In present-day Morocco, the royal portrait ensures the visual omnipresence of Mohammed VI and elevates his public image to that of everyone's king. The widespread display of his image in spaces that serve a social function, such as schools, shops and restaurants, is enforced by customary law (ʿurf) and decrees. Today, Moroccans can choose among the many portraits of Mohammed VI the one that best suits their business idea or personal perception of the king. As such, he appears in many coffee shops with a glass of mint tea, while the country’s bakeries are more likely to choose a photo of the royal family gathered around a birthday cake.


The study traces how the ruling ʿAlawī dynasty complemented its pre-colonial performative representation of rulership, aimed at a local audience, with a visual representation of the ruler based on European monarchical traditions, without renouncing the dynasty's Sharifian legacy and its imagery. It also explores how the medium of photography has been used to perpetuate a multifaceted monarchical nationalism since the 1950s. Particular attention is given to the nature of the photographic image, which allows the ruler's sacred and secular omnipotence to be materialised, extended and multiplied beyond physical appearance. By analysing selected portraits of Mohammed V (Sultan: r. 1927-1953, 1955-1957; King: r. 1957-1961), Hassan II (r. 1961-1999) and Mohammed VI (r. since 1999) in terms of their design, use and dissemination, the paper outlines how photography helped the dynasty to maintain the ʿAlawī ruler's role as the spiritual and political anchor of society in an increasingly mediatised and globalised world. In addition to photographs, cinema, television and social media productions, as well as historical documents such as legal rulings (fatāwā), travelogues, chronicles, postcards and posters, enrich the analysis to explore the contemporaneity of each portrait.

Original title of the M.A. thesis: 'Allāh. al-Waṭan. al-Malik. (Allah. Vaterland. König): die Bildpolitik der ʿalawidischen Herrscherporträts von Mawlāy ʿAbdalʿazīz bis Mohammed VI.' (2024), supervised by Prof. Juliane von Fircks (FSU Jena) and Dr. Johannes Rosenbaum. I would like to thank Imane Zoubai for her help throughout the research process and for her transcription of Arabic manuscripts.

The research for the M.A. thesis was supported by the Honours Grant of the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena.