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overseeing maẓālim, and gave them legitimacy not only as politicians but as ‘ulamā’, learned
scholars worthy of dispensing justice.
Yet the prestige of the Ministry of Complaints declined towards the end of al-Misfīwī’s
tenure. Bā Aḥmad, Mawlāy ‘Abd al-‘Azīz’s regent who effectively held power from 1894 until
his death in 1900, reduced the scope of this ministry and deprived its minister of any real
authority. 78 The next Minister of Complaints seems to have been a purely political appointee.
Muḥammad al-Mahdī b. Gharrīṭ (or Gharnīṭ, d. 1944) was the brother of Muḥammad Mufaḍḍal
(known as Faḍūl) b. Gharrīṭ, who was the grand vizier at the time (wazīr al-a‘ẓam). Otherwise
al-Mahdī b. Gharrīt was rather unremarkable; he rose from the ranks of scribes in Marrakesh
and, though clearly somewhat educated, did not possess the prestige of either al-Ṣaffār or al-
Misfīwī. 79 The next minister suggests that the institution had declined even further: ‘Abd al-
Mālik al-Mutugī (d. 1928), who was one of the great qā’ids of the south, occupied the post under
the sultan ‘Abd al-Ḥafīẓ he ruled from Marrakesh, from September 1907 to the spring of 1908. 80
Al-Mutugī was not a scholar, nor was he trained in service to the Makhzan; Mawlāy ‘Abd al-
Ḥafīẓ probably appointed him to help consolidate his rule among the tribes al-Mutugī
controlled. 81 When Mawlāy ‘Abd al-Ḥafīẓ arrived in Fez he appointed a “Ben Kabbour” as
78
Bū ‘Ishrīn, al-Tanbīh al-Mu‘rib, 44-5; al-Marrākushī, al-I‘lām bi-man ḥalla Marrākush, v. 9, 264, fn. 22; Gharrīt,
Kitāb fawāṣil al-jumān, 107. On the decline of the ministry, see also Goulven, Traité d’économie, 22; Caillé,
Organisation judiciaire, 18.
79
The only mention of Gharrīt as Minister of Complaints is in Aubin, Morocco of To-Day, 173. Gharrīt appears in
biographical dictionaries, though his entries are extremely short and do not mention his position as Minister of
Complaints. The entries describe him as a scribe in Marrakesh or as a vizier for the khalīfa (governor) of
Marrakesh: ‘Abd al-Salām Ibn Sūda, Itḥāf al-Maṭāli‘ fi-wafayāt a‘lām al-qarn al-thālith ‘ashar wa-’l-rābi‘, 2 vols.
(Beirut: Dār al-gharb al-islāmī, 1997), v. 2, 498: ‘Abd al-Kabīr b. Hāshim al-Kattānī, Zahr al-ās fī buyūtāt ahl Fās,
2 vols. (Casablanca: Maṭba‘at al-najāḥ al-jadīda, 2002), v. 2, 56. Aubin notes that his appointment was due to
family ties and that he had “risen from the ranks of the Makhzen secretaries” (Aubin, Morocco of To-Day, 174). On
Gharrīt’s family, see Ḥajjī, Ma‘lamāt al-Maghrib, v. 19, 6332-4 (al-Mahdī’s biography appears on p. 6334).
80
Michaux Bellaire, “La beniqat ech chikaïat,” 242-56; Marthe Gouvion and Edmond Gouvion, Kitab Aayane al-
Marhrib al-Akça, 2 vols. (Paris: Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1939), v. 1, 361.
81
Although Michaux Bellaire described al-Mutugī as completely illiterate (Michaux Bellaire, “La beniqat ech
chikaïat,” 242-43), other sources suggest that he did complete at least a minimal study of the Quran as a child
172