الطاهر فنيش
الطاهر بن عبد الحق فنيش ()
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معاهدة الصداقة الأمريكية 1777
مقالة مفصلة: معاهدة الصداقة المغربية الأمريكية
سفارة الطاهر فنيش إلى فرنسا (1777-1778)
The Embassy of Tahar Fennich (1777-1778)
On the night of December 26 to 27, 1775, the merchant ship The Louise, from the port of Nantes, was shipwrecked near Cape Bojador. The captain and twenty men of the crew are able to reach the coast, but are captured by the inhabitants of the country and sold several times as slaves. In April 1776, the charge d'affaires of France in Morocco, Chénier, learned of the accident and learned that the castaways were on the banks of the Noun wadi, in the most deplorable situation. He immediately addresses the sultan, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdallah and asks him to act in favor of his compatriots.
P. Grillon, Chargé d'Affaires in Morocco. The Correspondence of consul Louis de Chénier 1767-1782, volume 1, 1767 to 1777, op. cit., p. 47. The causes of this Moroccan embassy in France are analyzed in detail in Jacques Caillé's article "The Castaways of the Louise in Morocco and the Embassy of Tahar Fennich at the Court of France in 1777-1778", Revue d'histoire diplomatique , July-September 1964, p. 225-264. The author traces precisely the adventure of the French castaways in Morocco (p. 225-241). J. Caillé, “Moroccan embassies and missions in France”, art. quoted, p. 56.
The sovereign then redeems the French. “Sidi Mohammed refused to reimburse the sum thus paid; he would have liked the King of France to send him Moorish slaves back to the galleys of Malta. Negotiations continued without success between the Sultan's representatives and Chénier. The sultan then took the decision to send an ambassador to France to offer Louis XVI the castaways of the Louise. The boss Tahar Fennich is chosen to fulfill this mission. The last Moroccan ambassador to come to France dates back to the end of Seventeenth century. During this century, the sultan's representatives went to Versailles to conclude a peace treaty. Tahar Fennich's embassy takes place ten years after the signing of the Marrakech agreement. How is the sending of Moroccans to France perceived? The consul of Salé Louis de Chénier is the first informed of the projects of Mohammed III. On August 23, 1777, he wrote to the Secretary of State and Minister of the Navy: "[...] Sieur Soumbel tells me that Sidi Tahar Fennich [...] has orders to bring the crew of Captain Dupuis and the other disgraced Frenchmen who are here. »
J. Caillé, « Embassies and missions in France », art. quoted, p. 57. Tahar Fennich is also the commander of the Moroccan artillery. He enjoys the favor of his sovereign. In 1773 he was sent as the sultan's ambassador to London. Then he was appointed in 1777 to go to the Netherlands but finally Tahar Fennich was chosen to head the embassy in France. In 1786, he discussed the clauses of the treaty between the United States and Morocco with the American consul Barclay.
In this same letter, he does not hesitate to describe this mission as "contradictory and singularly arranged" and as "a commission as expensive and as embarrassing". He therefore wishes, as for the previous Moroccan missions, to avoid it by bringing in Soumbel:
The same day, 26 [August], I sent a courier to Sieur Soumbel, urging him to use his talents and resources to avoid the embarrassments of this mission, and to take advantage of his master's inconstancy to bring back this prince to a more just resolution and to dismiss these Frenchmen with less brilliance. I observed him, however, to suspend all steps in this regard, however little it might delay the freedom and departure of these disgraced.
Sending Tahar Fennich embarrasses the French consul in Salé because he considers it useless. According to him, the occasion does not correspond to a departure from an embassy. However, these efforts are limited this time. He does not want to oppose the sultan's project because he fears for the lives of his fellow prisoners.
Letter from Chénier to the Count of Sartine dated 23 August 1777 from Salé, National Archives, Foreign Affairs, Consular Correspondence, Morocco, B 838, volume 14, 1777, p. 156, original. Letter from Chénier to the Count of Sartine dated 23 August 1777 from Salé, National Archives, Foreign Affairs, Consular Correspondence, Morocco, B
838, volume 14, 1777, p. 156, original. Letter from Chénier to the Comte de Sartine dated 10 September 1777 from Salé, National Archives, Foreign Affairs, Consular Correspondence, Morocco, B 838, volume 14, 1777, p. 158, original.
It seemed to me appropriate, however, to suspend all representation and to oppose nothing to the bizarre dispositions of the King of Morocco, in this circumstance, so as not to delay the departure of the French and not to embitter the greedy character of the prince, who, from all the appropriate means to manifest his justice, seizes only those which he supposes are best reconciled with his interests and who worries little about all the rest.
