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Middle Ages and Islam in Morocco
In the 5th century, the Vandals invaded some of the northern regions of
Morocco. After them came again the Romans from the Byzantine Empire and from 533
gained control over coasts and fortified towns.
Later, in 704, the Arabs who had been Muslims since 622 entered |
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Tangier and the Berber chiefs converted to Islam,
then Tariq ibn Ziyad the Berber conquered Spain starting from Gibraltar in 709.
Morocco became then a simple province of the Arab Empire but the northern Muslim
Berbers revolted against Umayad caliphate and got autonomous.
South of the River Sebou, the Barghwatian founded in 744 a small independent state
in western Morocco that practiced an altered Islam and lasted until the end of
the 11th c. However, two small Islamic states took place on the Mediterranean
coast: an Arab one that lasted in Nakour from 809 to 917 and a Berber one in Sebta
(Ceuta) that vanished in 931.
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The first real Moroccan State is nevertheless the Islamic
one founded by Idriss the Alaouite who had escaped from Abbasside tyranny and
had arrived in Oualili (Volubilis) in 788. His son Idriss II founded Fez in 808
and established in it. |
The Idrisside State grew rapidly and welcomed many waves of emigrants from
Qortoba (Cordoba) and then from Kairaouan. Afterwards, they removed the Maghrawian
from Tlemcen and advanced towards the south taking Shella at northern borders
of the Barghwatian State and Nfis in the Souss.
The Idrissides reigned this way over most Moroccan towns: Sebta, Aghmat, Sijilmassa,
Tlemcen and Fez and so controlled the roads of gold. However, they had to fight
many times against the Fatimides that came from the east and the Umayads that
came from Andalucy, but their enemies united and the State faded away in 959.
In 976, the Maghrawian took Sijilmassa from the Fatimides and Fez in 987 from
the Umayads and then controlled the region of Aghmat.
The other Zenata tribes occupied Sale, Tlemcen and Oujda. The Idrissides
stayed established south of the Barghwatian State and in cities-states like Sebta.
The Almoravides, nomads originating from the Saharan Sanhaja tribe, reigned from
the 9th c over the Ghana, the Senegal and most of Niger; they controlled therefore
the gold trade. They took Sijilmassa in 1053 and then the whole southern Morocco
from Aghmat to Taroudant. And in 1062, Youssef ibn Tachfine founded Marrakech,
which gathered all the trade, and made it its capital; later, in 1069, his armies
took Fez. The Almoravides finished in 1080 unifying western and middle
Maghreb, from the Atlantic Ocean to Algiers and from the Mediterranean Sea to
the Sahara. They won afterwards the Zallaqa battle against the Christian Spaniards
in 1086, and by taking Balensa (Valencia) in 1102 and Saraqosta (Sargasso) in
1110, they dominated Andalucy of which they took Ichbilia (Seville) as the capital.
Their Empire had been well organized and their tax system attractive
but the armies had no longer their former great military value. The dynasty weakening
began when the Christian Spaniards took Saraqosta from them in 1117 and went on
with the advent of the Almohads from 1144. In 1124, Ibn Toumart the Soussi Berber
established in Tinmel and began teaching his Islam-inspired doctrine.
The Almohads, his followers originating from the Berber Masmouda tribe, took Tlemcen
in 1144, Fez a year later and Marrakech in 1146.
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"La Menara" - Marrakech
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The other Moroccan towns (in Northern Africa and in Andalucy) claimed their submission
ones after the others and the Almohads finally occupied all the Almoravide territories
in 1151. The same year, Abd Al Mou'min (Abdelmoumen) advanced with his armies
towards the east of Maghreb. In 1158, the Almohads finished what the Almoravides
had started: the unification of the Maghreb, from the Atlantic Ocean to Tripoli;
their Empire had been better organized and they had important and powerful armies
and navy and a strong unit of money.
They controlled therefore the access to the Mediterranean Sea, on which they had
great influence, and governed Western and Northern Africa and Andalucy. However,
the links between the Dynasty established in Marrakech and the provinces of Andalucy,
and then of Eastern Maghreb, slackened increasingly.
The east of the Empire fell first under the control of the Abbassides from
1203; but the defeat in the battle of Al Uqab against Christian Spaniards in 1212
destabilized the Dynasty that lost Andalucy in 1230. The Maghreb fragmented progressively
due to many adversaries and the Almohad Empire collapsed in 1269. Years before
the fall of the last Almohad fortress, the Merinides originating from the Sahara
took Fez in 1216, Meknes in 1238 and Marrakech in 1269, then Sijilmassa fell in
1274.
Merinides tombs
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The Merinides won several battles in Andalucy
from 1275 and secured the Kingdom of Gharnata (Granada) from which they, however,
disengaged in 1291. The Merinide Kingdom widened as far as Algiers from 1295 but
Tlemcen resisted; Sebta was recovered in 1309, Algesiras from 1333 to 1344 and
Tlemcen finally gave up in 1337. The Kingdom even widened further to Tunis for
a short period.
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During half a century, the Kingdom had been attacked from the north by the Portuguese,
the Spaniards and Genoa armies and from the east by the Hafsides and their allies;
it therefore experienced many divisions and then reunions, and many wins and defeats.
In 1420, the Wattassides, a Zenata tribe, imposed their regency on the Merinide
sultan and occupied the north of Morocco in 1471.
During their reign, the Wattassides had lost the whole Eastern and Southern Maghreb
and many coastal towns had been taken over by the Portuguese especially after
the collapse of Gharnata in 1494. The Dynasty faded away in 1550.
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