The coming of the Arabs under ’Oqba (’Okba) in 682 was of
far greater moment, though it was not till twenty years later
that his successor, Mūsa ibn Nōsair, undertook a
successful expedition as far as Tafīlālt and the Dra‛a.
The force of ten thousand Arabs and Egyptians
with whom Tariq (Tārik) ibn Zāid held the Tangier
The Arab Invasion, 682–710.
district in 710 was trebled by the enrolment of the Berbers,
who enabled him next year to invade Spain, burning his boats
behind him (see Caliphate, § C. Abbasids). But the Moroccan
Berbers chafed beneath the Arab rule, and in 739 successfully
revolted, setting up their first independent ruler, Maisara.
Their kinsmen in Spain followed suit with equal success, and
though subdued for a time, they retained their independence in
certain parts till the 11th century, when, as masters of Granáda,
they subjugated their implacable foes, the Arabs; and finally,
under the Murābti and Muwāḥḥadi dynasties, conquered all
Mahommedan Spain.
The recorded history of the Moorish Empire commences with the settlement near the Roman ruins of Volubilis in A.D. 788 of Idrīs the elder (Idrīs b. Abdallah), one of the fugitive descendants of Mahomet during the struggles between rival claimants of the caliphate. Islām had then been established in these parts for eighty years, but Idrīs Early Dynasties. and his son, Idrīs II., the builder of Fez, extended its influence, uniting the Berbers into a kingdom. Their line controlled a limited portion of northern Morocco for nearly two centuries, in part supplanted by the Miknāsā in 922, until displaced by the Maghrāwā in 988. These two dynasties were exterminated in 1061 by Yūsef I. (bin Tashfīn), founder of the Murābti dynasty of Berbers (Almoravides), who added the remainder of Morocco, most of Spain and Portugal, and Tlemçen. Their principal existing monument is the city of Marrākesh. In 1149 the Murābti power was overthrown by another religious leader, ʽAbd el Mumin at the head of the Muwāḥḥadi—i.e. “Unitarian”—horde (Almohades), under whom the Moorish Empire reached its zenith at the close of the 12th century. It then included, in addition to the Murābti realm, what now are Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli, extending to the frontier of Egypt, which they were prevented from occupying by the rise of Saladin. Before the middle of the 13th century they had been driven out of Spain, and had lost all but what is now known as Morocco, whence, between 1217 and 1269, they were ousted by the Beni Marīn (Marinides). To them we owe the Giralda, Hasan and Kūtūbīya towers of Seville, Rabat and Marrākesh respectively, the Torre de Oro at Seville, Gibraltar Castle, and the towns of Rabat and Al ḳaṣar. It was under their rule that Francis of Assisi despatched to Morocco the first Christian missionaries of modern times. (See Almoravides and Almohades.)
The new dynasty differed from the two which had preceded it in being frankly part of a Berber tribe, the Zenāta, who carved out a kingdom for themselves. Having assisted the Murābtis and Muwāḥḥadis respectively at the battles of El Arcos (1195) and Las Navas (1212), the defection of their amīr on that occasion offered Benī Marīn Period,, 1213–1524. an opportunity for Abd-el-Haḳḳ, the son of their general, to attempt the overthrow of the reigning house. At first the Beni Marīn professed allegiance to Tunis, where the Hafsis, a branch of the Muwāḥḥadis, had thrown off the Moorish yoke and secured acknowledgement in northern Morocco and parts of Spain. But they were soon in a position to proclaim complete independence, and by the time that Abu Bakr, the third son of Abd-el-Haḳḳ to succeed him, died, in 1258, they held sway over all that is now known as Morocco, and 1269 saw the death of the last Muwāḥḥadi prince.
On the death of Abu Bakr there succeeded Yākūb II., one of the few amirs of Morocco who have left a name for just administration and for philanthropic undertakings. Although of strict religious habits, he displayed no bigotry, studying philosophy, and entering into friendly intercourse with Europeans, whom he encouraged to trade with Salli. In 1261, 1275 and 1277–1279, he undertook successful expeditions to Spain, and again in 1284, this time, in alliance with Alphonso of Leon, against his rebel son Sancho. But Alphonso dying during the struggle, Yākūb found himself master of his country, and Sancho had to acknowledge his suzerainty. All Mahommedans within his realm were freed from all taxes, and all the Arabic manuscripts of the country—thirteen loads—were despatched to the college Yākūb had built in Fez.
