The Lion of the Battle of Boughafer (معركة بوغافر), Ossu Obsalaam (عسو أوبسلام) Rahimahullah.

A largely forgotten hero from the pages of our history, the Mujahid, Lion of the Battle of Boughafer (معركة بوغافر), Ossu Obsalaam (عسو أوبسلام) Rahimahullah., the one who gave nightmares to the occupying French forces.

Ossu Obsalaam, was born in the mountains of the southeast of Morocco, in the Taghia palace in the Amazigh province of Tinghir, 1890 CE, he was from the Berber people. He grew up to see a great number of Berber tribes unite to fight the French colonialist expansion into Morocco.

Soon Ossu Obsalaam was elected as his tribe Eelmshan’s leader (إيملشان\إيلم شان) in 1919 (after his father),& took over the leadership of the Berber Muslim resistance by 1932. He undertook many small skirmishes and raids against the French colonial forces (who entered in 1912).

The French arrived in the region of the tribes of Aayit Atta in the 1930s (Aayit Atta was probably an umbrella name for the Beber tribes in that region),then the ‘Aayit Atta’ met in the Taghia palace (1932), and elected Ossu Obsalaam as the commander-in-chief of resistance.

Some of the battles when the French forces had to get their teeth broken as they entered the Southeast of Morocco, in the Atlas mountains were-Tawza, An-Neef, Tazaarin and Naqoub. All this lead to Battle of Boughafer…

The imposing French army surrounded the Aayit Atta region using 83,000 troops (& this is not an exaggeration), alongside numerous field artillery and around 44 planes. Their bombardment saw no difference between the combatants and non-combatants, as is the case with oppressors.

Ossu Obsalaam fought them with a mere 7000 spirited fighters, frm 13th Feb 1933 to 25th March 1933,resulting in the deaths of around 3500 French troops incl. 10 officers. French bombing killed 4000 innocent Berber Muslim old men, women and children & 700 fighters were martyred.

After the French losses in the initial stages of the Battle of Boughafer, they re-mobilized and attacked with greater ferocity during the month of March of the same year (1933) besieging the Berber Muslim resistance fighters by land and air for a period exceeding forty days and incessantly bombing the civilian population.

Looking at the dire condition of his people under the bloody siege, Ossu Obsalaam with a heavy heart, decided to surrender under some favorable terms, for the sake of the safety of the Aayit Atta people.

He died on the 16th of August 1960 after battling diabetes for a prolonged period and was buried in the graveyard in Taghia Eelmshan, the place where his forefathers were said to have been buried.

May Allah have mercy on this great leader and Mujahid, Ossu Obsalaam, forgive his shortcomings and grant him Jannatul-Firdaws. Aameen.