# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Morocco

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​MOROCCO (El Maghrib el Aksa, “The Farthest West,” i.e. of the Mahommedan world), an independent state of North Africa, bounded on the N. by the Mediterranean, on the E. by Algeria, on the S. (indefinitely) by the Sahara, and on the W. by the Atlantic as far south as Wad Dra’a. Its landward limits can only be vaguely defined. The eastern frontier towards Algeria, determined by the treaty of 1844, is a purely conventional line starting from the mouth of a small stream called the Skis and running across country in a general S.S.E. direction. In 1900 this was given a westerly trend to the south of the Atlas by the annexation of the Figig, Igli and Tūat oases by France. The southern boundaries expand and contract according to the power and acivity of the central authorities. Behm and Wagner, who included Figig, Tūat, Kenatsa and other oases, estimated (in 1882) the then area of the sultanate at 305,548 sq. m. The allegiance of many of the tribes within this compass is questionable and intermittent, and the loss of the district from Figig to Tūat, which is not accurately defined, has considerably reduced the area. Morocco is still the portion of Northern Africa about which European information is most defective, and all maps are still to a considerable extent composed of unscientific material eked out by probabilities and conjecture.
The Mediterranean Coast Lands.—The seaward aspect of Morocco only is known in detail. To the Mediterranean it presents for about 200 m. the rugged profile of the Rīf hills (still unexplored), which generally end in lines of cliff broken at intervals by narrow sweeps of sandy beech, but occasionally open up into beautiful and fertile valleys., About 6 m. west of the Skis lies the mouth of the river Mulwiya; and 10 m. farther on, opposite Cabo del Agua (Ras Sidi Bashir), is a group of dry and barren islands, owned by Spain, known as Chaffarinas or Jazair Zafrān (Spanish las Chafarinas), which protect the best roadstead on the Rīf coast. Between Point Quiviana and Melilla runs a low and sandy shore in front of a great salt marsh, the Mar Chica of the Spaniards. Melilla (Melilīya) is a fortified rock convict station or presidio, held by the Spaniards since 1497, forming a peninsula connected by lines of rampart with Fort Rosario on the heights behind. The fine semicircular bay of Alhucemas is the seaward end of one of the most beautiful valleys in the Rīf, clothed with verdure and dotted with hamlets. A Spanish presidio occupies one of the larger of the Alhucemas islands (Al-Mazemma), which are identified with the Ad Sex Insulas of the itineraries. Another Spanish presidio crowns the island rock Peñon de Velez; and in the valley off which it lies stood a town known to the Spaniards as Velez de Gomera, to the Arabs as Bādis, which continued to be a place of importance in the 16th century. The so-called Bay of Tetuan (Teṭṭāwan)—the town is just visible from the sea—is little more than the straight stretch of coast between Cape Mazari on the south and Cape Negro or Negrete on the north; but the prominence of these two headlands gives it an appearance of depth. From Cape Negro northwards to Ceuta the most notable object is the summit of Jebel Mūsa, which, though situated on the Strait of Gibraltar, towers above the intervening hills. Ceuta (Sibta), the most important of the Spanish settlements in Morocco, occupies a peninsula—the head, Mt Acho, standing about 4 m. out to sea, and the neck being low and narrow. It marks the eastern end of the strait. Westwards, the first point of interest is again Jebel Mūsa, the Elephas of Strabo, and the Apes Hill of English charts. About 20 m. farther along the coast lies the Bay of Tangier (Tanja), one of the finest harbours in Morocco. West from Tangier runs the Jebel Kebīr (rising to a little over 1000 ft.), the seaward extremity of which forms Cape Spartel, the north-west angle of the African continent, known to the ancients as Ampelusia or Cotes Promontorium. The lighthouse, 312 ft. above sea-level, built in 1865 at the cost of the sultan of Morocco, and maintained at the joint expense of England, France, Italy and Spain, is the only one on the western coast. It is provided with a fixed intermittent white light, visible for 36 m.
The Atlantic Coast Line.—The Atlantic coast of Morocco is remarkable for its regularity; it has not a single gulf or noteworthy estuary; the capes are few and for the most part feebly marked. Southward from Cape Spartel the shore sinks rapidly till it is within a few feet of the sea-level. In the low cliff which it forms about 41/2 m. from the lighthouse there is a great quarry, which from remote antiquity has yielded the hand-mills used in the Tangier district. A stretch of low marshy ground along the Tahaddārt estuary—W. Muharhar and W. el-Kharrūb—agrees with Scylax’s Gulf of Cotes (Tissot). Eight m. farther lies Azīla, the ancient Colonia Julia Constantia Zilis, with a Moorish and Jewish population of about 1200. For the next 16 m., between Azīla and Laraish (Laraiche), the coast has a tolerably bold background of hills, Jebel Sarsar forming an important landmark for the latter town which, with its Phoenician, Roman and medieval remains, is historically one of the most interesting places in Morocco. A line of reddish cliffs about 300 ft. high runs south for about 10 m. from the W. Lekkus, at whose mouth the town is built; then the coast sinks till it reaches the shrine of Mūlāi Bū Selhām on an eminence 220 ft. high. Between Mūlāi Bū Selhām (often wrongly called “Old Māmora”) and a similar height crowned by the tomb of Sidi ‛Abd Allah Jelāli lies the outlet of the Blue Lake (Marja Zarka), 10 or 12 m. long. Farther south, and separated from the sea by an unbroken line of rounded hills (230–260 ft.), is the much more extensive lagoon of Rās ed-Dūra, which in the dry season becomes a series of marshy meres, but in the rainy season fills up and discharges into the Sebū. Eastward it is connected with the Marjat el-Gharb, fed by the W. Meda. On the south side of the outlet of the Sebū lies Mehedīya (otherwise misnamed New Māmora or Mehduma) founded by ‛Abd el-Mūmin, and named after the Muwaḥḥadi Mahdi. It was held by Spain from 1614 to 1681. Twenty miles farther is the mouth of the Bū Ragrag, with Salli (Sla) on the north side, long famous for its piracies, and still one of the most fanatical places in the empire, and on the south side Rabat, with its conspicuous Hassan tower, and Shella with its interest in ruins. Onward for 100 m. to Point Azammur and the mouth of the Um er-Rabī‛a river a line of hills skirts the sea; the shore is for the most part low, and, with the exception of capes at Fedāla (a small village, originally a port, partly rebuilt by Mulai Ismā’il, and completed by Mahommed XVII., who opened it to Europeans between 1760 and 1773) and Dār el-Baida or Casablanca, it runs in a straight line west-south-west. Azammur (Berber for “The Wild Olives,” viz. of the Sheikh Bū Shaib)—once the frontier town of the kingdom of Fez—stands on an eminence about 11/2 m. from the sea on the south side of the Um er-Rabī‛a, here some 150 ft. wide, deep and red, with an obstructing bar. The bay of Mazagan, a few miles to the south, curves westward with a boldness of sweep unusual on this coast. About 8 m. to the south, and less than 1 m. inland, lie the extensive ruins of Tīt, a town which proved a thorn in the side of the Portuguese of Mazagan till they destroyed it. At Cape Blanco (so called from its white cliffs) the coast, which bulged out at Cape Mazagan, again bends south to resume much the same general direction for 55 m. to Cape Cantin. On this stretch the only point of interest is the site of the vanished Walīdīya, formerly El-Ghait, with an excellent harbour, formed by an extensive lagoon, which by a little dredging would become the safest shipping station on the whole Morocco seaboard. About 18 m. farther lies Saffi (Asfi), the most picturesque spot on the west coast, with the high walls and quare towers of its Portuguese fortifications shown to advantage by the ruggedness of the site. Sixty miles farther south lies Mogador, beyond which the coast becomes more and more inaccessible and dangerous in winter, being known to navigators as the “Iron Coast.” From Cape Sim (Ras Tagriwalt), 10 m. south of Mogador, the direction is due south to Cape Ghīr (Ighīr Ufrani), the termination of Jebel Ida ū Tanān, a spur of the Atlas. Beyond this headland lies Agadīr (Agadīr Ighīr), the Santa Cruz Mayor or Santa Cruz de Berberia ​ of the Spaniards, formerly known as the Gate of the Sudan. It is a little town with white battlements three-quarters of a mile in circumference, on a steep eminence 600 ft. high. In the 16th century it was seized by the Portuguese; but in 1536 it was captured by Mulai Ahmad, one of the founders of the Sa’adi dynasty. Some 60 m. farther south, at the mouth of a river known by the same name, is the roadstead of Māssa, with a mosque popularly reputed the scene of Jonah’s restoration to terra firma. This port was regularly visited by the Genoese traders in the 16th century, who exported skins, gum, wax, gold and indigo.
Another 50 m. farther south lies Ifni, a landing-place easily recognizable by the shrine of Sidi Worzek, a few miles to the south of which is the Cape Non of the Portuguese. The better known Cape Nūn lies 5 or 6 m. north of the W. Nūn, at the mouth of which is Assāka, a port which the sultan of Morocco opened to foreign trade in 1882, but closed after six months. From Assāka to the mouth of the Dra‛ā the country continues broken and fertile, but farther south it is flatter and more sandy, so that with the Dra‛ā the Sahara may be said to begin.
Character of the Interior.—The backbone of the country is the Great Atlas (Dāren of the Berbers), for which see Atlas. The principal rivers take their rise in the Atlas Mountains, and the headwaters of the Mulwiya, the Sebū, the Um er-Rabī‛a, the Dra‛ā and the Ziz all rise between 32° 20′ and 32° 30′ N., and between 3° 30′ and 5° W. The Mulwiya (Mulucha and Malva of Pliny, &c.) is the river which the French have long wished to make the western boundary of Algeria. Its course is largely unexplored save by native French officials. About 34° 20′ N. General Colvile found it some 200 yds. wide but quite shallow; about 25 m. east of its source, where it is crossed by the route to Zīz, it is already a powerful stream with a deep bed cut in the granite rock, and shortly afterwards it is joined by the W. Sgimmel, a still larger affluent (Rohlfs). Of the lesser streams which flow into the Mediterranean it is enough to mention the W. Martīl or Martin (otherwise W. Bū Sfiha, W. Rās, W. Mejeksa), which falls into the Bay of Tetuan, and is identified with the Tamuda of Pliny and Thaluda of Ptolemy.
On the Atlantic seaboard there are a number of comparatively small streams north of the Sebū, the chief of which is the winding W. Lekkus, with several tributaries. The Sebū (the Subur magnificus et navigabilis of Pliny) may be compared to the Thames in length and width, though not in steadiness and depth of current. At Meshra‛at el-Ksiri, about 70 m. from its mouth, it is about 10 ft. deep in the month of May and more than 460 ft. wide; and, though its banks are 21 ft. high, extensive inundations occur. The tide ascends as far as El-Kanṭara, 15 m. above Ma‛mora, and steam barges with a small draught of water could make their way to the ford just mentioned, and ​ possibly even as far as Fez. Affluents of the Sebū are W. Mikkes and W. Redem (90 m. long). The swift and muddy current of W. Beht usually loses itself in a swamp before it reaches the main stream. The Bū Ragrag, which debouches between Rabat and Salli, is about the same length as the Beht, but of much more importance. It and the Um er-Rabī‛a (mother of grass), although their mouths are widely separated, drain the northern slopes of the central Atlas. The impetuous Um er-Rabī‛a, with a rocky bed and many rapids, is perhaps as large as the Sebū, W. el-Abiāḍ, W. Akhdar and W. Tessaūt are the principal affluents. This last is separated by about 10 m. only from the valley of the Tansīft, the river which flows to the north of the city of Marrākesh; and by the W. Nefīs, the Asif el-Māl (Asif is Berber for river), the W. Usbi, and other smaller tributaries, receives the waters of about 180 m. of the Atlas range.
The valley between the Atlas and the Anti-Atlas is traversed by the W. Sūs, whose ever-flowing stream is sufficient to turn the whole district into a garden. The Māssa or W. al-Ghās, though its headwaters drain only one or two of the lesser valleys at the south-west end of the Anti-Atlas, is “about 50 yds. from bank to bank at the mouth, with a depth at high water and in the proper channel of something over a fathom.” Farther south is the Assāka, known to European geographers as the W. Nūn; and finally the W. Dra‛ā is reached, which in length exceeds all the rivers of Morocco, but, except in spring, when the snows are melting in the highlands, remains throughout its lower reaches a dry sandy channel. In the upper valleys however innumerable streams from the south side of the main chain of the Atlas, the W. Dādes from the east, and the Asif Marghen, W. el-Molah, or Warzazet from the west, flow through populous and fertile valleys, and uniting to form the Dra‛ā cut their way southward through a gorge in the Jebel Soghār, which, as the name implies, is a lower range running parallel to the Atlas proper. For the next 130 m. the stream holds S.S.E., drained at every step by the irrigation canals which turn this region into a green oasis, till at last its dwindling current bends westward to the sebkha (salt marsh) of Debāya. For a few weeks once a year the thaw-floods fill this shallow but extensive basin and rush onwards to the Atlantic; but in summer it dries up, and, like the bed of the river for some distance below, is covered with flourishing crops. From the south of the Atlas still farther east descend other streams, the W. Zīz (with its tributaries the W. Todgha and W. Gheris), the W. Ghir, the W. Kenatsa, &c., which, after watering the oases of Medghara, Tafīlālt (Sajilmāsa), Kenatsa, &c., lose themselves in the sands of the Sahara.
[Geology.—The Atlas Mountains, which are built up of a series of ridges rising to 12,000 ft. to the east of Morocco, form the backbone of the country. The central and highest portions consist of slates, crystalline limestones and schists of Archean, Pre-Cambrian and possibly of Cambrian ages. They are much folded and broken through by numerous intrusions of basalts and diorites. The mass of Jebel Tezah is composed of mica-schists and porphyries which appear to bear closer resemblances to the metamorphic rocks of Egypt than to the Archean crystalline formation of Central Africa. The strata of the central ridges are succeeded by a great thickness of purple marls, red sandstones, conglomerates and calcareous rocks, occurring in faulted, folded and detached areas and recently considered to range from Silurian to Trias. Later palaeozoic rocks of Devonian and Carboniferous ages also form a broad zone extending into the Sahara on the southern and south-eastern flanks. The whole of the Cretaceous system is represented by the shales and limestones occurring between the coast and the edge of the plateau above Morocco, but do not enter into the composition of the High Atlas.
Moraines, made up largely of unstriated blocks of porphyry, have been reported from the Upper Atlas. At the foot of the mountains, extensive mounds of boulder beds are developed on an immense scale and were considered by Maw to belong to the Glacial Epoch. Between Damnāt and the sea, however, the signs of a former glaciation appear to be insignificant. No moraines occur here, and consequently the glacial origin of the boulder beds described by Maw has been disputed. They are probably alluvial cones brought down from the High Atlas and mountainous regions. From Mogador to 60 m. inland, and over the plains around Marrākesh, a tufaceous deposit forming a hard crust, several feet thick, follows every undulation of the ground. Immense accumulations of tufa are met with in the limestone areas of the mountains. The chief tectonic structures which trend N. 20° E. belong to the Alpine and Mediterranean systems. The Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks are involved in these movements, which, however, were moulded on an earlier folding affecting the palaeozoic rocks of the Atlas region. The sundering of Africa from Europe at the Straits of Gibraltar took place in late Tertiary times; while the elevation of the Barbary coast to a height of 50 to 70 ft. is of Recent date.]
Climate.—The climate is good, and produces a hardy race. Shielded by the Atlas from the hot winds of the Sahara, the coast of the Atlantic offers great attractions to those suffering from chest complaints. Tangier is a recognized health resort, and Mogador and Rabat await development as such. Rain falls only between September and April; on the Atlantic coast it is brought by the south-west wind, and on the Mediterranean sometimes also by the east wind, or sharki, otherwise dry and somewhat trying to invalids. The wonderfully temperate climate of Mogador is due in a great measure to trustworthy trade-winds. In Tangier and Mogador the thermometer seldom rises over 80° F. or sinks below 40°, although inland the extremes are much greater; and while on the plains or in low-lying cities the heat grows intense, snow gleams on the Atlas nearly all the year round. The best months for visiting the interior are September (if rain has fallen), October, November and the early part of December, or May and June.
Fauna.—The absence of woodland keeps wild animals in check. Besides the lion, which exists in very limited numbers—and, according to local proverbs, with diminished courage—the spotted leopard, panther, hyaena, jackal, lynx, fox, wild boar, porcupine, antelope and gazelle are the most important. The audād or wild sheep is found in the more inaccessible parts of the Atlas. Rabbits swarm in the country to the north of the Bū Ragrag, and since 1870 they have crossed this stream. which used to be their southern limit. Hares are generally common. Rats are from time to time a plague to agriculturists, and the jerboa is frequently met with. A kind of ground-squirrel, the sibsib, occurs in the southern provinces. Monkeys of the same species as those of Gibraltar frequent the neighbourhood of Jebel Mūsa or Apes’ Hill. The common wild birds include blackbirds, goldfinches, linnets, greenfinches, robins, wagtails, skylarks and crested larks, swifts, magpies, cuckoos, lapwings, rollers, several shrikes, as well as turtle-doves, nightingales, jays and buff-backed egrets. The house-sparrow is not found; between Marrākesh and Mogador its place is taken by a beautiful bird (Emberiza striolata), locally called tabīb, or “doctor.” The birds of prey include eagles, vultures, ospreys, buzzards, falcons, harriers, kestrels, kites, ravens and hawks. Hawking is still indulged in by some of the country governors, and the Moors are very fond of hunting, many keeping greyhounds. The Barbary partridge is the main resource of the sportsman, though he may also bag several other varieties of partridge, bustards, guinea-fowl, plovers, grouse, snipe, quail, curlew, ducks and other water-fowl. Along the coast there is no lack of gulls, gannets, pelicans, flamingoes, herons, whimbrel, oyster-catchers, &c. Most towns have their colony of storks. Several venomous snakes and two vipers are found, but are not common, and the same may be said of scorpions and tarantulas, but centipedes are more numerous. Human parasites are, however, most to be guarded against. Mosquitoes give little trouble save in towns or near water. Invasions of locusts are serious, but intermittent. Lizards, chameleons, tortoises and frogs are familiar objects; it is from Morocco that the small tortoises hawked about the streets of London are usually obtained.
Of domestic animals the mule is the great beast of burden, though camels, mares and asses are also employed. The horse is usually a sturdy little animal, but far below the ancient reputation of the Barbary steed. It is seldom used as a draught animal. Roughly broken when young, his mouth is soon spoiled by barbarous bits, and his feet by square shoes. The finest animals are said to be bred in Shiādhma and Abda. In form and size the mules are much superior and usually fetch two or three times the price of the horse. The horned cattle are not unlike Alderneys; but being practically untended, and the oxen having to do the ploughing, they furnish a very different quality of milk, yielding it only while the calf looks on; the sheep, for the improvement of which, also, nothing is done, have spiral horns (not infrequently four), rounded foreheads and long, fine wool; the goats, which furnish the famous leather, needing even less care are still more abundant. Domestic fowls are kept in great numbers; they are of the Spanish type, small and prolific.
The bonito and mackerel fishery off the coast of Casablanca and Tangier attracts fishers from Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe. Occasionally a small shoal may be found as far south as Mogador. Soles, turbot, bream, bass, conger eel and mullet are common along the coast, and southern Morocco is visited occasionally by shoals of a large fish called the azlimzah (sciaena aquila), rough scaled and resembling a cod, and the tasargelt (Temnodon saltator), the “blue fish” of North America. Crayfish, prawns, oysters and mussels swarm in the rocky places, but the natives have no proper method of catching them, and edible crabs seem unknown. The tunny, pilchard and sardine, and a kind of shad known as the “Mogador herring,” all prove at times of practical importance. The catching of the shabel, a species of shad, mis-called “Barbary salmon” is a great industry on the principal rivers of the coast, and vast numbers of the fish, which are often from 5 to 15 ℔ in weight are dried and salted. They ascend from the sea in spring. Barbels ​ and a few other small fish swarm in the streams, but for the angler there is little real sport.
