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Pre-colonial Makhzen

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The pre-colonial Makhzen (Arabic: المخزن, romanized: makhzan, lit. 'warehouse') was the governing institution of pre-colonial Morocco prior to the imposition of the French protectorate as a result of the Treaty of Fes in 1912. The form of government in Morocco was an absolute monarchy, and all political sovereignty belonged to the Sultan of Morocco. The Makhzen governed on the basis of Shari'a Islamic law derived from the Qur'an. The Makhzen operated on a system of Sharifism, in which the shurafā, descendants of Muhammad through his grandson Hasan ibn Ali, held a privileged political and religious position in society. Bilād al-Makhzen ('the land of the makhzen') was the term for the areas under central government authority, while those areas run by autonomous tribal authority were known as Bilād as-Siba ('the land of dissidence').