Modernizing a Moroccan Medina: Commercial and technological innovations at the workplace of millers and butchers in Fez, 1878--1937

This dissertation explains how and why concern for the food supply in urban centers contributed to social and political conservatism in Morocco, a theocracy based on divine kingship and patriarchal relations. Millers and butchers were key agents of urban food provisioning, so commercial and technological innovations at their work sites reveal new connections between the economic and political conditions in this kingdom. Focusing on Fez, the precolonial capital, I analyze the sixty years that separated severe droughts in 1878 and 1937, when food security was a pressing concern in this semi-arid land. The Sultan's desire to alleviate popular fears of impending famine played a crucial role in defining the fiscal policies, market regulations, and technological developments that increased or decreased access to foodstuffs sold by millers and butchers. I argue that Alaouite Sultans made a concerted effort to supply Fez with food so as to secure the loyalty of workers and the poor, who constituted the urban majority.; By focusing on urban food security, this Moroccan case study strongly suggests that portraits of oppressive rulers in other semi-arid lands of the Islamic world fail to reflect their social welfare policies. While I do not apologize for the abuse of state power, my dissertation complicates images of Islamic rulers as dictatorial and self-interested. It does so by showing the royal protection of workers and the poor, even if the Sultan's actions undermined the interests of the mercantile or religious elite. The small-scale intermediate technology promoted by Alaouite Sultans, who deliberately blocked full-scale industrialization, contributed to this kingdom's success in mitigating famine and so securing social stability. I base my study on royal correspondence and the local interpretation and enactment of Islamic law as well as on interviews with octogenarian millers and butchers, often trained by their fathers and grandfathers. By examining the environmental conditions in which Moroccan events transpired, I extend explanations of Moroccan social and political conservatism beyond its commonly framed Islamic roots.