Flora.—From the presence of a large proportion of plants of central and northern Europe (none of the northern plants, however, being of alpine or arctic type) and the absence of southern types characteristic of the sub-tropical zone, Ball concluded that “the Morocco flora is altogether a portion of that great Mediterranean flora which, with local peculiarities, one finds from the Indus to the Atlantic Islands,” but that “the mountain flora of Morocco is a southern extension of the European temperate flora, with little or no admixture of extraneous elements, but so long isolated from the neighbouring regions that a considerable number of new specific types have been developed.” Of the individual plants none are more remarkable than the arār and the ārgān. The former (Callitris quadrivalvis, or Thuja articulata of Shaw) is a cypress-like tree that grows on the Atlas both in Morocco and Algeria. It furnishes gum sandarach; and its beautiful and enduring timber has been identified with the alerce with which the Cordova cathedral (mosque) was roofed, and with the citrus-wood, arbor vitae, of the ancient Romans. The ārgān, Elaeodendron argan (Argania sideroxylon) is confined to a tract of country extending about 150 m. along the coast, from the river Tansīft almost to the river Sūs, and about 30 m. in breadth; and it is found nowhere else in the world. The fruit, which ripens between May and August, is an olive-looking nut, greedily eaten by camels, mules, goats, sheep and horned cattle (but not by horses) for the sake of the fleshy pericarp, and crushed by the natives to extract the oil from the kernel. Though “its strong and fulsome savour” renders it nauseous to the European palate, this oil is largely used in the cookery of southern Morocco. The “prickly pear” and the aloe form part of the features of the landscape from the coast up to the slopes of the mountains, but neither is indigenous. The cork tree has lost ground enormously though it probably forms the staple of the Ma‛mora forest, which extends for some 20 m. between the Bū Ragrag and the Sebū. The palmetto is often locally very abundant, but the most common wild tree on the plains is the thorny lotus or mimosa: in the mountainous regions it is reduced to a mere scrub. Lentisks, arbutus, oleanders, junipers and broom are also common, but vast stretches of country are devoid of either trees or shrubs. Citrons, lemons, limes (sweet and sour), apricots, plums, melons, mulberries, walnuts and chestnuts are common in many parts. Tetuan and Laraish are famous for oranges, Mequinez for quinces, Marrākesh for pomegranates, Fez for figs, Tafīlālt and Akka for dates, Sūs for almonds, Dukālla for melons, Tagodast, Edanan and Rabat for grapes, and Tarudant for olives. The grape is extensively cultivated, but principally for eating; the Jews manufacture crude but palatable wines. Sugar, once grown in Sūs, to supply the demands of the whole of Morocco, has disappeared as have also cotton and indigo. Indian hemp and tobacco are cultivated under the restrictions of an imperial monopoly—the former (of prime quality) being largely used as hashish, the latter, though never smoked, as snuff. Barley is the most usual cereal; but excellent crops of wheat, maize, millet, rye, beans, peas, chickpeas and canary seed are also obtained. Potatoes, tomatoes, cabbages and beets have been introduced from abroad; otherwise the ordinary vegetables are peas, beans, turnips, onions, garlic, capsicums, cucumbers, marrows and carrots. Sweet herbs are extensively grown for use in cooking and in the preparation of tea.
In some of the Atlas valleys there is a wealth of timber, enormous conifers, 10 to 12 ft. in girth of stem, oaks, &c., but the greater part of the country has been cleared of forest, exhibiting only brushwood, and the lesser fruit-trees. Cowan, writing more immediately of the country between Morocco and Mogador, speaks of “drifts of asphodel, white lilies, blue convolvuli, white broom flowers, thyme and lavender, borage, marigold, purple thistles, colossal daisies and poppies”; and Trotter tells how for miles the undulating plateau of Kaṣar Farā‛ōn was covered with wild flowers, whose varied colours, and the partiality with which each species confined itself to certain ground, gave to the landscape a brilliant and unique appearance. Dark blue, yellow and red—iris, marigold and poppy—occurred in patches an acre in size; farther on whole hills and valleys were of a delicate blue tint from convolvulus and borage. At times the traveller’s tent is pitched on a carpet of mignonette—indigenous to the country—at times on a carpet of purple bugloss. In the country of the Benī Hasan squills are so abundant that the fibres of the bulbs are used instead of hair in making tent-cloth; and in the north of Al Ḳaṣar al-Kebīr the moors are covered for miles with a beautiful white heather. From such gorgeous combinations of colour one can well imagine that the Moors drew the inspiration of their chromatic art; but the season of floral splendour is brief, and under the hot sun everything soon sinks into the monotony of straw.
Inhabitants.—No well-founded estimate exists as to the number of inhabitants within the Moorish Empire, and the suggestions vary between five and ten millions. The majority of the inhabitants are pastoral and agricultural in their pursuits; but while large stretches of country are inhabited sparsely or not at all, other parts, especially along the Atlas slopes, are closely dotted with considerable villages Whose hardy occupants cultivate every foot of level surface which it is possible to till and irrigate. Three races inhabit Morocco, and the members of two others are continually being introduced. The most numerous and important are the aboriginal Berbers (q.v.)—known locally also as Amazīgh—who inhabit the mountainous districts, and whose blood to a greater or less extent permeates the whole population. These were the people who thrice conquered Spain—once from the Visigoths, and twice from their less stalwart co-religionists. It has been its constant reinforcement by this Berber element that has maintained the independence of Morocco alone among the countries of North Africa. The plains are for the most part occupied by Arabs (q.v.), introduced in the 11th and 12th centuries, long after the so-called “Arab invasion” of the 7th century, which would have left few traces but for the Moslem missionaries who came after them. A large number of the plainsmen are, however, composite Arabicized Berbers, known to foreigners as “Moors” (q.v.) to which division also the mixed race of the towns belongs. Arabs are never found in the mountains save as religious teachers or authorities, but only a small proportion of them continue nomadic.
The third race which may be considered native is the Jewish, consisting of two distinct sections: those settled among the Berbers from time immemorial, speaking their language, and in addition a hideously corrupt Arabic; and those expelled from Europe within comparatively modern times, who have got little farther than the ports, where they speak Spanish with the addition of Arabic. These latter are the most progressive and flourishing of all the inhabitants of Morocco, and in their hands is much of the foreign trade. It is a remarkable fact that several of the so-called Berber tribes are believed to have been of Jewish origin, having embraced Islām on the coming of Mulai Idrīs. To these white races constant additions of a negro element are being added by the slave-trade with the western Sudān, while inter-marriages between negro and Arab or Berber have produced a proportion of mulattos.
The last class consists of the small colonies of Europeans settled at the ports, for the most part engaged in trade. The largest of these colonies, in this case principally Spanish, is found in Tangier. All such foreigners are under the local jurisdiction of their own consular courts. They possess moreover the right of claiming the protection of their authorities for natives entrusted with their interests, without which, in the absence of justice, commerce with the interior would be impossible.
Language.—The language of Morocco is Berber, of which several dialects are spoken, notably that of the Rīf, towards Algeria, and the Shilha of central Morocco and the Sūs. Of these very little is known; but they do not essentially differ from one another or from those of Algeria, notwithstanding considerable variations of pronunciation and a varying proportion of Arabic or other admixtures, there being no written standard to maintain. On the plains and coast of central Morocco, however, Arabic has superseded Berber, as the language of creed and court. Since the 15th century, when Ibn Khaldun found the Arabic of Morocco very corrupt, it has made great strides, and having always been a foreign tongue with the Korān as its model, it has escaped many of the faults into which Eastern Arabic outside Arabia has fallen. This is especially noticeable in the correct Arab value given to the alphabet and in the strictly classical use of many terms, especially among the litterati of Fez.
Provinces and Towns.—Political divisions can hardly be said to exist in the Moorish Empire to-day, although it is formed of what were at one time or other the independent kingdoms of Fez and Marrākesh, and the important provinces of Sūs, Tafilālt and the Rīf, together with the Saharan oases. As administrative units the various subdivisions change according to the relative strength of tribesmen and government. Central Morocco, between the two spurs of the Atlas ending towards Rabat and at Cape Ghir, is, however, naturally parcelled out by its rivers into the districts of Tamsna, Shāwīya, Dukālla, Abda, Shiādhma and Ḥāḥā, running from north to south along the coast, and Sraghna and Rahāmna lying inland from the last three.
​ There are only three great inland cities, each of which in turn serves as metropolis: Fez, Mequinez and Marrākesh. The towns next in importance are the seaports of Tangier, Casablanca (Dar el Baida), Mogador, Mazagan, Saffi, Salli-Rabat, Laraish and Tetuan. All these places are separately noticed. The ports of Agadir Ighir, Azammūr and Azīla being closed to trade, are in a decayed condition. On the Mediterranean shore, along the coast of Er-Rit, the Spaniards have for centuries possessed Ceuta, Peñon de Velez, Alhucemas and Melilla; in 1848 they appropriated the Chaffarinas Islands. Inland, besides the three cities named, are the sacred towns of Mulai Idris, Zarhōn, Sheshāwan and Wazzān (the last-named of which alone is open to Europeans), and the minor towns of Al Ḳaṣar, Sifrū, Tāza, Dibdū and Ujda in northern Morocco (once the kingdom of Fez); Damnāt, El Klā, Sidi Rahal, Zettāt and Amzmiz in central Morocco (once the kingdom of Marrākesh); Tarudant, Ilīgh, Tiznīt and Glīmīn in southern Morocco (once the kingdom of Sūs.)
The town of Mulai Idrīs Zarhōn lies to the north of Mequinez. James Jackson, who in 1801 managed to pay a hurried visit, is the only European known to have entered its gates. It is a place of apparently 1500 to 2000 inhabitants, compact, and with several large buildings, the principal of which is the shrine of Mulai Idrīs, the founder of the Moorish Empire, round which the place has grown. Wazzan is the seat of a sharif or noble descended from Mulai Idrīs, whose family has been greatly reverenced for over two hundred years. It was built by Mulai Abd Allāh es-Sharif (d. 1675), and is open to European visitors, which Sheshāwan (or Shefshāwan), another sacred city of sharifs, founded in 1471, a day’s ride into the mountains south of Tetuan, is not. Sifrū is picturesquely situated amidst gardens, a short day’s ride from Fez. Tāza is a considerable trading centre on the route between Fez and the Algerian frontier. The population, in Leo’s time 20,000, is now 5000, of whom 800 are Jews. Dibdū, to the east of Tāza, is a small but important Jewish centre. About 120 m. east of Tāza, and only 10 from the frontier, is Ujda (Oudjda of the French), in the midst of an orange grove. Marrākesh is the only really large city of central Morocco. Damnāt is a walled town of magnificent situation in the Atlas, east of Marrākesh, between which and the Um er-Rabī‛a are the less important Sidi Rāhal and El Klā. Amzmiz lies in the Atlas, south-west of Marrākesh. Tārudant, the capital of Sūs. is situated between the Atlas and the river Sūs; it is a place of from 30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants, already a flourishing town in the 12th century, rebuilt by the Sa‛adi Dynasty early in the 16th, and refortified by El Hasan IV. in 1882. Tiznit, which lies to the south, until then but a village, was in 1882 converted into a town by El Hasan IV., and walled. Iligh (1300 ft.) above a stream which joins the Massa, is the chief town of Tazirwalt, the state of Sidi Hishām, an independent principality founded by Sidi Ahmed ū Mūsa; and Glīmīn or Agelmin, in like manner is the chief town of the Wād Nun district. Tagaōst, about 40 m. inland from Ifni, was formerly a large city, and in the 16th century the seat of a Spanish factory trading in archil.
