{{Short description|Moroccan tribal leader who opposed French rule}} {{Infobox military person | name = Moha ou Said l'Irraoui | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_date = | death_date = 5 March 1924 | birth_place = | death_place = | nickname = | allegiance = | branch = | service_years = 1914–1924 | rank = | unit = | commands = | battles = | awards = | relations = | other_work = }}
'''Moha ou Said El Wirrawi''' ({{Langx|tzm|Muḥa u Sεid u-Wirraw}};<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Peyron |first=M. |author-link=Michael Peyron |date=2010-12-31 |title=Moha-ou-Saïd el-Wirrawi / Muḥa u Sεid u-Wirraw |url=https://journals.openedition.org/encyclopedieberbere/622 |journal=Encyclopédie berbère |language=fr |issue=32 |pages=5053–5056 |doi=10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.622 |issn=1015-7344}}</ref> died 5 March 1924) was a Moroccan tribal leader who opposed French rule of the protectorate of Morocco. He formerly served as a caïd of the Moroccan sultans and fought for Sultan Abdelaziz against Bou Hmara in 1905. After the Treaty of Fes and the start of the French protectorate he opposed the French through military action. He participated in several battles with French forces in the Zaian War but was eventually forced into the High Atlas mountains where he died in action in 1924. His followers continued to resist the French over the next ten years.
== Early life == Moha was an ''Amghar'' (tribal chief) of his Berber tribe, the Ait Ouirra, before getting appointed as a local representative of authority in El-Ksiba by the caid of the Ait Ouirra, Ibn Hammu. After showing his competence and his commitment in subduing the revolting Berber tribes, he was appointed a caïd (a local governor with almost absolute power) for the Moroccan sultan, with responsibility for the Aït Seri Berber tribal confederation. As a caid he expanded his authority and included the Ait Oum El Bekht and Ait Ou Said Ou Ali tribes in his territory.<ref name="EoM">{{Harvnb|Idrissi|2005|p=7569}}.</ref> He held Kasbah Tadla as his provincial capital.<ref>{{Harvnb|Porch|1987|p=283}}.</ref> In 1905 he served in the army of Sultan Abdelaziz which fought against, Bou Hmara, a pretender based at Taza.<ref name="EoM" /> After the start of the ''Hafidiya'' mouvement, he joined Abd al-Hafid knowing that Abdelaziz's rule would inevitably end.<ref name="EoM" />
== Opposition to French rule == Ou Said was described by the French as an "influential war chief" and was held in good standing by tribesmen across the Middle Atlas region.<ref name="windrow409">{{Harvnb|Windrow|2010|p=409}}.</ref><ref name="hois59">{{Harvnb|Hoisington|1995|p=59}}.</ref> Together with Mouha ou Hammou Zayani, leader of the Zaian confederation and Ali Amhaouch, a Darqawa Islam religious leader, he formed the so-called "Berber trinity" which opposed French rule in the Middle Atlas through military action.<ref name="hois63">{{Harvnb|Hoisington|1995|p=63}}.</ref><ref name="camb290">{{Harvnb|Fage|Roberts|Oliver|1986|p=290}}.</ref> Ou Said was initially open to a negotiated settlement with the French authorities but pressure from pro-war chiefs and the fear of ridicule from his tribesmen had forced his hand.<ref name="hois59"/><ref name="singer197">{{Harvnb|Singer|Langdon|2004|p=197}}.</ref><ref name="bidwell34">{{Harvnb|Bidwell|1973|p=34}}.</ref>
In February 1914 Ou Said attacked a French post established by Colonel Gueydon at Oued Zem, {{convert|25|mi|km}} north-west of Kasbah Tadla. His attacks upon the post and its supply convoys led to Oued Zem becoming a focus of Moroccan resistance across the Middle Atlas.<ref name="windrow409"/> The French, led General Charles Mangin, managed to restore control locally but negotiations between Ou Said and Colonel Henri Simon did not bring peace.<ref name="windrow409"/><ref name="Bimberg8">{{Harvnb|Bimberg|1999|p=8}}.</ref> Mangin attacked Ou Said's camp at El Ksiba and, though the Berbers suffered heavy casualties, Ou Said's forces inflicted losses of 60 men killed and 150 wounded and captured much of their equipment.<ref name="Bimberg8"/>
== Zaian War == The French, under Resident-General Hubert Lyautey, launched the Zaian War in the Middle Atlas in mid-1914 against the Zaian Confederation of tribes. Early French gains were slowed by Ou Hammou's victory at the Battle of El Herri, support from the Central Powers and greater co-operation between Ou Said, Ou Hammou and Amahouch.<ref name="hois80">{{Harvnb|Hoisington|1995|p=80}}.</ref> Ou Said's troops, numbering up to 5,000 tribesmen, engaged General Noël Garnier-Duplessix' men at Sidi Sliman, near to Kasbah Tadla, in May 1915 but were heavily defeated, losing 300 killed and 400 wounded in exchange for three French dead and five wounded.<ref name="hois82">{{Harvnb|Hoisington|1995|p=82}}.</ref><ref name="jaques941">{{Harvnb|Jaques|2007|p=941}}.</ref> This victory was a major setback for Ou Said, leading to his withdrawal further into the mountains and a six-month period of relative peace.<ref name="hois82"/> He continued to fiercely resist the French and was helped by German military supplies, of which his troops received the most of all the tribes in Morocco.<ref name="burke448">{{Harvnb|Burke III|1975|p=448}}.</ref>
