Mohammed Abd-el-Krim Al-Khattabi became an icon throughout the world for initiating extensively organized resistance initially against the Spanish and then the.!
Mohamed ben Abd el-Krim el-Khatabi
The Moroccan Berber leader Mohamed ben Abd el-Krim el-Khatabi (ca.
) organized the resistance against European colonialism in northern Mo rocco from to He inspired a generation of militant nationalists, who liberated Morocco in
Son of an Islamic schoolteacher, Abd el-Krim was born at Ajdir in the Rif mountains into the important Berber tribe of the Beni Ouriaghel.
Abdel Krim was the most sophisticated Moroccan insurgent and one of the great non-western captains.
After his Koranic studies his family moved to Tetuán in , where he attended a Spanish school and came into contact with European culture. He completed his studies in Fez at the Moslem university of Qarawiyin.
In Abd el-Krim edited an Arabic supplement of a Spanish newspaper in Melilla.
In the following year he became a secretary in the Spanish Bureau of Native Affairs; his work provided him with a precise knowledge of the mining resources of the Rif and the abusive aspects of colonialism. In he was named the chief religious judge for the region of Melilla and emerged as an import