Communications.—Regular and fairly frequent steamship services link Morocco with the principal ports of the world, though in some instances transshipment at Gibraltar is necessary. The tourist traffic has grown greatly since the last quarter of the 19th century. Great Britain, Spain, France and Germany have postal agencies, running competing courier mails along the coast and to the capitals, while Great Britain, France and Spain have laid telegraphic cables from Gibraltar, Oran and Tarifa respectively to Tangier; but the extension of wires inland, save for telephones and electric light, was prohibited up to 1909. A railway about 24 m. long, connecting Casablanca and Ber Reshid, was opened in September 1908. This was the first line built in Morocco. There is also a railway from Melilla to some neighbouring mines. In general travelling in the interior is what it was a thousand years ago. There being practically no made roads and few bridges, vehicular traffic is out of the question, and even the transport of goods and persons on the backs of animals lacks the facilities provided in some Eastern lands—as Persia, for instance—in regular posting stations and caravanserais, here known as fandaks. Travellers have therefore to carry tents and all conveniences desired. Throughout the central Moroccan plains it is generally perfectly safe to travel unguarded, but in mountainous districts it is customary to be accompanied by a mounted policeman (makhazni) whose duty is as much to prevent travellers attempting exploration as to afford them protection.
Resources of the Country.—The natural products of the country remain almost entirely undeveloped. In applications for concessions for mining and other exploitation, the government has seen the possibility of further complications with Europe: so that if, by wholesale bribery, any grant was obtained a nullifying clause was inserted, or the first occasion seized to raise anew insuperable obstacles. After the conference at Algeciras in 1906, however, the government was obliged to grant various concessions. The breeding of horses or cattle and the rearing of birds for European markets increase in spite of restriction and heavy dues. One of the most promising of recent developments has been the growing supply of chickens, eggs, and fruit to Europe—even to England. The fisheries also are capable of great expansion, and are at present almost entirely in the hands of Portuguese and Spaniards.
Agriculture.—It is still true, as in the time of Addison, that the Moors “seldom reap more than will bring the year about,” and the failure of a single harvest causes inevitable dearth. Only a small part of the available land is cultivated; and the cultivated portion possessed by each tribe is divided into three parts, one only of which is sown each year. With a plough of the most primitive description the Moorish peasant scarcely scratches the surface of the soil; his harrow is a few branches of trees weighted with heavy stones. The corn is cut close to the ear with short serrated sickles, and the straw is left standing. Underground granaries or matmoras are excavated beneath the tufaceous crust which covers much of the lowlands, sometimes capable of holding 2000 quarters; they preserve their contents in good condition for many years.
Mineral Wealth.—That mineral deposits of great value exist in Morocco there is little doubt. At Jebel Hadid or the Iron Mountain, in Abda, disused mines may still be visited, and in Sūs iron has long been worked. In the Beni Madan hills near Tetuan are mines, closed, it is said, by the sultan ‛Abd er-Raḥmān; but whether they furnished copper or lead authorities differ. On the road to Kenatsa, Rohlfs saw lead and antimony worked. Antimony especially seems to be abundant to the south of the Atlas; Rohlfs found it in a very pure state near Tesna, and Dr Allen saw splendid veins of it north of the Draʽa. That gold existed in Sūs was long suspected; Gatell proved it. Rock-salt occurs in the mountains north of Fez, in the valley of the W. Martil, and probably in Jebel Zarhōn. In several places, as in the route from Saffi to Morocco, are brine lakes, from which the salt is collected and exported as far as Central Africa.
Manufactures.—The manufactures are few, and the most famous—leather—is now either exported undressed to Marseilles or Philadelphia, or is counterfeited by machinery in London or Paris. With the exception of slippers and shawls supplied to Moors established in the Levant, manufactured exports consist principally of carpets, rugs, trays, arms and “curios” for decorative purposes. For home use the Moors do much spinning, weaving, and dyeing, chiefly of wool; but although it is possible to dress superbly in native-made articles, every year sees an increasing importation of Manchester and Yorkshire goods, rivalled by the cheaper products of Barcelona and Austria—in the last case with great success.
Commerce.—The external trade of Morocco is mainly with Great Britain, France, Germany and Spain. The proportion of trade taken by Britain, formerly fully 50% of the whole, had decreased in 1905 to 32%, in which year France’s share was 39%, that of Germany nearly 12% and that of Spain 5%. Statistics as to its value are difficult to obtain, and not altogether trustworthy; the British consul at Tangier, writing in 1906, declared: “No information is to be obtained from the Moorish custom-houses and no statistics whatever are published by the Moorish government.” From such sources as were available the exports in 1873 (a year of phenomenally good crops) were valued at about £1,500,000 and the imports at £934,000 Twenty years later (1903) the exports were valued at £1,601,000 and the imports at £2,656,000. A British consular return gave the value of the trade in 1906 as: Exports £1,756,109, imports £2,976,900. According to French official returns the value of trade fell in 1907 to £3,200,000, but had risen in 1908 to £4,400,000. This includes the trade through the eight open Moroccan ports (Tangier, Tetuan, Laraish, Rabat, Casablanca, Mazagan, Saffi and Mogador), the trade through Melilla, and that by the land frontier with Algeria. The trade with Algeria is valued at from £300,000 to £500,000 a year. Statistics as to the considerable trade done by caravans crossing the Sahara are entirely lacking.
The chief articles of exports are skins and hides, sheep, oxen and goats, wool, barley, eggs, beeswax, almonds and slippers. Maize, peas and chick-peas are also considerable exports in years of good crops. Cotton goods form the chief articles of import (exceeding £800,000 in value in 1906), sugar, tea, flour and semolina coming next. Other imports include cloth, candles, iron and hardware, wines and spirits. Wheat and oxen are imported overland from Algeria.
Finance.—The only part of the revenue which can be estimated with any degree of accuracy are the customs, which during the early years of the 20th century yielded about £500,000 per annum. Under the provisions of the act of Algeciras the Morocco State Bank was established in 1907. It is a limited liability company and subject to the law of France. The capital of the bank is £800,000 and the head office is at Tangier. The directors represent the various groups subscribing the capital, French financiers contributing a share twice as large as that of any other group in return for the relinquishment of the right of France to take up all new loans at the rate of the lowest tender. The bank holds a concession from the state for forty years, and acts as its treasurer and financial agent. It alone has the power of issuing notes. A Moorish high commissioner and four censors (representing the Bank of England, the Bank of France, the Bank of Spain and the German Imperial Bank) watch over the working of the bank. In all legal disputes in which the bank is concerned the Federal Court at Lausanne is the final authority. There is a Moorish coinage based on that of the Latin Union; Spanish money is also legal tender.
Moorish weights and measures vary from town to town, but in the foreign trade the decimal system has almost entirely superseded the native chaos. Credit is allowed by European houses at their peril, and in some lines profits are cut ruinously fine or done away ​ with altogether by dishonest practices, many arising out of the long credit in vogue.
Government.—The Moorish government is a limited autocracy, the theoretically absolute power of the sultan being greatly circumscribed by the religious influences which in a measure support him, and by the official proletariat with which he is surrounded. The central government is known as the maghzen or makhzan (an Arabic word primarily meaning storehouse), a term also applied to the whole administrative body and collectively to the privileged tribes from whose ranks the state officials are recruited. At the head of the administration are wazirs or ministers of state, who possess no power independent of the sultan’s will. The wazirs in general accompany the court, but the minister for foreign affairs is stationed at Tangier. Local administration is directed by the governors of provinces and towns, who are nominated by the wazir ed dakhalāni (minister of the interior). The subordinate town officials are appointed by the governor, and sheiks direct the affairs of the villages. All appointments are practically without pay, office holders being expected to obtain remuneration from “presents,” i.e. bribes and extortion. Attached to the government service are a number of tribes (called maghzen tribes), who furnish the sultan’s body-guard, garrison certain towns, and perform other duties in return for exemption from taxation. There was no regular assessment for taxation, but such organized spoliation as might be required for public or private ends. That part of the empire where the sultan’s authority is supreme is known as blad el-maghzen (government country); those regions where the sultan’s authority is precarious are called blad es-siba (the unsubmissive country).
All the powers are represented in Tangier by diplomatic and consular officials, whose independent jurisdiction over their respective fellow-subjects leads to the frequent confusion of justice. The evidence of non-Mahommedans is not accepted in Moorish courts, where venality reigns, and unprotected Jews suffer constant injustice, besides daily indignities, for which they repay themselves by superior astuteness.
Army.—A half-organized army—service in which is partly hereditary, partly forced—is periodically employed in collecting taxes at sword-point, and in “eating up” the provinces; with it the custom is (or was) for the sultan to go forth to war each summer, spending the winter in one of his capitals. The only approach to a regular army consists of certain hereditary troops furnished by the maghzen tribes, the Bokhārā (black), the Udāīa (mulatto), the Ashragah and Ashrārdah (white), and the Gaish, who form a body of police, Makhhāznīa (mixed), all of whom are horsemen. The infantry (Askārīa) are mostly rough levies; only a small portion being well trained under European officers. No accurate estimate can be formed of the total available forces, and the arms are of every pattern. There is no navy, but the government possesses several small steamers, one or two mounting guns.