Chénier always accuses Sultan Mohammed III of acting out of self-interest. He once again criticizes the functioning of Moroccan "diplomacy". The Sultan of Morocco uses it according to his reasoning to collect from European sovereigns only presents:
[...] the mission of Sidi Tahar Fennich will reveal better than I did the ideas and views of the King of Morocco. It can serve at the same time for my justification. [...]. It was not in my power, Monsignor, to hijack this embassy as I have successfully done on other occasions; but in this case I was neither consulted nor informed, and the circumstance was too delicate to hazard an insinuation contrary to the dispositions of this sovereign and to the utility he seems to expect from him.
The lure of profit remains, according to the French consul, the main motivation for sending Fennich to France:
Letter from Louis de Chénier to the Comte de Sartine of 10 September 1777 from Salé, National Archives, Foreign Affairs, Consular correspondence, 838, volume 14, 1777, p. 158, original. Letter from Louis de Chénier to the Count of Sartine dated 20 September 1777 from Salé, National Archives, Foreign Affairs, Consular Correspondence, Morocco, B 838, volume 14, 1777, p. 162, original. The different pretexts that the King of Morocco used to evade the claim of the disgraced Frenchmen who were in his power, leave no doubt about the interested views which directed this Prince in this delicate circumstance; and the resolution he has taken to send these Frenchmen with an ambassador is a still more convincing proof of the motive of interest which prompts him to act.
In the same letter, the consul links the embassy well with the interest sought by the sultan: “[...] this Prince only sends an ambassador on this occasion, only to further interest His Majesty's generosity. » Tahar Fennich embarked on October 11, 1778 in Tangier on a building in Rouen. He takes with him the French sailors and, in addition, six horses to offer them to the King of France. After having made a stopover in Gibraltar, Fennich arrived the following November 1 in Marseilles. The Moroccan envoy, accompanied by his suite and the interpreter Ruffin, attached to his person, arrived around January 10, 1778 in Paris. He is received on January 22 in solemn audience by King Louis XVI. Fennich gives him on this occasion a letter from Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdallah, dated September 4, 1777. In his letter, the sultan on the one hand reproaches Chénier for his behavior during the negotiations followed for the release of the French castaways. On the other hand, the Moroccan sovereign freed the French shipwrecked. On the other hand, the Moroccan sovereign proposes to the King of France a project of perpetual exchange of the Europeans who have fallen into his hands against the captive Moors in the Christian States. “It does not appear that this issue has been discussed at length; in any case, there was no follow-up. »
Letter from Chénier to the Comte de Sartine dated October 18, 1777 from Salé, National Archives, Foreign Affairs, Consular Correspondence, Morocco, B 838, volume 14, 1777, p. 170, original. Letter from Chénier to the Count of Sartine dated October 18, 1777 from Salé, National Archives, Foreign Affairs, Consular Correspondence, Morocco, B 838, volume 14, 1777, p. 170, original. J. Caillé, “Moroccan embassies and missions in France”, art. quoted, p. 57.
But the form of the sultan's letter caught the attention of the French ministers. Indeed, Sidi Mohamed does not give Louis XVI the title of Emperor of France. On the order of Count Sartine, negotiations are opened with Fennich on this subject. The French authorities finally obtain the agreement of the ambassador to settle the question. On February 18, 1778, the Secretary of State and Minister of the Navy and the Moroccan signed a protocol settlement under which "Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah undertook to call King Louis XVI henceforth "the greatest of Christians, the Emperor of France” and, on the other hand, he promised to give the sultan “the titles and qualities of the greatest of Muslims, the Emperor of Morocco and the Maghreb”.
Tahar Fennich left Paris before the end of February 1778. He embarked on March 16 in Toulon on the royal frigate La Gracieuse and arrived ten days later in Tangier.
Historical:
Name of a famous Slaw family of Andalusian origin, the Fennichs once distinguished themselves through their influence within the corsair city before reaching the Court of the Alaouite sultans. In the 17th century, the inhabitants of Salé will meet Abdelhaq Fennich, the powerful Pasha of the town from 1738 to 1757, to whom they owe the restoration and fortification of the coastal town. Sixteen years later, his son Tahar, who had become commander of the Moroccan artillery, was appointed Sultan Moulay Mohammed Ben Abdellah's ambassador to London, the Netherlands and then to France. Although his father was subsequently dismissed from his position as Pasha, Tahar Fennich also became, in 1786, the negotiator of the Cherifian kingdom for the treaty between Morocco and the United States.
We are in 1748. The future Mohammed III has just been appointed Caliph of Marrakech by his father, Sultan Moulay Abdallah. An appointment that will facilitate his enthronement, in 1757, 9 years later, following the death of his father. Without any opposition, he thus became the 18th sultan of the kingdom, after Moulay Rachid. Itinerant king, he will be one of the Alawite sultans who chose Rabat as the imperial capital, without however taking up residence there.
Morocco, a friendly country of the East and the West under Mohammed III
His reign was above all marked by the good diplomatic relations that he maintained with almost all the powers of the East or of the West, from the Ottoman Empire to the United States of America.
