Resistance in the Desert

This work, first published in 1977, is a study of African responses to European conquest in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It centers on the Muslim pastoral tribes and oasis communities which inhabited southeastern Morocco, a semi-arid region on the northern fringe of the Sahara Desert. Between 1881 and 1912 the French army, advancing from Algeria, invaded and occupied this region. This book examines the decades of French conquest as an episode in African, rather than European, colonial or military history.

Ross E. Dunn

A Note on Transliteration; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part One: The Southeast on the Eve of the French Conquest; 1. The People of the Desert Fringe 2. Nomads: The Dawi Mani' and the Ait 'Atta 3. Oasis-Dwellers: Tafilalt, Figuig, and Kenadsa 4. The Commercial Network; Part Two: Southeastern Morocco and the French Conquest; 5. The Southeast between France and the Makhzan, 1881-1900 6. The Aftermath of Touat, 1900-1903 7. Resistance and the Commercial Shift, 1903-1907 8. The Southeast in the Era of Mawlay 'Abd al-Hafid, 1908-1912 9. Southeastern Morocco and Africa in the Era of European Conquest; Glossary of Special Terms and Tribal Names; Sources; Index