Religion.—The religion of Morocco is Islam, the Moors being among the strictest followers of Mahomet. The divisions of the East are unknown, and their tenets include the principal teachings of both Shias and Sunnis, but, as employing the Māleki ritual, they must be classed with the latter. Recognizing their own sultan as Amir el Mu’minin (“Commander of the Faithful”) and Khalifa of God on earth, they acknowledge no other claimant to that position, and have few dealings with the Turks, whom they consider corrupt. They have not yet given way extensively to strong drink.
Missions.—The Franciscans for six and a half centuries did brave work in the country, since the founder of their order offered himself for that task in 1214, and many of them, including several British and Irish missionaries, suffered martyrdom; but they have long abandoned attempts to convert the Moors. The London Jewish Society was established in Mogador in 1875, and since 1883 various Protestant agencies support a considerable number of missionaries, men and women, including doctors and nurses.
Education.—The level of education could hardly be lower, although most males have an opportunity of learning to recite or read the Korān, if not to write. Only traders trouble about arithmetic. Youths who desire to pursue their studies attend colleges in Fez or elsewhere to acquire some knowledge of Mahommedan theology, logic, composition and jurisprudence.
Literature and Travel.—Journalism is entirely foreign, and was introduced in 1883, at the same time as the printing-press, Spanish, French and English newspapers being established in quick succession. The sultan el Hasan III. set up a lithographic establishment in Fez, from which a valuable series of Arabic theological, legal and historical works have been issued, but most noteworthy of all is the publication in Cairo in 1895 of an Arabic history of Morocco, in four volumes, by a native of Salli, Ahmad bin Khalīd en-Nāsiri. A most practical step was taken by the French, on the conclusion of the agreement with Great Britain in 1904, in the establishment of a state-subventioned Mission scientifique au Maroc, which, in addition to establishing at Tangier the only public library in the empire, engaged a number of able students in research work, the results of which are embodied in the periodical publications Archives marocaines (6 vols., 1904–1906) and L’Afrique française.
Other forward steps have been taken in the production of several important volumes on the country and in serious attempts to explore the Atlas. The vicomte de Foucauld attained the first place by his intrepid journeys as a Jew through the forbidden regions and by his Workman-like geographical records; Joseph Thomson did good work in the Great Atlas, though within a limited area; the vicomte de la Martinière excavated some of the Roman remains; Mr Walter B. Harris made a bold journey to Tafīlālt; and the marquis de Segonzac and Louis Gentil added to the knowledge of the Atlas by interesting expeditions. A hydrographic mission under A. H. Dyé also did valuable work (1905–1909). An equally important service was rendered by the compilation by Sir R. Lambert Playfair and Dr Robert Brown of an invaluable Bibliography of Morocco to the end of 1891 (1893), containing over two thousand entries.
History.—The prehistoric antiquities of Morocco are of considerable interest. In the cave at Cape Spartel Tissot found regularly shaped arrow-heads, and in the north of the country he met with dolmens, barrows and cromlechs, just as in Algeria or Tunisia. The dolmens usually form a trapezium, and the body seems to have been buried with the knees drawn up to the chin. At Mʽzōrah, a quaint little village of widely-scattered houses built of rough blocks of yellow soft sandstone, about 8 or 10 m. south-east from Azīlā, stands a group of megalithic monuments of some interest. They have been visited and described by many travellers, but Watson’s account is the most detailed. Round the base of a mound (15 ft. high) of yellow sandstone lies a circle of sixty-seven large stones, one of which (at the west side) is more than 20 ft. high. In the vicinity are several other groups, some of still larger blocks. Roman roads (see Africa, Roman) seem to have run from Tangier southwards to the neighbourhood of Mequinez (Miknāsa), and from Azila to the south of Rabat; and Roman sites are in several instances marked by considerable remains of masonry. At Kaṣar Farāʽon (Pharaoh’s Castle), on the western slope of J. Zarhōn, are the ruins of Volubilis. The enceinte, constructed of large stones and flanked by round towers, is 12,000 ft. in extent. Four gates are still recognizable, and a triumphal arch erected in A.D. 216 in honour of Caracalla and Julia Domna. The stones of this site have been used for Mequinez Miknās. Banasa (Colonia Aelia, originally Valentia) is identified with the ruins of Sidi Ali Bū Jenun, and Thamusida with those of Sidi Ali b. Hamed. At Shammish, up the river from Laraish, the city of Lixus (Trinx of Strabo) has splendid specimens of Punic and Roman stonework, and the similar remains on the headland of Mūlaī Bū Selham probably belong to the Mudelacha of Polybius. Of early Moorish architecture good examples are comparatively few and badly preserved. Besides those in Fās, Miknās, and Marrākesh, it is sufficient to mention the mausoleum of the Benī-Marīn (13th to 16th centuries) at Shella, which, with the adjoining mosque, is roofless and ruined, but possesses a number of funeral inscriptions.
The earliest records touching on Morocco are those of Hanno’s Periplus, which mentions that Carthaginian colonies were planted along the coast. The savage and inhospitable tribes with whom they came in contact included cave-dwellers; but megalithic remains point to a yet earlier race. It is not till the last century B.C. that Moroccan Berbers are found supplying troops to Pompey or Sertorius, and later, under Augustus, becoming themselves incorporated in the Roman province of Mauretania (q.v., and also Africa, Roman). But the Roman province reached only to the Bū Ragrāg, on which Sala, now Salli, was its outpost; Volubilis, near Mequinez, being its principal, if not its only, inland city. In the fifth century A.D. the country became subject to the Vandals and, about 618, to the Goths.
​ 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 ​ succession was disputed by three of his sons. In 1608 one of them, Zīdān, became supreme and reigned twenty years. To subdue rebellions Zīdān twice obtained the assistance of English troops from Charles I., and, like his father, employed large numbers of European artificers in the various palaces he built or completed. The two sons who succeeded him had both become drunkards from intercourse with these foreigners, but a third, Mahomet XIII., called from prison to reign in 1636, proved himself a wise and beneficent ruler. But his friendship for Europeans displeased the more fanatical among his subjects, and after a futile attempt on the part of a central Moroccan “saint” of great reputation to oust him, and the “Christians” on the coast as well, another family of sharifs was invited from Tafīlālt to undertake the task, and by 1649 they were masters of Fez.
Before tracing the history of the Fīlāli dynasty, which still holds its own, it will be convenient to refer briefly to the relations which subsisted then (17th century) and for many years afterwards, apart from wars with Spain and Portugal, between the Moors and Europeans. From the early part of theEuropean Relations with Morocco. 13th century there are records of Christian mercenaries and others in the Moorish service, while intermittent trading expeditions had already brought the principal European ports of the Mediterranean into touch with Morocco. The settlement of European traders in Moorish ports does not appear to have commenced till later; but it soon became an important factor, for the Moors have always appreciated the advantages of foreign commerce, and thus the way was opened up for diplomatic intercourse and treaty privileges. Even while their rovers were scouring the seas and making slaves of the foreigners captured, foreign merchants were encouraged to trade among them under guarantees and safe-conducts. Thus originated all the rights enjoyed by foreigners in Morocco to-day, as subsequently confirmed by treaties. France was the first to appoint a consul to Morocco, in 1577, Great Britain only doing so a century later. For centuries the treatment of foreign envoys in Morocco was most humiliating, the presents they brought being regarded in the light of tribute. It was not till the year 1900 that the custom was abolished of mounted sultans under umbrellas receiving ambassadors on foot and bareheaded.
While, from the European point of view, the pirates of the Barbary coast were a bloodthirsty set of robbers, in no way to be distinguished from the sweepings of Western civilization who scoured the seas farther east, from the standpoint of the The Sallee Rovers.Moors they were the pious religious Warriors for the faith, who had volunteered to punish the Nazarenes for rejecting Mahomet, and it is difficult to realize the honour in which their memory is held save by comparison with that of the Crusaders, in which the positions were exactly reversed. The Moorish rovers approached as nearly to an organized navy as anything the country ever possessed, and at times they were fitted out by the state, to whom their prizes therefore belonged. They made descents on the opposite coasts, even as far as Devon and Cornwall, carrying off the population of whole hamlets.
Salli, Maʽmora (Mehediya), Laraish, Tangier, Ceuta, Tetuan, and Bādis were their principal rendezvous in Morocco, and their vessels, an assortment of almost every known build and rig of the day, varied greatly in numbers and size. It is probable, however, that contemporary writers greatly over-estimated their importance. They appear to have flourished chiefly throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, and to have attained the zenith of their power during the latter part of the 17th century. A great impetus was given to their raids by the expulsion of the Moors from Spain in 1610, and their operations were facilitated later by the recovery of most of the Moorish ports. from foreign hands. The varying influence of the different European states could be gauged at first by the prices they were compelled to pay to ransom their captive subjects, and later by the annual tribute which they were willing to present to protect their vessels. Some countries continued the payment well into the 19th century, although the slavery of Christians in Morocco had been abolished by treaty in 1814.
During the time that piracy flourished hundreds of thousands of foreigners suffered captivity, torture and death in Morocco rather than abjure their faith, the one condition on which a measure of freedom within Morocco was offered to them. The horrors of that timeChristian Slaves. were keenly felt in Christendom, and collections were constantly made at church doors for the ransom of Moorish captives. Frequent expeditions for that purpose were undertaken by members of religious brotherhoods, not a few of whom themselves became martyrs. The lot of the European slave was infinitely worse than that of the negro who indifferently embraced Islām, and was at once admitted to equality in all points save freedom. They were principally employed on public works or in galleys under the task-master’s lash, both men and women being subjected to every indignity.
The record of the Fīlāli dynasty may now be considered. The first of this line proclaimed in Fez was Mahomet XIV., but the first of European fame was his brother, Rashid II., “The Great Tafīlātta,” as he was styled by the English, who then occupied Tangier, sultan from 1664Fīlāli Dynasty, (1649—.) to 1672. With him opened a terrible epoch of bloodshed and cruelty, only once revived since–during the short reign of El Yāzīd (1790–1792)—the horrors of which for both natives and Europeans, are often indescribable. It reached its climax under his brother Ismā’īl. A man of wonderful vitality, his reign lasted 55 years (1672–1727), during which his fierce grasp never relaxed. Many hundreds of sons and countless daughters were born to him in a harem rivalling that of Solomon, for which he even asked a daughter of Louis XIV. Having, as he supposed, driven the English from Tangier, he laid unsuccessful siege to Ceuta for 26 years, but otherwise his military measures were confined to subduing internal enemies, in which he was supported by his faithful black troops, the Bokhāris, and also by a foreign legion of renegades.
