Journal of - International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine

Francisco Javier MARTÍNEZ-ANTONIO
The Tangiers School of Medicine and its Physicians: A Forgotten
Initiative of Medical Education Reform in Morocco (1886-1904)(x)
ed his manifold activities in Morocco at a crucial moment,
that immediately after returning to Spain because of a disease
he resigned from the army and never took up his post
in Tangiers again 23 . After his departure, the School was directed
in succession by Óvilo’s former colleagues in the city
Ramón Fiol Jiménez, Severo Cenarro Cubero and Joaquín
Cortés Bayona and kept a seemingly sombre existence until
at least 1904 24 . In a report dated 14 th October 1899, the
Spanish Minister in Tangiers Emilio de Ojeda spoke about
“three or four students who languish in its deserted rooms”
and the “absenteeism and insubordination” they usually
showed towards the School and their teachers 25 .
82
THE FIRST MOROCCAN PHYSICIANS OF
THE TANGIERS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE:
IDENTITY, FAMILY BACKGROUND,
MEDICAL EDUCATION, PROFESSIONAL
PRACTICE
We have not yet been able to identify all the young Moroccans
that studied medicine in Óvilo’s school in Tangiers.
In any case, there existed two groups for sure, the classes of
1886-1887 and 1890-1891, each one of them composed of
six students 26 . Óvilo himself wrote down the names of the
first six in a report: Mustapha al-Zaudi, Mohammed Dukkali,
Hamed Romani, Hamed ibn al-Hasmi, Mohammed al-
Awami and Hamed Ahardan 27 . Not all of them completed
their studies. For example, al-Awami died in October 1887,
to Óvilo’s despair because he thought that “due to his spirit
and perseverance, he would have honoured the institution
most” 28 . Ahardan “did not show enough skills” and left the
school very soon, while al-Hasmi could not regularly attend
classes in some periods due to family affairs, though
he probably resumed his studies later 29 . Zaudi, Dukkali and
Romani were the most regular and diligent students and
they were usually referred to as Óvilo’s “disciples” 30 .
These first six students belonged to the upper or uppermiddle
class of Tangiers or Northern Morocco in general.
For instance, the Ahardans were considered part of the
“Muslim aristocracy of Tangiers” and one of the richest
families of the city, where there even existed a neighbourhood
named after them 31 . Mohammed Ahardan was the
son of Abdesselam Ahardan, “agent” of Sultan Hassan I in
the city, amin (secretary, administrator) of the port customs
and closely allied to the Abdessadaq family which occupied
the posts of bascha of Tangiers and kaid of the Riff several
times during the 19 th and early 20 th century 32 . The Dukkalis
were also a traditional Tangerine family, though its influence
spread throughout Morocco. The grandfather, Musta-
pha ibn Djilali Dukkali, had been granted by sultan Mulay
Abderrahman ibn Hicham (1822-1859) the monopoly of
animal skins commerce in the country and also the right
of exploitation of an important antimony mine located in
the qabila (tribe) of Andjera, between Tangiers and the
Spanish enclave of Ceuta 33 . His son, Mohammed Dukkali
became an important government official and also an Italian
protégée, escorting the Italian embassy to Fez in 1873 as
shown in the book Marocco first published by the famous
Italian writer Edmundo de Amicis in 1876. Despite this, he
was closely associated later to Spanish activities in Tangiers,
as member of the Board of the Spanish Chamber of
Commerce (1887) and by giving the Spanish government
the land where the new Spanish hospital was built in 1888,
sometimes known as the “hospital of Ducali [sic]” or the
“hospital of Ducali’s [sic] orchard” 34 .
The Zaudi were not a family as rich and powerful as the
former two, but they were genuinely Tangerine, as their last
surname Tandjaui indicated (the Ahardan and Abdessadaq
originally came from the Riffian qabila of Temsamam; the
Dukkali from the Atlantic region of Dukkala). Mustapha
al Zaudi was the son of the fqih (expert in Islamic law) Si
Abdesselam al-Zaudi and his older brother had become the
amin of Sidi Mohammed Torres, representative of the sultan
in Tangiers to deal with foreign consuls (this post was
called naib and his office, the Dar al-Niaba) 35 . Finally, we
have managed to find some uncertain data about the families
of al-Hasmi and al-Awami. The first could have been
the son of an important army general, Mohammed ibn al-
Hasmi, whom the Spanish military engineer and explorer
Julio Cervera Baviera considered a very influential man
within the Makhzen (power elite) 36 . In 1891, the general
took part of the embassy sent to Spain and was described
as being the commander of the army units at the Sus, the
southernmost province/kingdom of Morocco 37 . But Óvilo’s
student could have also been a member of one of the several
relevant families of that name that lived in dchoûr (villages)
around Tangiers 38 . The name al-Awami could also be
found in similar villages around the city 39 .
Going back to medical education, the three “disciples”
of Óvilo, Zaudi, Dukkali and Romani, soon embarked on
an initiative that was never again to be repeated in the short
history of the Tangiers School of Medicine. In the beginning
of 1888, Óvilo asked and was given permission by the
Spanish Legation and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take the
three of them to a study trip in Spain 40 . Between March and
April, they travelled via Cádiz and Sevilla to Madrid, where
they visited some of the most important medical, hygienic
and intellectual institutions of the city, with which Óvilo
himself had been closely involved before being appointed
ISHIM 2011-2012