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The Ministry itself, although in continuous existence until French colonization,
underwent two distinct phases of operation. The biographies of the ministers who oversaw this
institution reveal much about its trajectory. Mawlāy Muḥammad appointed Muḥammad al-
Ṣaffār as the first Minister of Complaints. 73 Al-Ṣaffār, a native of Tetuan, had studied at the
Qarawīyīn in Fez and worked as an ‘adl (notary), a teacher, and a muftī. 74 Later, he became tutor
to the sultan’s children. Al-Ṣaffār first became a government minister in 1853-4 (1270 AH)
under ‘Abd al-Raḥmān, until he was appointed Minister of Complaints—a post he retained until
his death in 1881 (during the reign of Mawlāy Ḥasan). 75
Al-Ṣaffār’s successor, ‘Alī al-Misfīwī, had a remarkably similar trajectory. 76 Born in
Marrakesh to a scholarly family, he too went to Fez to study and later became tutor to the
sultan’s children. 77 Al-Misfīwī served as Minister of Complaints from 1881 until his death in
1898, during the reign of Mawlāy ‘Abd al-‘Azīz (reigned 1894-1908). Both al-Ṣaffār’s and al-
Misfīwī’s training in Islamic law undoubtedly helped prepare them for the responsibility of
73
His full name was Abū ‘Abdallāh Muḥammad b. ‘Abdallāh al-Ṣaffār. On al-Ṣaffār generally, see Susan Gilson
Miller, Disorienting Encounters: Travels of a Moroccan Scholar in France in 1845-1846 (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1992), especially 33-48: Dāwūd, Tārīkh Tiṭṭawān, v. 7, 78-97: Muḥammad Gharrīt, Kitāb fawāṣil
al-jumān fī anbā’ wuzarā’ wa-kuttāb al-zamān (Rabat: Dār al-amān, 2010), 85-86.
74
Ibn Zaydān noted that al-Ṣaffār had “knowledge of nawāzil [similar to fatāwā]” and had memorized the
Mukhtaṣar (undoubtedly of Khalīl b. Isḥāq): Ibn Zaydān, Itḥāf a‘lām al-nās, v. 3, 569. As a scribe for Muḥammad
Ash‘āsh, al-Ṣaffār accompanied his employer on a diplomatic mission to Paris in 1845-6 and wrote an account of his
travels for the sultan Mawlāy ‘Abd al-Raḥmān (translated in Miller, Disorienting Encounters).
75
Ibn Zaydān, Itḥāf a‘lām al-nās, v. 3, 569: Dāwūd, Tārīkh Tiṭṭawān, v. 7, 81.
76
His full name was Abū al-Ḥasan ‘Alī b. al-faqīh al-qāḍī Abī ‘Abdallāh Muḥammad al-Misfīwī. For his biography
see Ibn Zaydān, Itḥāf a‘lām al-nās, v. 5, 481-3; al-‘Abbās b. Ibrāhīm al-Marrākushī, al-I‘lām bi-man ḥalla
Marrākush wa-Aghmāt min al-a‘lām, 11 vols. (Rabat: al-Maṭba‘a al-Mālikīya, 1977), v. 9, 262-4; Gharrīt, Kitāb
fawāṣil al-jumān, 107-8.
77
Al-Misfīwī’s father, Muḥammad (d. 1280/ 1863-1864)—known as Ḥammū—was a qāḍī who taught at the Ibn
Yūsuf mosque (the most prestigious institution of higher learning in Marrakesh): al-Marrākushī, al-I‘lām bi-man
ḥalla Marrākush, v. 9, 264. Al-Misfīwī was reputed for his scholarship, including a mastery of logic, rhetoric,
Arabic, the biography of the Prophet, history, and law (ibid., 263). He began tutoring the sultan’s children during
the reign of Mawlāy ‘Abd al-Raḥmān (Ibn Zaydān, Itḥāf a‘lām al-nās, v. 5, 482). Upon Mawlāy Muḥammad’s
accession to the throne, he appointed al-Misfīwī as vizier to his son Ḥasan (the future sultan) and then as a vizier in
the Ministry of the Interior. Misfīwī was also assigned to undertake a mission to the minister of France in Tangier
on Mawlāy Ḥasan’s behalf around 1880, in an attempt to convince the French to agree to limitations on consular
protection and other diplomatic points (see MAE Nantes, Tanger A 158, ?? to ‘Alī al-Misfīwī, 6 February 1880).
171