For 30 years after Ismā’īl’s death one son after another was set up by the Bokhāris, seven succeeding—some of them more than once—till one, Abd-Allah V., who partook of his father’s bloodthirsty nature, ended his sixth turn of power in 1757. Then, at last, this dynasty provided a beneficent sovereign in the person of his son, Mahomet XVI., during whose reign of 33 years the land prospered. By him Mogador was built and Mazagan, the last hold of the Portuguese, recovered. He was followed by the wretch Yāzīd, his son by an English or Irish woman, whose reign was fortunately cut short while contending with four rival brothers, two of whom in turn succeeded him, the second, Sulaiman II., proving as wise a ruler as his father. Under his reign (1795–1822) piracy was abolished, but the policy, maintained till the end of the century, of having as little as possible to do with foreigners was initiated.
By Sulaiman’s direction the imperial umbrella passed to his nephew, Abd-er-Rahmān II., on whom he could rely to maintain his policy. Although disposed to promote foreign trade, he made a futile attempt in 1828 to revive piracy, which the Austrians frustrated by reprisals next year. Following this was the war of 1830 with France over the partition of Algeria, as a result of which the Moors renounced all claim to Tlemçen and entered into agreements the infraction of which led to a second war between the two in 1844, during which Tangier and Mogador were bombarded. A bombardment of Salli in 1851 secured for the French the settlement of various claims, and when Abd-er-Rahman died, in 1859, the Spaniards were threatening Tetuan.
War being declared, the Spaniards marched on the town, which they captured after two months, and held till peace was signed six months later on their own terms. The vanquished sultan, Mahomet XVII., reigned till his death in 1873, when his son, El Hasan III., succeeded, having the usual fight to secure the supremacy. In comparison with his predecessors El Hasan was mild and gentle, too much so to maintain continual ​ peace among the more turbulent of his subjects. From early in the century Sus had practically maintained independence, but in 1882 was reduced to submission, as also were subsequently the other great Berber centres, one by one, till the land had rest. Fighting between the Rīfians and Spaniards in 1894 having involved the sultan in the payment of some £650,000 indemnity, he was on his way to recover this from the culprits when he died in camp and was interred at Rabat.
El-Hasan’s death was kept secret till the coffin reached its destination, so that a peaceful proclamation was secured for ‛Abd-el-‛Azīz IV., his son by a Circassian slave who possessed great influence over him. His trusted chamberlain, Si Ahmed ben Mūsa, became Wazīr regent, and put down all opposition, ruling with a The Reign of ‛Abd-el-‛Azīz IV. firm, wise hand till 1900, when he died just as his ward attained his majority. Drastic changes thereon took place, and a new set of ministers came into power. The young sultan now showed himself desirous of acquiring and practising foreign arts and of introducing foreign reforms. Under his mother’s advice he sought especially the friendship and advice of Great Britain, on whose disinterested friendship he believed he could rely. But lack of training and experience frustrated his praiseworthy efforts, and he became the prey of schemers and speculators, who pandered to his worst traits and squandered his treasure.
This turn of affairs aroused the fanaticism of his people, and in 1902 the Berber tribes of the Algerian frontier rose in rebellion under Jelāli Zarhōni, nicknamed “Bu Hamāra,” who claimed to be fighting on behalf of the sultan’s brother Mahomet, already imprisoned in Mequinez for revolt. Unable to subdue the rebellion, which did not, however, affect the rest of the empire, ‛Abd-el-‛Azīz borrowed money from France to reorganize his army, but failed to effect his purpose. Meanwhile a local sharīf, Mulai Ahmed er-Raisūli, made himself master of the district round Tangier, holding even foreigners to ransom, and creating a false impression abroad as to the general state of the empire.
The end appeared near when by a declaration, signed in London on the 8th of April 1904, Great Britain, in return for concessions in Egypt, agreed not to interfere with French action in Morocco. In this declaration, one of the series of arrangements marking the establishment of the entente cordiale, France declared that she had no intention of changing the political status of Morocco. She designed, however, a system of “pacific penetration,” and administrative, economic, financial and military reforms—reforms which the Moorish court did not desire. By a separate convention with Spain in October 1904 the interests of that country were safeguarded, and it seemed that the Anglo-French agreement had the approval of all the powers. Some weeks before its conclusion its terms had been communicated to Germany, and four days after its signature Count Bülow had stated in the Reichstag that there was no ground to apprehend that German interests (“essentially economic”) in Morocco would be disregarded. During the remaining months of 1904, however, and in the opening months of 1905, the international situation was changed. Germany had viewed with concern the increased influence of France in Europe, but remained quiescent until after the reverses to the Russian arms in Manchuria, when it was judged in Berlin that the time had arrived for Germany to become the arbiter of European policy; and the means to demonstrate her position were found in the Moroccan question. After having turned a deaf ear to the demands of the Pan-Germanic party for the “vindication” of German rights in Morocco, after in fact nearly a year of acquiescence in the predominant position of France in that country the German government now complained of being ignored in the Anglo-French arrangement and proceeded to extend its patronage to ‛Abd-el-‛Azīz. On the 31st of March 1905 the German emperor landed at Tangier and had conferences with the sultan’s representatives. The emperor was reported to have declared that he had come to enforce the sovereignty of the sultan, the integrity of Morocco, and the equality of commercial and economic interests. The effect of this intervention was soon apparent. The sultan rejected the scheme of reforms proposed by France, and at the suggestion of Germany issuedThe Algeciras Conference. invitations to the powers to meet his representatives and advise him concerning the reforms needed. The French foreign minister, M. Delcassé, held that there was no need for a conference, but Prince Bülow used menacing language and after a period of much stress M. Delcassé resigned (June, 1905), the French government thereupon agreeing to the holding of a conference. So far the German policy had triumphed; the conference met at Algeciras on the 16th of January 1906 and engaged in the delicate task of reconciling French claims for predominance with the German demand of equality for all. The British delegates gave firm support to their French colleagues, while Austria proved “a brilliant second ” to Germany. With great difficulty a scheme of reforms was elaborated, Germany having previously acknowledged the privileged position of France along the Moroccan-Algerian frontier. The general act embodying the resolutions of the conference was signed on the 7th of April; it was accepted by the sultan on the 18th of June, and the ratifications of the act by the other powers were deposited at the Spanish Foreign Office on the 31st of December 1906. The act provided for a Moorish police force from 2000 to 2500 strong, distributed among the eight open ports of Morocco, to be commanded by Moorish kaids, assisted by French and Spanish instructors and officers, with a Swiss inspector-general—the arrangement to continue for five years. The act provided also for the institution of a state bank (see supra § Finance). Other provisions dealt with (a) the acquisition of land round the ports by foreigners, and the consequent payment by them of the regulated or tertib taxes; (b) the more efficient control of the customs administration, first by an annual assessment of the average values of all imports as a basis for the tariff during the following year, and, secondly, by a strict supervision of the administration itself; and (c) the authority of the state over the public services and public works, tenders for which were to be adjudicated impartially without reference to the nationality of the bidder.
Throughout 1906 the country was in a disturbed condition, and while a Franco-Spanish demonstration off Tangier succeeded in obtaining the removal of Raisūli from the governorship of the town, various outrages occurred (including the murder of a Frenchman in the suburbs of Tangier) for which no satisfaction could be obtained. France occupies Ujda. At length the murder of Dr. Emile Mauchamp at Marrakesh on the 19th of March 1907 determined the French to take prompt action, and Ujda was occupied (March 29) by Algerian troops, the French government determining to hold the town until satisfaction had been given to their demands. This satisfaction ‛Abd-el-‛Azīz promised in May, and some progress was made towards carrying out the Algeciras programme, the state bank being organized in July 1907. Meantime the weakness of the sultan’s rule was illustrated in many quarters: near Tangier by the continued activity of Raisūli, that chieftain securing in June another European captive—Sir Harry Maclean, who after over seven months’ detention had to be ransomed by the British government for £20,000.
​ At Casablanca at this time works were in progress, with the sanction of the sultan, for improving the harbour. The works were beyond the ramparts, close to the Moslem cemetery; and the neighbouring tribesmen (the Shawia) were excited by reports that the cemetery had been desecrated. On the 30th of July they attacked the European labourers and killed nine of them (three French, three Spaniards, and three Italians), afterwards entering the town and raiding the Jewish quarter. Refugees fled by boat to Tangier with news of the massacre. The French government decided to occupy Casablanca, and a strong naval and military force was sent thither. Before the arrival of the troops the commander of the cruiser “Galilée” landed a party (Aug. 5) to guard the French consulate. The passage of the detachment was opposed, whereupon the “Galilée,” aided by the “Du Chayla” bombarded the town. Casablanca was at the same time entered by the tribesmen, who began a general pillage. On the 7th the French troops arrived and Casablanca. were landed, and further fighting took place. Before order was restored nearly every inhabitant had been killed or wounded or had fled; the dead alone numbered thousands. The European colony was, however, saved. Though masters of the town, the French found the Shawia tribes still full of fight, and, first under General Drude and afterwards (Jan. 1908) under General Amadé, the French proceeded to the reduction of the Shawia country. At one time the expeditionary force numbered 15,000 men. By June 1908 the district was quiet and thereafter the strength of the force was gradually reduced.
The action of France at Casablanca aroused the fanaticism of the tribes of Tafīlālt and those dwelling near the Algerian border. In November 1907 the Beni Snassen crossed the frontier and were not reduced to submission until after hard fighting. Another outbreak occurred in April 1908, when a French column in the Guir district, west of Figig was surprised, and had difficulty in beating back the enemy. In that and a subsequent engagement, which resulted in the dispersal of the foe in May, the French casualties were over 200. French and Moorish commissioners were then appointed to preserve order along the frontier.
