the girls he "attended horrified in helpless anger" when Meziane stated that the two teenage women "will not live more than four hours" once at the hands of his troops.

[7][8][9] After the Army of Africa commanded by Francisco Franco took over Toledo on 27 September 1936, Mizzian went with his troops to the military hospital and killed over 200 wounded Republican militia men in their beds, allegedly as a revenge for the Siege of the Alcazar.

Later in the Civil War, in 1938, he was promoted to Colonel and was named Commander of the First Navarra Division (1ª División de Navarra) of the Francoist army, at the head of which he took part in the Battle of the Ebro, breaking the deadlock of the battle at the Serra de Cavalls in October 1938, taking 19 fortified enemy positions, killing 1,500 republican troops and taking 1,000 prisoners.

[14] In 1956, Morocco became an independent nation, and King Mohammed V called on Mizzian to take charge of the reorganisation of the new Royal Moroccan Army.