The Beginning (Or End) of Moroccan History: Historiography, Translation, and Modernity in Ahmad B. Khalid Al-Nasiri and Clemente Cerdeira

Abstract

This article analyzes two accounts of the Hispano-Moroccan War of 1859-60 in light of scholarly debates about historiography, translation, and modernity in the colonial context. The first text is Ahmad b. Khalid al-Nasiri's Kitab al-Istiqsa (1895), which explores the organization of the Spanish army in an effort to understand the military technology and state apparatus behind colonial domination. The second text, Clemente Cerdeira's Versiónárabe de la Guerra deÁfrica (1917), is framed as an annotated Spanish translation of al-Nasiri's text, but Cerdeira suppresses key passages from al-Nasiri's account in order to undermine any hint that the Moroccan historian's thinking is reformist or modern. By comparing these two accounts of the same war, the article aims to situate al-Nasiri's text within the reform movements that spread through the Muslim Mediterranean in the 19th century and to use al-Nasiri's historical thinking as a model for theorizing Moroccan modernity.

Why Armies Break: Explaining Mass Desertion in Conventional War

“…Critics, including Moroccan observers, noted Morocco's antiquated technology, poor leadership, and outmoded tactics (al Salawi, 1917;Calderwood, 2012). Its considerable assets, including favorable force ratios and local knowledge of terrain, were often frittered away.…”

Spanish Orientalism and Modern Arabic Literature

“…Curiously enough, this work was banned by decree in French Morocco because it was considered to be a nationalist plea. Tetouan, the capital of the Spanish protectorate, was to become an important centre for translation from Arabic into Spanish, as well as for the flow of a large number of translations from Spanish to Arabic 11. A prime example is the first translation into Arabic of Don the demise of the Protectorate in 1956, all these cultural initiatives disappeared.…”