While thus engaged on the eastern frontier and on the Atlantic coast of Morocco France had given financial and moral support to ‛Abd-el-‛Azīz, whose position was threatened by his brother Mulai Hafid. On the 16th of August 1907, within a fortnight of the bombardment of Casablanca, the ulema of Fall of ‛Abd-el- ‛Azīz.Marrākesh had declared ‛Abd-el-‛Azīz deposed and Hafid sultan; and from September onwards the tribes round Casablanca opposing the French were supported by troops sent from Marrākesh. Aziz having been furnished with money by the state bank, he was enabled to reach the seaport of Rabat at the head of his army in September 1907. There he was visited by the French minister and appeared willing to grant all the demands of France in return for help against his brother. A loan was forthcoming but no military assistance save that some of ‛Abd-el-‛Azīz’s troops were taken by a French warship to Mazagan. While desultory fighting between the supporters of the rival brothers was proceeding Hafid was proclaimed sultan at Fez on the 4th of January 1908; Hafid now sought support from France, Germany, and other powers, and moving from Marrākesh passed the French lines in the Shawia country, entered Mequinez in May and Fez in June 1908. At length ‛Abd-el-‛Azīz made an effort to reassert his authority and with a force numbering 4000 he left Rabat in July for Marrākesh. He reached the neighbourhood of that city on the 2nd of August, having received the adhesion of numerous tribes, including the Shawia. On the 19th he started for the final march on Marrākesh. He appears to have been betrayed, for hardly had his force started when it was assailed on all sides, whereupon the tribesmen deserted in a body and the “regulars” ran away. The day was irretrievably lost and ‛Abd-el-‛Azīz sought safety in night. On the 22nd he arrived at Settat in the Shawia country, and within the French lines, with only a handful of followers. For a short time he talked of continuing the struggle, but ended by accepting a pension from his brother Hafid and was assigned a residence in Tangier. That town, the last in Morocco to acknowledge Hafid, did so on the 23rd of August; the change of sultans being accomplished without any disturbance of public order.
Germany was anxious for the immediate recognition of Hafid and caused some perturbation in France by a circular to the powers to that effect dated the 2nd of September; the French and Spanish governments replied by proposals for guarantees that Hafid would respect the Act of Algeçiras. This course received general assent and Mulai Hafid Sultan. Hafid having given the guarantees demanded he was formally recognized as sultan at the beginning of 1909. His relations with Europe were made easier by the conclusion, in February 1909, of a Franco-German agreement designed to avoid all cause of misunderstanding between those powers in Morocco. Germany put on record that her interests in the sultanate were “only economic,” and France agreeing to “safeguard economic equality” Germany undertook not to impede the political interests of France in the country.
The weakness of the central government was exemplified by the inability of Mulai Hafid to control the Rif tribesmen, who in July 1909 killed a number of European labourers in the neighbourhood of the Spanish fortress of Melilla (q.v.). Spain sent an army of 50,000 men to vindicate its authority. After a severe campaign the Riffians were reduced to submission (Nov. 1909). Though powerless in the Rif, Mulai Hafid’s army succeeded in defeating Bu Hamāra’s force and in capturing (Aug. 1909) that pretender, otherwise known as el Roghi. Bu Hamāra and many of his followers were taken to Fez. The tortures inflicted upon them evoked strong protests from the European powers. In 1910 Mulai Hafid obtained a loan, chiefly from France, of £4,000,000; the greater part of the loan went to liquidate claims by Europeans against the maghzen.
Amirs and Sultans of Morocco
| | I.—Idrisi Dynasty (Arab), A.D. (Capital, Fez.) |
| 788. | Idrīs I. |
| 791. | Rashīd (regent). |
| 804. | Idrīs II. |
| 828. | Mahomet I. |
| 836. | ‛Ali I. |
| 848. | Yahya I. |
| 881. | Yahya II. |
| 894. | ‛Ali II. |
| | Yahya III. |
| 904. | Yahya IV. |
| | (Interregnum from 917.) |
| 922. | El Hasan I. " El Hajjām." (Fez lost to the Miknāsa 925.) |
| 935. | El Kennūn (at Hajrat en-Nasr). |
| 948. | ‛Abu‛l‛Aish Ahmed. |
| 954. | El Hasan II. (at Basra). |
| 961. | ‛Abd-Allah I. |
| 970. | Mahomet II. (Subjugated by the Maghrāwa 985.) |
| | II.—Miknāsa Dynasty (Berber). (Capital, Fez.) |
| 925. | Musa I. “Ibn Abd-el-‛Aafīa.” |
| 938. | Mādin. |
| 952. | Ibrāhim I. |
| 973. | El Būrī. |
| 1014. | El Kāsem I. |
| | III.—Maghrāwa Dynasty (Berber). (Capital, Fez.) |
| 988. | Zīri ibn ‛Atīa. |
| 1000. | El Mūāz. |
| 1026. | Hammāma. |
| 1039. | Dūnas. |
| 1060. | El Fatūh and ‛Ajīsa. |
| 1065. | El Moānnasir. |
| 1067. | Tamīm. |
| | IV.—Murābti Dynasty (Berber). (Capital, Marrākesh.) |
| 1061. | Yūsef I. (Bin Tashfīn.) |
| 1106. | ‛Ali III. |
| 1143. | Tashfīn I. |
| 1145. | Ibrāhīm II. |
| 1146. | Ishāk. |
| V.—Muwāhhadi Dynasty (Berber). (Capitals, Marrākesh and Seville.) ||
| 1145. | ‛Abd-el-Mumin. |
| 1163. | Yusef II., “Abu Ya‛kub.” |
| 1184. | Ya‛kub I., “Abu Yūsef el Mansūr.” |
| 1199. | Mahomet III., “En-Nāsir.” |
| 1214. | Yusef III., “Abu Yākūb el Mustansir.” |
| 1223. | ‛Abd-el-Wāhid, “El Makhlūwi.” |
| 1224. | ‛Abd-Allah II., “Abu Mahomet.” |
| 1226. | Yahya V., “El Mu‛tasim.” |
| 1229. | Idrīs III., “El Māmun.” |
| 1232. | Rashid I., “Abd-el-Wāhīd.” |
| 1242. | ‛Ali IV., “Es-Said el Mu‛tadīd.” (Mequinez lost to Beni Marīn 1245.) |
| 1248. | ‛Omar I., “El Mortada.” (Fez lost to Beni Marīn, 1248.) |
| 1266. | Idrīs IV., “Abu Dabbūs el Wāthik.” (Marrākesh lost to Beni Marīn, 1269.) |
| VI.—Beni Marīn Dynasty (Berber). (Capitals, Fez, Mequinez and Marrākesh.) ||
| 1213. | ‛Abd-el-Hakk. |
| 1217. | ‛Othmān I., “Abu Said I.” |
| 1239. | Mahomet IV., “Abu Marrāf.” |
| 1244. | Abu Bakr. |
| 1258. | Yākūb II., “bin ‛Abd-el-Hakk.” |
| 1286. | Yusef IV. |
| 1307. | ‛Amr, “Abu Thābit.” |
| 1308. | Sulaimān I., “Abu Rebī‛a.” |
| 1310. | ‛Othmān II., “Abu Said II.” |
| 1320. | ‛Omar II. (at Sajilmāsa). |
| 1331. | ‛Ali V., “Abu‛l Hasan.” |
| 1351. | Fāris I., “Abu‛Aīnān.” |
| 1358. | Sa’īd I. (a child). |
| 1359. | Ibrāhīm III., “Abu Salem.” |
| 1361. | $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$ | Tashfīn II., “Abu ‛Omar.” |
| 1361. | $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$ | ‛Abd-el-Halīm (in Sajilmāsa). |
| 1361. | $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right.}$ | Mahomet V. |
| 1366. | ‛Abd-el-‛Azīz I. |
| 1372. | Mahomet VI., “Es-Saīd.” |
| 1374. | $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$ | Ahmed I., “Abu’l‛Abbās” (in Fez). |
| 1374. | $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$ | ‛Abd-er-Rahman I. (in Marrākesh). |
| 1384. | Mūsa II. and Ahmed II., “Es Mustansir.” |
| 1386. | Mahomet VII., “El Wāthik.” |
| 1387. | Ahmed I. (2nd reign). |
| 1393. | ‛Abd-el-‛Azīz II., “Abu Fāris.” |
| 1396. | Fāris II., “El Mutawaḳḳil.” |
| 1408. | Abu Sa’id III. |
| 1416. | Sa’īd II. and Yākūb III. |
| 1425. | ‛Abd-Allah III. (after whom the record of this dynasty ceases). |
| | VII.—Wattāsi Dynasty (Berber). (Capital, Fez.) |
| 1471. | Sa’īd III., “Es-Sheikh el Wattās.” |
| 1500. | Mahomet VIII., "The Portuguese.” |
| 1530. | Ahmed III. (in Fez). |
| 1548. | Mahomet X. (Defeated by the Sharīfs, 1550.) |
| VIII.—Sa’adi Dynasty (Arab). (Capitals, Fez, Mequinez and Marrākesh.) ||
| 1524. | $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$ | Ahmed III. (in Marrākesh). |
| 1524. | $\scriptstyle {\left\{{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right.}$ | Mahomet IX. (in Tarudānt). |
| 1557. | ‛Abd-Allah, “El Ghālib.” |
| 1574. | Mahomet XI., “El Mutawaḳḳil.” |
| 1576. | ‛Abd-el-Mālek I., “El Muatāsim.” |
| 1578. | Ahmed IV., “El Mansur” or “Dhahebi.” |
| 1603. | Mahomet XII., “Es-Sheikh.” |
| | ‛Abd-el-‛Azīz III., “Abu Fāris.” |
| 1608. | Zīdān. |
| 1628. | ‛Abd-el-Mālek II. |
| 1631. | El Walīd. |
| 1636. | Mahomet XIII., “Es-Sheikh Es-Saghir.” (Fez lost to the Fīlālīs, 1649.) |
| 1654. | Ahmed V., “El Abbās.” |
| 1658. | ‛Abd-el-Karīm in Marrākesh. (Overthrown by Fīlālīs, 1668.) |
| IX.—Fīlālī Dynasty (Arab). (Capitals, Fez, Mequinez and Marrākesh.) ||
| 1649. | Mahomet XIV., “Es-Sharīf.” |
| 1664. | Rashīd II. |
| 1672. | Ismā‛īl, “The Bloodthirsty.” |
| 1727. | Ahmed VI., “Ed-Dhahebi II.” |
| 1728. | ‛Abd-el-Mālek III., “Abu Merwān.” |
| 1729. | ‛Abd-Allah V., “El Mortada.” |
| 1734. | ‛Ali VI. |
| 1736. | Mahomet XV., “Uld er-Riba.” |
| 1738. | El Mustadi. |
| 1745. | Zīn el ‛Abdīn. |
| 1757. | Mahomet XVI. |
| 1790. | El Yazīd. |
| 1792. | El Hishām. |
| 1795. | Sulaimān II. |
| 1822. | ‛Abd-er-Rahman II. |
| 1859. | Mahomet XVII. |
| 1873. | El Hasan III. |
| 1894. | ‛Abd-el-‛Azīz IV. |
| 1908. | Hafid. |
Note.—The dates given are those in which the various rulers acquired sovereign power. Many had already secured the allegiance of certain provinces some time before, and many retained such allegiance long after the greater portion of the empire had accepted a successful rival. European nations in several instances treated with men who were not at the time actual sovereigns, and in some cases were never such.
