MOROCCO: Out Goes the Sultan

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In the furnacelike heat of the North African summer, the Moslem holy day of Aid el Kebir rolled around. On that day the heads of Moslem families sacrifice a ram in memory of Abraham's sacrifice of a male sheep in place of his son Ishmael, ancestor of all Arabs. One ram, the most important of all, is ceremoniously knifed by the Sultan, who is regarded by the Arabs and Berbers of French Morocco as their spiritual and temporal sovereign. On Aid el Kebir last week, the knife was wielded not by Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef (who had reigned since he succeeded his father in 1927), but by a new Sultan, Sidi Mohammed ben Moulay Arafa. Ben Youssef had made the mistake of antagonizing the French, and was unceremoniously banished from the land.

The Popular Bandit. The roots of this event go back years, decades, even centuries. The coup would not have been possible without the Berbers, the fierce, proud indigenes of Africa's northwest corner who in the 8th century were engulfed (but not permanently subdued) by the Islamic invaders from Arabia. The Berbers adopted the Moslem religion, but their practices were eccentric—heterodox in some ways (e.g., they eat wild boar's flesh), rigidly fundamentalist in others. Unlike the urban Arabs in Morocco, the rural Berbers have remained steadfastly pro-French.

The most powerful influence among the Berbers is that of Si el Hadj Thami el Mezouari el Glaoui, the aged, cunning and ruthless Pasha of Marrakech. Once a bandit in the southern Moroccan desert, El Glaoui began helping the French in 1912, the first year of the protectorate; he sheltered some French citizens from possible slaughter by rebels. The late great Marshal Lyautey was so pleased that he put the onetime bandit in charge of his Moroccan troops. Eventually El Glaoui became the local ruler of a large territory, and acquired a considerable fortune from mine dividends, taxes and miscellaneous "gifts."

Temporize & Hang On. Not so loyal to the French was Sultan Ben Youssef, though as the third son of the previous Sultan he had been hand-picked and tutored for the job by the French. As the Imam (Commander of the Faithful), he had immense authority and a good living: two wives, many concubines, vast estates, 60 automobiles and $200,000 a year spending money. All he had to do was behave. Back in 1943, the French began to suspect that Ben Youssef was getting out of hand. During the Casablanca conference, the Sultan had a meal alone with Franklin D. Roosevelt, who (the French suspect) filled him full of anticolonialism. He later ignored his aged advisers and heeded his son Moulay Hassan, who was mixed up in the Istiqlal (Nationalist) independence movement.