Word: sultans
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...burning Moslem nationalism collided head-on with determined French colonialism. The tribesmen of Morocco slew hundreds and were slain by the hundreds in return; neither side troubled unduly to spare the innocent. The occasion for the bloodshed was local in nature but worldwide in its implications: Who should be Sultan of Morocco-a French puppet or the man the Moroccans themselves wanted as their Imam (Commander of the Faithful)? Deeper than this ran stronger currents: France's pride of empire, the Moroccans' longing for independence. In this confused situation, the nation that brought modern progress to a sterile...
...characteristic of the balancing French politician: to adopt the moderate recommendations of courageous Resident General Gilbert Grandval, while sacrificing Grandval himself to the wolves. At week's end there was prospect of a patched-up compromise. It promised to settle the question of who should be Sultan of Morocco by having no Sultan at all. Much depended on the timing, for if either Grandval or the puppet Sultan departed without the other's going too, one side or the other promised violence...
Istiqlal. In 1943, during the Casablanca conference, President Roosevelt invited Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef to join him for dinner. Whether or not Franklin Roosevelt ever made the remark, the report soon spread that he had told the Sultan: "France is finished. Take back your country. We will help." The Sultan's chief interests lay in his harem (40 concubines), his garage (60 cars), and his afternoon game of tennis. Yet, as Imam (Commander of the Faithful), he became the man around whom Moroccans in the new Istiqlal (Independence) Party centered their hopes...
...paragraph to be inserted in a speech he was making in Tangier: "Look especially to France, lovers of liberty ..." But when it came time to deliver the speech, Ben Youssef ignored the French paragraph, appealed instead for the solidarity of Islam. The French were furious. To-teach the Sultan a lesson, they appointed an imperious and impetuous new Resident General : Alphonse Juin, topflight field soldier and veteran of long years of service in North Africa. An old-fashioned imperialist, Marshal Juin had his own Moroccan to set up against Ben Youssef: El Glaoui...
With French backing, El Glaoui began peddling a petition demanding Sultan Ben Youssef's dethronement. On Aug. 20, 1953, El Glaoui's horsemen came racing down the hills and surrounded the capital of Rabat. Ben Youssef must go, said El Glaoui. The colons loudly agreed. The French government suspected the strength of this movement, but was too weak-willed to resist it. Approving the order for Ben Youssef's removal, Foreign Minister Georges Bidault solaced himself with the comment: "It was either the Cross or the Crescent...