Bibliography.—History: Budgett Meakin, The Moorish Empire, an historical epitome (London, 1899; which contains critical notices of all important books on Morocco to date); Ernest Mercier, Histoire de l’Afrique septentrionale (3 vols., Paris, 1888–1891). Principal authorities: Native—Ibn‛Abd el Hākim, embracing the period from A.D. 690 to 750 (trans. Jones; Göttingen, 1858); ‛Abd el Wāhid el Marrākeshi (1149–1224), trans. E. Fagnan in the Revue Africaine, pp. 202–207 (1891), Raōd el Kartās (788–1326), trans. Baumier (Paris, 1860); El Makkāri (710–1500), trans. Gayangos (London, 1840); El Ufrāni (1631–1812), trans. Houdas (Paris, 1889); and En Nāsiri (710–1894; Cairo, 1895). Foreign—Diego de Torres, Relacion del Origen y suceso de los xarifes (Seville, 1586); Faria y Sousa, Africa Portuguesa (Lisbon, 1681); Mouëtte, Histoire des Conquestes de Mouley Archy, &c. (Paris, 1683); De el Puerto, Mission historial de marruecos (Seville, 1708); Busnot, Histoire du regne de Muley Ismail (Rouen, 1714); Louis S. de Chénier, Récherches historiques sur les Maures (3 vols., Paris, 1787); Mas Latrie, Traités de paix, &c. (3 vols., Paris, 1866–1872), and Relations et commerce de l’Afrique septentrionale (Paris, 1886).
Geography.—Budgett Meakin, The Land of the Moors (a general description, London, 1901); Ch. De Foucauld, Reconnaissance au Maroc, text and maps (Paris, 1888; by far the most extensive, detailed and original exploration up to that date undertaken in Morocco, admirably illustrated); J. D. Hooker and John Ball, Marocco and the Great Atlas (London, 1878; the trustworthy record of a serious and well-equipped scientific expedition, valuable chiefly for its botanical information); Gerhard Rohlfs, Adventures in Morocco (London, 1874; previous to De Foucauld's achievement, the most extensive journey recorded in modern times); Walter B. Harris, Tafilet (London, 1895; recounts a plucky journey across the Atlas); Joseph Thomson, Travels in the Atlas (London, 1889; the narrative of a restricted excursion from Marrākesh); H. de la Martinière, Journeys in the Kingdom of Fez (London, 1889; chief value archaeological); Rafael Pezzi, Los presidios menores de Africa (Madrid, 1893; an account of the Spanish possessions in Morocco); Captain Jules Erckmann, Le Maroc moderne (Paris, 1885; includes parts not open to Europeans, visited by the author as an officer in the Moorish army); Capt. E. Bonelli, El Imperio de Marruecos (Madrid, 1882; a somewhat similar work, by a Spanish officer); F. de A. de Urrestazu, Viages por Marruecos (Madrid, 1877; descriptions by a Spaniard born in the country and travelling. as a native); G. D. Cowan and R. L. N. Johnston, Moorish Lotos Leaves (London, 1883; trustworthy papers dealing with south central Morocco); Emilien Renou, Description géographique de l’empire du Maroc (Paris, 1846; a compendium of information available at that date); J. Canal, Géographie générale du Maroc (Paris, 1902); Mission de Segonzac, Voyages au Maroc 1899–1901 (Paris, 1903) and later publications of the Segonzac Mission; Ch. Tissot, Récherches sur la géographie comparée de la Maurétanie Tingitane (Paris, 1877; a valuable archaeological survey); M. Besnier, “Géographie ancienne du Maroc” and “Recueil des descriptions antiques,” both in No. III. of Archives marocaines (Paris, 1904); Leo Africanus, Description of Africa, 1526, trans. Pory, 1600; ed. Dr Robert Brown, for Hakluyt Society (3 vols., London, 1896; a wonderful work for its period, always of interest, but the source of many oft-repeated errors in books on Morocco).
Geology.—G. Maw, “Notes on the Geology of the Plain of Morocco and the Great Atlas,” Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. (1872), vol. xxviii.; J. Thomson, “Report of the Committee appointed to investigate the Geography and Geology of the Atlas Range in the Empire of Morocco,” Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1889, Newcastle Meeting; P. Schnell ​L’Atlas marocain (Paris, 1898); A. Brives, “Contribution à l’étude géologique de l’Atlas marocain,” Bull. Soc. Geol. France (Oct. 1905).
Ethnology.—Budgett Meakin, The Moors (London, 1902; a minute account of manners and customs); James G. Jackson, An Account of the Empire of Morocco (London, 1809; the authoritative description for a century); Georg Höst, Efterretninger om Marokos og Fes (a work still of great value; Copenhagen, 1779); Thomas Pellow, Captivity and Adventures, 1736 (ed. Dr Robert Brown, London, 1890; one of the best and most intimate narratives of the European slaves); Count Sternburg, The Barbarians of Morocco (London, 1908).
Language.—Rev: José Lerchundi, Rudimentos del árabe . . . demarruecos (Tangier, 1891) and Vocabulario español arabigo (Tangier, 1892); Eng. trans. of the former by J. MacIver MacLeod (Tangier, 1900; most useful, but dealing chiefly with the corrupt colloquial speech of the Tangier-Tetuan district); Budgett Meakin, An Introduction to the Arabic of Morocco (Tangier, 1900; vocabulary, grammar, notes, phrases, &c., for pocket use, in Roman characters); Miss C. Baldwin, Morocco-Arabic Dialogues (Tangier, 1892; uniform with the last-named, but in Arabic characters).
Maps.—The most trustworthy general maps are R. de Flotte de Roquevaire, Carte du Maroc (scale 1:1,000,000) 4 sheets, ed. 1908; the French War Office maps (scale 1:500,000, begun 1906, scale 1:100,000, begun 1909), and the British War Office map (scale 1:1,000,000) 4 sheets, 1904. There are numerous district maps. The Dyé Mission published fifteen. (B. M.*; K. A. M.*)
* ↑ This must not be confounded with Santa Cruz de Mar Pequeña, a post established in 1476 somewhere on this coast by Herrera, lord of the Canary Islands. After obtaining permission to reoccupy the post in 1861, the Spanish government was unable to identify it, though in all probability the original site was the lagoon known as Puerto Cansado, much farther south. But this is now too remote a spot to be worth colonizing, hence the desire to substitute some other. Ifni, on old maps Gueder, was chosen (1878), there being some evidence to show that it was possibly the true site of the ancient fort.
* ↑ See Valentin Ferdinand, Beschreibung West Afrikas (Mem. of the Acad. of Munich, 3rd Class, pt. viii.).
* ↑ No, Non, Nor, Naum, Nāo, are among the various readings. It was another Cape Non to the south of Cape Bojador which seems to have given rise to the proverb, Quem pasar o cabo de Não ou tornara ou não. See Bol. de la Soc. Geogr. (Madrid, 1880), p. 316.
* ↑ The botany of Morocco has been explored by Balansa (1867), Hooker, Ball and Maw (1871), Rein and Fritsch (1873), Ibrahim Ammeribt (a Berber collector, 1873, 1876), the Rabbi Mardochēe Abi Serur (1872–1873); and the results have been systematically arranged in Cosson’s Compendium florae atlanticae: ou Flore des états barbaresques (Paris, 1881, &c.).
* ↑ Gentil, in La Géographie, No. 3 (1908), describes the Siroua region, which, N.N.W. of Tikirt, connects the Anti Atlas and the High Atlas. The Siroua volcano compares with the finest volcanoes of Europe.
* ↑ Mulai Mahomet, eldest son of El Hasan and a generally popular prince, was released from prison by ‛Abd-el-‛Azīz early in 1908 and laced in command of his army. On the defeat of ‛Azīz by Mulai lilafid, Mahomet contemplated seizing the throne. He was, however, imprisoned by Hafid in the palace at Fez, where he was reported to have died, in mysterious circumstances, in June 1909.
* ↑ Shown inter alia by the landing of 500 Algerian troops at Tangier (a step taken to secure the release of Ion Perdicaris and his stepson, captives of Raisūli), and of a detachment at Rabat.
* ↑ Kaid Sir Harry Maclean (b. 1848) after serving in the British army became instructor to the Moorish army, which he accompanied in several expeditions. He was also colonel of the sultan’s bodyguard. For services rendered to the British government he was made a C.M.G. in 1898 and a K.C.M.G. in 1901. On the occasion of his capture he had gone, as he thought, to receive the submission of Raisūli, and had with him one or two attendants only. The sum paid for his ransom was subsequently refunded—as to £15,000 by Raisūli himself and the remainder by Mulai Hafid.
* ↑ A Spanish force of 600 men was also sent to Casablanca. Throughout the crisis Spain, with some misgiving, co-operated in the actions of France.
* ↑ In September 1908 the German consul at Casablanca gave safe-conduct to six deserters from the Foreign Legion, of whom three were Germans. On the way to embark for Hamburg, and while under guard from the German consulate, all six deserters were forcibly arrested by a French patrol. The matter created great excitement both in Germany and France, chiefly from the demand of the German government that France should express regret for the action of its agents before the facts were fully established. A way of escape was found in the formula “the two governments, regretting the events which occurred at Casablanca, . . . refer the matter to arbitration . . . and agree to express regret . . . according to the judgment of the court.” The case then went to The Hague Court of Arbitration, which gave its decision in May 1909, substantially in favour of France. In July the French government pardoned the deserters.
* ↑ For an account of Bu Hamāra’s career see Questions diplomatiques (Oct. 16, 1909).
* ↑ Title of sultan adopted about 1640.