Mohamed Ben Larbi Alaoui

Educated at the University of Al-Qarawiyyin, Mohamed Ben Larbi Alaoui was deeply influenced by the rationalist reformism of Muhammad Abduh. Appointed professor at the Qarawiyyin and later Minister of Justice by Sultan Moulay Youssef, he used his high office to train the next generation of nationalists, including Allal al-Fassi and Mehdi Ben Barka.

Resigning his ministerial post in protest against French protectorate interference, he was banished to the desert, returning in triumph at independence as the moral conscience of the Moroccan nation.