| This dissertation is a study of Morocco's social and economic history between 1640 and 1830. Using a combination of oral data and documents from American, European, and African archives, it shows how Moroccans became increasingly involved in the larger early modern world, and how this involvement affected everyday life. It traces the emergence, fragmentation, and rebirth of one the largest sufi orders in North Africa, the Nas&dotbelow;iriyya, focusing on how individuals acquired access to productive resources through participating in the order and other social networks. Concentrating on the shifting social contexts for production, distribution, and consumption provides a rich view of Moroccan social change during a crucial period in world history.; The Nas&dotbelow;iriyya first emerged in the Moroccan desert-edge during the seventeenth century, when environmental pressures weakened existing social structures and forced drastic changes in everyday life. Early Nas&dotbelow;iri leaders succeeded in building a vast social network by providing services and resources that many people needed. While networks based on lineage ties, common native-place, and occupational speciality remained important, becoming Nas&dotbelow;iri gave individuals access to an array of new potential relationships. Participating in the Nas&dotbelow;iriyya came to mean increased access to land, water, labor, credit, mediation, political clout and spiritual power.; Growing involvement in cross-cultural trade in the late eighteenth century signalled, for many Moroccans, a profound shift in politics, economic activity, and cultural values. The upheavals that cross-cultural trade indirectly caused also helped tear the Nas&dotbelow;iriyya apart. As competition with other groups increased, many Nas&dotbelow;iri followers chose to cultivate a wider diversity of social networks in order to gain access to opportunities and power. Access to resources grew dependant on ties with a central government that increasingly controlled political power by granting rights to participate in cross-cultural trade. Two increasingly polarized constituencies emerged in Moroccan society, however: those for and those against cross-cultural exchange. The Nas&dotbelow;iriyya recovered in the early nineteenth century as a coherent, diverse organization that helped the central government appeal to these two powerful groups. |
