Biography of Abd-el-Krim: – Leader of the resistance against Spanish colonial domination in northern Morocco. Belonging to the rifena tribes of Beni Urriaguel, it was son of a cedi; after receiving an education in Tunis and Fez, served the Spanish colonial administration in various positions.
Biography of Abd-el-Krim
- Born:- 1882, Ajdir, Morocco
- Died:- 6 February 1963, Cairo, Egypt
- Parents:- Abd al-Karim El-Khattabi
- Battles/Wars:- Rif War Battle of Annual
- Other Name:- Abd el-Krim or Abdelkrim
- Rank:- Emir
His first activities against colonial penetration took him to prison in 1915. But it was in 1921, already become the top anti-colonial leader of Morocco, when he organized the general uprising of the Rif.
See Also: Biography of Alvar Aalto
The Spanish troops, defeated in Annual, had to withdraw, while Abd-el-Krim was erir emir of an independent territory.
Extending his ambitions to the part of Morocco under French dominion, it provoked the understanding against him of the two European metropolises.
The Hispano-French counteroffensive, from the landing of Alhucemas (1925), led to the defeat of the Riflemen in 1926.
Seeing close to fall into the hands of the Spaniards, surrendered to the French after executing all prisoners of that nationality.
This last act of war only increased the image of Abd-el-Krim as a cruel and bloodthirsty man, an image based on the forms of struggle proper to the rifean tribes, but exaggerated in Spain by hatred of the enemy and by the secular contempt Towards North African populations.
By agreement between the Spanish and French colonial authorities, Abd-el-Krim was deported to the island of Reunion, a French colony in the Indian Ocean, where he remained until 1947.
In that year, authorized by the French government to move to the metropolis, managed to escape during a stop in Port Said of the ship that transported to him, taking advantage of the protection of the Egyptian king Faruk.
It maintained its fight from the exile against the colonial domination until 1952, shortly before the total independence of Morocco (1956).
Despite honors granted him by the first king of Morocco, Mohammed V, refused to return to his country and remained in Egypt until his death, become a symbol of Arab nationalism.
