His full name was Muhammad ibn Abd al-Karim al-Khattabi; its guerilla warfare is known to have influenced Ho Chi Minh, Mao Zedong, and Che Guevara.
Born into a family of notable Berbers (the Ait Khattab, a fraction of Ait Waryagar), he studied in the best traditional Islamic schools (the Qarawiyyin Fez mosque), and also in the best schools in Spain (University of Salamanca).
He joined the Spanish administration as a Spanish translator; In 1915 he moved to Melilla, where he also worked as a journalist for the newspaper El Telegrama del Rif. Meanwhile, despite his young age, he was named Great Qadi of Melilla. Of opinion contrary to Spanish expansionism (although initially not particularly hostile to it), in 1917 he was arrested by the Iberian authorities along with his brother, under the pretext of nurturing sympathies for Germany during the First World War. Although acquitted of this charge, he spent a year in prison, from which he tried to escape, breaking his leg.
Released from prison a year later, the unjust detention led him to firmly oppose Spain. He then returned to Ajdir, where he began to unite the tribes with the intention of creating one “Rif Republic“independent. To realize this purpose he proposed to the tribes to abandon all internal disputes and return to a more rigorous Islam (for example, renouncing the consumption of pork).
In 1921 Spanish troops in the course of operations against a Berber warrior, halfway between a patriot and a criminal named El Raysuli (Mulay Ahmad al-Raysuni), set out to conquer an area that was not yet militarily occupied by the Rif . Abd el-Krim informed the colonialist general Manuel Fernández Silvestre that the crossing of the Amekran River by his troops would be considered a declaration of war. The Spanish general crossed the river, establishing his position in Abarrán. Enraged by this maneuver, that same day Abd el-Krim attacked the Spanish military post: a thousand Riffians surrounded the camp, killing 179 Spaniards and forcing the others to retreat.
What followed was a series of great successes for Abd el-Krim’s troops: in the course of three weeks 8,000 Spanish soldiers were killed. And in the historical Battle of Annual (July 21, 1921), an army of 13,000 Spaniards was severely defeated by only 3,000 Riffians. As a result of these military operations, the Spanish were forced to withdraw from their coastal possessions in Morocco and, on September 19, 1921, Abd el-Krim proclaimed the “Republic of the Confederate Tribes of the Rif”, an embryonic republican Berber state.
Meanwhile, the conflict spread, also involving France, which claimed the lands south of the Rif. An army was sent commanded by Marshal Philippe Pétain, who joined the Spanish against Abd el-Krim’s troops who were eventually defeated. To subdue the Rif Republic, an army of 500,000 men supported by aviation was used and mustard gas was used against the population. The capitulation occurred on May 27, 1926.
Abd el-Krim was exiled to the French island of Reunion between 1926 and 1947, when he was allowed to transfer to the south of France. However, while on his way, he abandoned the ship that was taking him to France and accepted the protection of the king of Egypt. From Egypt he led the “Maghreb Liberation Committee“, the nationalist movement that fought against the colonial occupation of North Africa. Ironically, as soon as independence was conquered, the riots that broke out in the Rif between 1958 and 1959 were harshly repressed, with a death toll of more than 8,000.
Abd el-Krim died in Cairo in 1963, shortly after seeing the decolonization of the Maghreb complete, after the independence of Algeria.