The Moroccan Berber leader Mohamed ben Abd el-Krim el-Khatabi (ca. 1882-1963) organized the resistance against European colonialism in northern Morocco from 1920 to 1927. He inspired a generation of militant nationalists, who liberated Morocco in 1956.

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. After his Koranic studies his family moved to Tetuán in 1892, 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 1906 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 1914 he was named the...