| Ottoman expeditions to Morocco | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ottoman miniature depicting the 1576 capture of Fez. | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
1554 Expedition  Ottoman Empire  Kingdom of Kuku Principality of Debdou 1576 Expedition | Saadi Sultanate | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Ali Abu Hassun Abd al-Malik Suleiman I Murad III  Salah Rais Ramadan Pasha | Mohammed al-Shaykh Mohammed al-Mutawakkil | ||||||
In the 16th century the Ottomans undertook several expeditions to Saadi Sultanate
In the early 16th century in Morocco, the country was not united under one dynasty and the Wattasids and Saadis became enemies, which led to the Wattasids seeking military help from the Ottomans.
In 1545 Ali Abu Hassun, the Wattasid ruler in northern Morocco, recognised the full authority of the Ottoman sultan, sent a letter of submission and declared himself an Ottoman vassal thus attributing a vassal status to Fez. [10] [11] [12] [13] Later on in 1549, the Ottomans were unable to militarily intervene when the Wattasids lost Fez to their Saadian rivals under their leader Mohammed ash-Sheikh. [14]
Abu Hassun’s alliance with the Ottomans ultimately led to the Capture of Fez in 1554. According to Louis de Chénier , the forces of Salah Rais consisted of 4,000 troops and the forces of Mohammed ash-Sheikh were more than 20,000 and outnumbered Salah Reis’ army by more than five to one. [15] According to Ernest Mercier, Salah Reis’ troops were numbered at 11,000 men while ash-Sheikh's forces were numbered at 40,000. [16] Salah Reis was able to defeat the Saadians and conquer Fez, installing the Wattasid sovereign Abu Hassun on the throne as a vassal of the Ottomans. [17]
The Ottoman troops, Turks and Berbers from Kabylia stayed in Fez for four months harassing the population until Ali Abu Hassun bought the withdrawal of the Ottoman troops. Upon his withdrawal from Fez, Salah Rais assured the Saadi ruler that he would grant his enemy, Ali Abu Hassun, no further assistance. [18] Ali Abu Hassun then hired mercenaries for his own army. However, the Wattasids now without the help of the Ottoman troops were defeated in the Battle of Tadla and Fez was reconquered by the Saadis. [19]
After the Saadi ruler ash-Sheikh had been assassinated by the Ottomans, Abd al-Malik and his brother fled from Morocco. During his exile, Abd al-Malik became a trusted member of the Ottoman establishment. Murad III agreed to a proposition made by Abd al-Malik of making Morocco an Ottoman vassal in exchange for Murad’s support in helping him gain the Saadi throne. [20] Murad III then ordered the governor of Algiers, Ramadan Pasha, to invade Morocco and install Abd al-Malik on the throne as an Ottoman vassal, and so they left from Algiers. [21] [22]
Ramadan Pasha arrived in Fez with Abd al-Malik and the Ottoman army, Fez was easily conquered, which then caused the Saadi ruler, Abu Abdallah Mohammed, to flee to Marrakesh. However, Marrakesh was also conquered. [23] Abd al-Malik then assumed rule over Morocco as an Ottoman vassal recognising Ottoman suzerainty. [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] Murad's name was recited in the Friday prayer and stamped on coinage marking the two traditional signs of sovereignty in the Islamic world. [30] Abd al-Malik sent the Ottoman troops back to Algiers in exchange for gold while suggesting a looser concept of vassalage than the Ottoman sultan, Murad III, may have supposed. [31] [32] Abd al-Malik had recognised himself as a vassal of the Sublime Porte. [33] The reign of Abd al-Malik (1576-1578) is understood to be a period of Moroccan vassalage to the Ottoman Empire. [34] [35]
After the victory, Abd al-Malik received a letter from Murad III offering fatherly congratulations, but expressing his disappointment at an unfinished job, as the deposed ruler, Abu Abdallah Mohammed, remained alive. [36] He was the first Saadi ruler to break the tradition of not entering any bond of vassalage with a foreign entity and his letters described him as “Slave of the Great Turk.” [37] [38] He set his contingent of Turkish advisors to reshape his army along Ottoman lines.