But Yākūb did not live to reap the benefits of his conquest, which were enjoyed by his son, Yūsef IV. (1286), who was courted by his father's old foes, entering into amicable relations with Tunis, Egypt, Arabia and the neighbouring European states. With the contemporaneous Beni Zeiyan dynasty of Tlemçen, sworn foes of his house, however, he was still at war when stabbed (1307) in the new town of Tlemçen, which he had built while conducting a siege of the old town. A second siege was begun in 1335, and Tlemçen fell in 1337 to the fourth ruler of the dynasty, Ali V., Abu ʽl Hasan, better known as “The Black Sultan.” Unsuccessful in his invasion of Spain and Tunisia, Ali had eventually to abdicate in 1351 in favour of his rebel son, the famous “Abu Ainān,” Fāris I., who during a short reign recovered Algeria and Tunisia.
The Beni Marīn were soon driven back, till a few years later Tlemçen alone remained to them, and this they held only till 1359 (see Tlemçen). Thereafter their empire became habitually divided between rival claimants, and the Portuguese began to obtain footholds on the coast, Ceuta being lost to them in 1415, Al Kasar in 1458, and Azilā and Tangier in 1471.
On the failure of the Beni Marīn the amīrate was seized by Sa‛id III., “El Waṭṭās,” head of another branch, founder of the short-lived Waṭṭāsi dynasty. His reign is memorable as that in which the “Catholic Princes” expelled his co-religionists from Spain, the last amir of Granada and many others taking refuge in Morocco, Waṭṭāsi Dynasty, 1471–1548. where in 1492 they built for themselves Tetuan. His son, Mahomet VIII., surnamed “the-Portuguese,” because so long a prisoner of that people, had to suffer the loss to Portugal of practically all his Atlantic ports but Salli-Rabat, and of Peñon de Velez to Spain, which had a few years previously captured Melilla. Although two more reigns carried the dynasty down to 1550, it has barely left its mark upon the country. From the beginning of the new century a rising power had been making itself felt in the south, over which the Waṭṭāsis never held sway.
The family of sharīfs or “nobles”—that is, descendants of Mahomet—popularly known as the Saʽadi or Hasani (Hosaini), settled in the Dra‛a district, but originally came from 5834; Yanboa, near Medina. Their opportune religious leadership rallied the disjointed members of the empire for a jehād against the Portuguese, but ultimately, on Sa‛adi Dynasty, 1524–1668. the death of Mahomet VIII., when in possession of the kingdom of Marrākesh, the sharīfs defeated his successor and arranged a formal division of the country at the Um er-Rabi‛a. At the head of the movement were then the two sons of the sharīf who had started it, Ahmed III. and Mahomet IX., between whom rivalry broke out, resulting in the success of the latter, who by 1550 found himself the master of the whole empire on carrying off the last Waṭṭāsi amīr Mahomet and espousing his daughter.
On the assassination of Mahomet IX. in 1557, the succession passed by a previous agreement to his brother's son, ‛Abd-Allah IV., who secured himself against the possible rivalry of his brothers by putting ten of the twelve to death. One of the survivors, however, Abd-el-Mālek I., deposed Abd-Allah's son, Mahomet XI., whose appeal to Sebastian of Portugal for assistance, brought about the celebrated “battle of the three kings,” in which they all perished in 1578 near Al Kasar. This opened the way to the most famous of his line, Ahmed IV., Ed-Dhāhebi, or “the Golden,” who proclaimed himself caliph, the last (nominal) Abbasid holder of that office having been superseded by the Turks on their conquest of Egypt in 1517. He entered into friendly relations with Queen Elizabeth and other European potentates, and the oases of Tūat, &c., were added to his dominions, which embraced also Timbuktu, whence came gold and tobacco. Ahmed fell a victim of the plague in 1603, and the
