Léon Sultan


Léon Réne Sultan was a Maghrebi lawyer and founder of the Communist Party of Morocco.

Background

He was born to a Jewish family—one of 8 children—in Constantine, Algeria in 1905. He was technically a French citizen due to the Crémieux Decree. His father worked at the military facilities in the city.

Career

He studied at the College of Law of Algiers, then from 1925 to 1929 practiced at his own law office in Constantine. In 1929, he moved his practice to Casablanca, Morocco, where he joined young socialists and socialized with the city's Muslims as well as Jews. He was fluent in Arabic and French.
He was disbarred by the antisemitic French Vichy regime.

Communist activity

In 1936, communist activity was legalized by the Popular Front government in France. A branch of the French communist party was established in Morocco and based in Casablanca, and Léon Sultan served as its secretary. It wasn't big, and it was made up almost exclusively of intellectuals. Léon Sultan wrote articles for the Clarté, a weekly journal published by the group. In 1939, the French communist party as well as its Moroccan branch were banned for Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
In 1943, communist activity resurged in Morocco, and Léon Sultan served as the first general secretary of the Communist Party of Morocco.
He died in February of 1945, and Ali Yata assumed leadership of the party.

Military service

He enlisted as a volunteer to fight against the Nazis in WWII. He was a lieutenant of the 5th regiment of Moroccan tirailleurs. He participated in Alsace, along the Rhine, in the Palatinate Forest, Württemberg, Bavaria, and Austria, where he was injured on April 29, 1945 fighting on the front. He continued to fight at the head of his section, not being hospitalized until May 11, 1945.

Death

He returned to Casablanca in June, where was due to resume his recovery. His return was celebrated by the Communist Party and other democratic organizations. He died unexpectedly of a stroke from complications of his injury at the military hospital in Casablanca.