Word: sultanate
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...into a chaos caused by the abdication of the French and a vying among the Moroccans themselves, some to retain their feudal fiefs, others to spread violence born of ignorance, a few to seek a difficult adjustment between ancient ways, present misery and future progress. Glowed one Moroccan: "The Sultan's exile was a great thing. We've achieved a political and national consciousness we weren't able to build in 40 years." But Morocco, unlike Tunisia, has few modern institutions of government, and Mohammed V, whose skill and devotion as a political engineer remain in doubt...
Home to Morocco after two years of exile came Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef, also known as Sultan Mohammed V, descendant of The Prophet.* With him came two wives, four emancipated daughters and 22 veiled concubines...
Inside the palace he found a sultanic shambles. The palace furnishings, once a vast treasure, had been smashed or looted by French police and local vandals. Of his collection of 60 clocks, four remained; of hundreds of porcelain and crystal vases, one. Gone were the royal family photo albums, as well as the Sultan's 56 cars, trucks and buses, which the French government had sold off. Where once was a private zoo, only three gazelles and an ostrich remained. Muttered Mohammed...
Long before daylight next morning, the Sultan drove to the holy city of Fez to kneel toward the rising sun, and to pray on a rug beside the grave of his mother, who had died of grief for her son ten days after his removal from the throne...
...week's end, with this question unanswered, the celebrating went on in the palace courtyard, where crowds gathered and milled. Suddenly someone spotted Tayeb Baghdadi, Caliph (deputy) to the Pasha of Fez, who had come to Rabat to make amends to the Sultan for having supported his banishment. The mob closed in, kicked and beat him, ripped off his white silken robes. "The Sultan may forget, but we will not forgive you!" cried one. The Caliph fought for his life, but a rock on the head finished...