To do this, he deployed several ambassadors and consuls, particularly in Europe, including Tahar Fennich, whom he sent first to England in 1773 to King George III, then to the Netherlands to strengthen the diplomatic and commercial relations of the Cherifian kingdom with the Europe, before Abdelhaq's son returned to Morocco for missions within the sultan's court.
Four years later, Tahar Fennich was chosen by Moulay Mohammed Ben Abdellah to represent him to Louis XVI, following the famous story of the "castaways of the Louise".
“On the night of December 26 to 27, 1775, the merchant ship La Louise, from the port of Nantes, was shipwrecked near Cape Bojador. The captain and twenty men of the crew can reach the coast, but they are captured by the inhabitants of the country and sold several times as slaves”, reports Rabih Saied in “the French look at Moroccan envoys of the 17th and 18th centuries” ( Master's thesis, Paris VIII University, Vincennes Saint-Denis, 2000).
France, via its charge d'affaires in Morocco, Louis de Chénier, seizes the sultan who buys the castaways but refuses to be reimbursed. “He would have liked the King of France to send him Moorish slaves back to the galleys of Malta in exchange,” reports Rabih Saied, quoting the book “Embassies and missions in France” by Jacques Caillé.
“The negotiations continue without success between the representatives of the sultan and Chénier. The sultan then took the decision to send an ambassador to France to offer Louis XVI the castaways of the Louise. The boss Tahar Fennich is chosen to fulfill this mission.
A mission denounced by the French in Morocco and the Comte de Sartine The trip to France by Tahar Fennich even bothered the French consul in Morocco. “It was not in my power, Monsignor, to hijack this embassy as I have done successfully on other occasions,” he wrote to the Comte de Sartine on September 20, 1777. Tahar Fennich moves to Tangier, then he leaves the port of this city on October 11, 1777 aboard a ship from Rouen, accompanied by his interpreter, French sailors and "six horses to offer them to the King of France", always according to Saied who quotes Jacques Caillé. The ambassador of Moulay Mohammed Ben Abdellah made a stopover in Gibraltar before arriving on November 1 in Marseilles, then on January 10, 1778 in Paris. But he was intercepted by the Count of Sartine, as reported by Pierre Grillon in his article "The correspondence of the consul general Louis Chénier, charge d'affaires of France in Morocco (1767-1782)", published in the "Revue d'histoire modern and contemporary” (1963). “A kingpin of the Court, Si Tahar Fennich, was responsible for delivering to the King (of France, editor's note) a letter – moreover very hostile to Consul Chénier – which began with (…) 'to the greatest of the French'. The formula was inadmissible, and the Comte de Sartine only accepted the letter after having had Sidi Tahar Fennich sign an agreement by which the sultan undertook 'to subsequently give to the Emperor of France, in all letters he would write to her, the titles and qualities of the greatest of Christians, the Emperor of France. Pierre Grillon The negotiator of the Marrakesh Treaty between the kingdom and the United States Tahar Fennich will be received on January 22, 1778 in solemn audience by King Louis XVI. On this occasion, he gave her the letter from Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdallah, dated September 4, 1777, before leaving France earlier than planned. He left Paris at the end of February 1778 and embarked on March 16 in Toulon on the royal frigate La Gracieuse. He arrives on March 26 in Tangier. But since Louis XVI will not follow up on the sultan's letter, particularly on the point concerning the exchange of French people for Moroccan prisoners, another diplomat is then dispatched to France in 1981. This is Raïs Ali Pérez, sent to France in February 1781. But if Tahar Fennich's mission in France will not be crowned with success, he will return to the Court of Mohammed Ben Abdellah where he will prove his effectiveness. He will thus be in charge, with Thomas Barclay, American consul in Paris, of negotiating a treaty between Morocco and the United States on the basis of a draft drawn up by the commissioners. “Barclay and the Moroccans will quickly reach an agreement on the Treaty of Friendship, also called the Marrakesh Treaty. It will be sealed by the Sultan on June 23 and delivered to Barclay on June 28,” reports the United States Embassy in Morocco in an article on Moroccan-American relations. “The treaty will be signed by Thomas Jefferson in Paris on January 1, 1787, John Adams in London on January 25, 1787 and will be ratified by the American Congress on July 18, 1787”. This treaty, negotiated by Tahar Fennich, will mark the beginning of diplomatic relations between the two countries and will even be the first treaty signed between the young states and an Arab, Muslim and African nation.
السفارة إلى اسطنبول
كما أرسله السلطان على رأس سفارة مغربية إلى اسطنبول في عام 1783.
وتوجهت بعثة دبلوماسية أخرى إلى بقيادة السيد الطاهر فنيش للتفاوض مع الحكومة الفرنسية في شأن الأسرى بين البلدين.
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المراجع
- ^ "THE SAID TAHAR FENIS AMBASSADOR OF MOROCCO". judaisme-marocain.org. 1779.