In 1578, Abd al-Malik fought a battle against the Portuguese Empire in which he lost his life. However, the outcome of the battle was an immense victory. Abd al-Malik was succeeded by his brother Ahmad al-Mansur who formally recognised the suzerainty of the Ottoman Sultan at the beginning of his reign while remaining de facto independent. However, Ahmad stopped minting coins in Murad’s name, dropped Murad’s name from the Khutba and declared his full independence in 1582. [39] [40]
The Beylerbey of Algiers then convinced Murad III to authorise an attack on Morocco. Ahmad then sent an embassy with sizeable gifts to Constantinople, with the hopes of Murad III calling off the attack. [41] The Moroccans paid a tribute of more than 100,000 gold coins and agreed to show respect to the Ottoman Sultan, in return they were unofficially left alone. [42] They agreed to a treaty of mutual recognition and maintained peaceful relations. Every year Ahmad sent a gift to Istanbul which the Ottomans saw as a tribute, acknowledging their supremacy, and the Moroccans saw as a way of honouring the Ottomans for defending the Islamic lands. [43]
Murad III was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1574 until his death in 1595. His rule saw battles with the Habsburgs and exhausting wars with the Safavids. The long-independent Morocco was for a time made a vassal of the empire but regained independence in 1582. His reign also saw the empire's expanding influence on the eastern coast of Africa. However, the empire was beset by increasing corruption and inflation from the New World which led to unrest among the Janissary and commoners. Relations with Elizabethan England were cemented during his reign, as both had a common enemy in the Spanish. He was also a great patron of the arts, commissioning the Siyer-i-Nebi and other illustrated manuscripts.
The Battle of Alcácer Quibir was fought in northern Morocco, near the town of Ksar-el-Kebir and Larache, on 4 August 1578.
Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik I, often simply Abd al-Malik or Mulay Abdelmalek, was the Saadian Sultan of Morocco from 1576 until his death right after the Battle of al-Kasr al-Kabir against Portugal in 1578.
The Marinid dynasty was a Berber Muslim dynasty that controlled present-day Morocco from the mid-13th to the 15th century and intermittently controlled other parts of North Africa and of the southern Iberian Peninsula (Spain) around Gibraltar. It was named after the Banu Marin, a Zenata Berber tribe. It ruled the Marinid sultanate, founded by Abd al-Haqq I.
The Saadi Sultanate, also known as the Sharifian Sultanate, was a state which ruled present-day Morocco and parts of Northwest Africa in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was led by the Saadi dynasty, an Arab Sharifian dynasty.
Ahmad al-Mansur (Arabic: أبو العباس أحمد المنصور, Ahmad Abu al-Abbas al-Mansur, also Ahmad al-Mansur al-Dahabbi, and Ahmed al-Mansour was the Saadi Sultan of Morocco from 1578 to his death in 1603, the sixth and most famous of all rulers of the Saadis. Ahmad al-Mansur was an important figure in both Europe and Africa in the sixteenth century. His powerful army and strategic location made him an important power player in the late Renaissance period. He has been described as "a man of profound Islamic learning, a lover of books, calligraphy and mathematics, as well as a connoisseur of mystical texts and a lover of scholarly discussions."
The Wattasid dynasty was a ruling dynasty of Morocco. Like the Marinid dynasty, its rulers were of Zenata Berber descent. The two families were related, and the Marinids recruited many viziers from the Wattasids. These viziers assumed the powers of the Sultans, seizing control of the Marinid dynasty's realm when the last Marinid, Abu Muhammad Abd al-Haqq, who had massacred many of the Wattasids in 1459, was murdered during a popular revolt in Fez in 1465.
