Abd al-Karīm

Abd al-Karīm reads almost like a phrase in prayer: abd, servant, joined to al-Karim, the Generous — one of the ninety-nine attributes of God in Islamic tradition. The Rifian leader Abd el-Krim gave the name a twentieth-century afterlife, leading the short-lived Republic of the Rif against Spanish and French colonial forces in the 1920s and becoming a touchstone for anti-colonial movements. Spoken properly the name has a rolling, deliberate music, the glottal catch lending it weight. It remains widely used from Morocco to the Gulf. Abd al-Karīm carries both humility and open-handedness in a single breath.