Further Berber resistance continued through the course of the First World War, despite the death of Amhaouch in 1918, and the French found themselves still heavily opposed by the signing of the Armistice with Germany in November 1918.<ref name="hois85">{{Harvnb|Hoisington|1995|p=85}}.</ref> The Zaian war was eventually brought to a close in 1921 following the death of Ou Hammou and the submission of the remaining Zaian Confederation members. However, Ou Said continued his resistance, fleeing first to the Moulouya Valley and then to the highest mountains of the High Atlas after his defeat at the Battle of El Ksiba in April 1922 by General Joseph-François Poeymirau and Colonel Henry Freydenberg.<ref name="hois90">{{Harvnb|Hoisington|1995|p=90}}.</ref><ref name="windrow466">{{Harvnb|Windrow|2010|p=466}}.</ref><ref name="hois92">{{Harvnb|Hoisington|1995|p=92}}.</ref> He assigned the leadership of the Berber resistance to his son Bennacer and left to the ''kasbah'' that he built in Naour, where he remained until his death on 5 March 1924.<ref name="EoM2">{{Harvnb|Idrissi|2005|p=7570}}.</ref> Ou Said's followers continued their fight against the French until the final pacification of Morocco in 1934.<ref name="Bimberg14">{{Harvnb|Bimberg|1999|p=14}}.</ref><ref name="bidwell77">{{Harvnb|Bidwell|1973|p=77}}.</ref>
==See also== *Mhand n'Ifrutant
== References == {{Reflist|20em}}
== Bibliography == *{{Citation | last = Bidwell| first = Robin Leonard | title =Morocco Under Colonial Rule: French Administration Of Tribal Areas 1912–1956| publisher = Frank Cass and Company |place= Abingdon, UK| year = 1973| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ewC49kmDIBgC |author-link=Robin Leonard Bidwell| isbn = 0-7146-2877-8}} *{{Citation | last = Bimberg| first = Edward L. | title =The Moroccan Goums: Tribal Warriors in a Modern War| place = Westport, Connecticut| publisher = Greenwood Press | year = 1999| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6t8C5hgJGbwC | isbn = 0-313-30913-2}} *{{Citation | last = Burke III | first = Edmund | title = Moroccan Resistance, Pan-Islam and German War Strategy, 1914–1918 | journal = Francia | volume = 3 | pages = 434–464 | year = 1975 | url = http://francia.digitale-sammlungen.de/Blatt_bsb00016278,00446.html | access-date = 2012-12-31 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190129064148/https://francia.digitale-sammlungen.de/Blatt_bsb00016278,00446.html | archive-date = 2019-01-29 |author-link=Edmund Burke III| url-status = dead }} *{{Citation | last1 = Fage| first1 = J.D.|last2=Roberts|first2=Andrew|author2-link=Andrew D. Roberts |last3=Oliver|first3=Roland Anthony| title = The Cambridge History of Africa: From 1905 to 1940| publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1986| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Z0zZKCpGmfkC| isbn = 0-521-22505-1}} *{{Citation | last = Hoisington| first = William A| title = Lyautey and the French Conquest of Morocco| place = New York| publisher = Macmillan:St Martin's Press | year = 1995| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=iBn1PHEGGokC| isbn = 0-312-12529-1}} *{{Cite encyclopedia|title=al-Wirrawi, Moha ou Said|year=2005|encyclopedia=Ma'lamat al-Maghrib (Encyclopedia of Morocco)|first=Fakih|last=Idrissi|volume=22|editor1-last=Toufiq|editor1-first=Ahmed|editor2-last=Hajji|editor2-first=Mohamed|publisher=al-Jamī‘a al-Maghribiyya li-l-Ta’līf wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Nashr|editor-link=Ahmed Toufiq|language=ar}} *{{Citation | last = Jaques| first = Tony|title = Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: P-Z | place = Westport, Connecticut| publisher = Greenwood Press| year = 2007| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tW_eEVbVxpEC| isbn = 978-0-313-33537-2}} *{{Citation | last = Porch| first = Douglas| title = The Conquest of Morocco| publisher = Papermac| location = London|year = 1987| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=sLtyAAAAMAAJ | isbn = 978-0880640572}} *{{Citation | last1 = Singer| first1 = Barnett |last2 = Langdon|first2 = John W.| title = Cultured Force: Makers and Defenders of the French Colonial Empire| place = Madison| publisher = University of Wisconsin Press| year = 2004| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=LyKz291zVdkC | isbn = 0-299-19900-2}} *{{Citation | last = Usborne| first = Cecil Vivian| author-link = Cecil Vivian Usborne|title = The Conquest of Morocco| publisher = S. Paul & Co.| location = London|year = 1936| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9d1yAAAAMAAJ | oclc = 607919539}} *{{Citation | last = Windrow| first = Martin | title = Our Friends Beneath the Sands | place = London| publisher = Phoenix| year = 2010| isbn = 978-0-7538-2856-4}} {{Franco-Spanish conquest of Morocco |state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ou Said, Moha}} Category:19th-century births Category:1924 deaths Category:19th-century Moroccan people Category:20th-century Moroccan people Category:Moroccan Berbers Category:Berber rebels Category:Moroccan Caids Category:Moroccan military leaders Category:Moroccan independence activists Category:People from Kasba Tadla Category:20th-century Berber people