MawlayMohammed al-Shaykh al-Sharif al-Hassani, known as Mohammed al-Shaykh, was the first sultan of the Saadian dynasty of Morocco (1544–1557). He was particularly successful in expelling the Portuguese from most of their bases in Morocco. He also eliminated the Wattasids and resisted the Ottomans, thereby establishing a complete rule over Morocco.
Abu Abdallah Mohammed II, Al-Mutawakkil, often simply Abdallah Mohammed was the Sultan of Morocco from 1574 to 1576. He was the oldest son of Abdallah al-Ghalib and became Sultan after his father's death.
The Capture of Fez occurred in 1576 at the Moroccan city of Fez, when an Ottoman force from Algiers supported the prince Abd al-Malik in gaining the throne of the Saadi Sultanate against his nephew and rival claimant Mulay Muhammed al-Mutawakkil in exchange for making the Sultanate an Ottoman vassal.
Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad, also Sultan Ahmad, or Ahmad al-Wattasi, was a Sultan of the Moroccan Wattasid dynasty. He ruled from 1526 to 1545, and again between 1547 and 1549.
Turkey–Morocco relations are the foreign relations between Morocco and Turkey, and spanned a period of several centuries, from the early 16th century when the Ottoman Empire neighbored Morocco and had an expedition there until modern times.
Ali Abu Hassun, also Abu al Hasan Abu Hasun or Abu Hasun, full name Abu al-Hasan Abu Hasun Ali ibn Muhammad, was a regent of the Crown of Morocco for the Wattasid dynasty during the 16th century.
The Battle of Tadla occurred in September 1554 in Tadla, Morocco, between Ali Abu Hassun, last ruler of the Wattasid dynasty, and Mohammed ash-Sheikh, ruler of the Saadis.
Badis was a town in Morocco, 110 km southeast of Tétouan, between the territory of the Ghomara and the Rif; the Banu Yattufat live in the area.
The Campaign of Tlemcen or Tlemcen campaign was a military operation led by the Saadians of Mohammed ash-Sheikh against Tlemcen in 1557, then under the domination of the Regency of Algiers, a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. Mohammed ash-Sheikh, who wanted to conquer Algeria, occupied the city but failed to seize the Mechouar Palace, which was defended by a garrison of 500 men under the command of Caïd Saffa.
The Conquest of Fez or Capture of Fez took place in 1554 between the Algerian forces of Salah Rais and the ruler of the Saadi Sultanate, Mohammed ash-Sheikh. The battle took place on 7 January at Qudyat-al-Mahali, a suburb near Fez and occurred after Salah Reis’ two previous victories against the Saadians, one at Taza and another at the Sebou river. One of the objectives of the expedition is to restore Ali Abu Hassun, a Wattassid pretender, to the throne.
The History of Fez begins with its foundation by Idris I and Idris II at the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the 9th century CE. It initially consisted of two autonomous and competing settlements on opposing shores of what is now known as the Oued Fes. Initially inhabited by a largely Berber (Amazigh) population, successive waves of mainly Arab immigrants from Ifriqiya (Tunisia) and al-Andalus (Spain/Portugal) over time gave the nascent city an Arab character as well. After the downfall of the Idrisid dynasty, it was contested between different Zenata groups allied with either the Fatimid Caliphate or the Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba. In the 11th century the Almoravid sultan Yusuf ibn Tashfin conquered the region and united its two settlements into what is today the Fes el-Bali quarter. Under the rule of the Almoravids and of the Almohads after them, despite losing the status of capital to Marrakesh, the city remained the economic and political center of northern Morocco and gained a reputation for religious scholarship and mercantile activity.
Sahaba el-Rehmania was the wife of the Moroccan sultan of the Saadian dynasty Mohammed al-Shaykh and the mother of Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik. Gifted in diplomacy, she held a leading political role throughout her life. She was ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the court of Sultan Murad III.
