Thami Al-Glaoui: Morocco's Greatest Pasha

By Orit Ouaknine-Yekutieli

Orit Ouaknine-Yekutieli examines the life and deeds of Thami al-Glaoui (1879-1956), and the multiple ways in which his story has been told. She investigates his biography as a creation continuing beyond the demise of its protagonist, asserting a conflation of history, story and storytelling. The book also reconfigures the story of major events and processes in modern Moroccan history and historiography.
Thami al-Glaoui, leader of the Amazigh Glaoua tribe and Pasha of Marrakesh throughout Morocco's colonial era (1912-56), was the third most powerful person in Morocco, after the Sultan and the French Resident-General, by the 1930s. In 1953, he was a key supporter of the deportation of Sultan Mohamed V by the French. After recanting three years later, he was pardoned by the returning Sultan, but died shortly afterwards. In the four decades that followed, al-Glaoui became a synonym in Morocco for betrayal and corruption. In the 21st century, however, the ways in which he is told became more complex, and his reputation has been somewhat revised.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1399520687
• ISBN13: 9781399520683
• Release Date: December 2025
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 0.93 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"