ABSTRACT
How far this Interpretation of history corresponds with reality is of course another matter. since those in power are well placed to control the way in which the past Is projected for present consumption. One contention of this chapter will be that much of the state apparatus of modern Morocco is as much the creation of Lyautey and his successors as of the 'Alawite monarchy. Thus the French administrators' version of their role as an essentially static one, approximating simply to that of game wardens In a 'national park', to adapt a phrase of Jacques Berque, Is an over-simplistic description of the colonial period (3). Since the French neither abolished the traditional institutions in Morocco nor introduced permanent replacements for them. the institutions were able to survive the colonial periOd more or less intact, and indeed greatly strengthened, while their Algerian or Tunisian equivalents were either abOlished or so enfeebled as to perish shortly after independence (4),
More generally, since the national movement developed out of an
essentially Islamic reaction to French rule. the cooption of the sultan. the embodiment of Moroccan Islam. was a vital precondition for its ultimate success. Although Muhammad V had maintained an attitude of complaisance rather than defiance towards the French authorities for much of the early part of his reign. the moment he took up the stance of the 'rebel sultan'. his continuing legitimacy was assured. Paradoxically. therefore. instead of being absorbed by 'Alia I al-Fassi and the Istiqlal. Muhammad V was himself able to absorb and thus to neutralise the independence movement and turn to his own advantage what might elsewhere and in other circumstances have developed into a serious threat to his authority.
