M'hamed el-Khattabi

M'hamed ben Abdelkrim El Khattabi (1892 – 17 December 1967) was a Riffian military and political leader, the younger brother of Abd el-Krim.¹ He is known above all as the principal military strategist of the Republic of the Rif (1921–1926), of which he was vice-president and supreme chief of the army.^{1 2} The Spanish article notes that some sources give his birth year as 1897, though 1892 is the more accepted figure, he being ten years younger than his brother.²

He was born at Ajdir into the Ait Khattab clan of the Ait Ouriaghel, an important Riffian tribe; his father, Abdelkrim El Khattabi, qadi of the region, initially collaborated with the Spanish colonial authorities hoping they would bring progress and modernisation.¹ The Spanish article describes the father as the youngest son's first formation being arranged by the qadi, who sent his two sons for university education: Muhammad to Fez for Islamic law at al-Qarawiyyin, and M'hamed first to Essaouira and then, on a Spanish government scholarship in 1917, to the School of Mines in Madrid.² The father, disappointed with the Spanish advance, recalled his sons in 1918; Abd el-Krim arrived in December and M'hamed in January 1919, and after the father's death at Tafersit on 7 August 1920, Abd el-Krim took operational command with M'hamed as his lieutenant.²

From 1919, alongside his brother, M'hamed organised the Riffian resistance against the Spanish advance in northern Morocco and played a major role at the Battle of Annual in 1921, where the Riffian forces inflicted a heavy defeat on the Spanish army.¹ He is considered by several historians the military strategist of the movement; the Spanish writer Lorenzo Silva remarked that he showed himself on numerous occasions a tactician superior to the Spanish generals.¹ The Spanish article credits him with directing the western campaigns, including the taking of Chefchaouen and the 1925 siege of Tetouan, where his assault on the Gorgues defences was stopped only at Kudia Tahar, and with the Riffian victories over the French at the Ouergha in 1925.²

After the victory of Annual the Riffian tribes united under the Khattabi brothers and proclaimed the Republic of the Rif on 18 September 1921; M'hamed was named supreme chief of the Riffian army and vice-president of the government.^{1 2} Between 1921 and 1925 he led several campaigns against the Spanish troops, notably the taking of Chefchaouen and the siege of Tetouan, and in 1925 the Riffian troops also faced the French army at the Battle of the Ouergha.¹

Faced with the Franco-Spanish coalition and the Alhucemas landing of September 1925, the Republic collapsed, and on 26 May 1926 Abd el-Krim surrendered to the French at Targuist.¹ The family was exiled to the island of Réunion until 1947, then settled in Cairo, where M'hamed looked after the family while his brother resumed political activity.^{1 2} The Spanish article says he decided in 1964 to return to Morocco and settled in Rabat.² After Abd el-Krim's death in 1963, M'hamed returned to Morocco in 1967 and died at Rabat the same year — the Spanish article specifies a heart attack on 17 December 1967, as he planned his return to the Rif — and he was buried at Ajdir with military honours.^{1 2}

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