Zaouia of Dila

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Zaouia of Dila
1537–1668
Maroc en 1660.png
State of fragmentation of Morocco after the assassination of the last Saadian sultan (Zaouia of Dila in yellow)
Common languages Berber (Lisan al-Gharbi)
Religion
Official : Islam-influenced traditional (adopted by 12 tribes)
Other : Islam (Khariji)(adopted by 17 tribes)
Government Monarchy
Tribal confederacy
(29 tribes)
• 1537
Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad al-Majjati al-Sanhaji
• 1659
Mohammed al-Hajj ibn Abu Bakr al-Dila'i
Historical era Middle Ages
• Established
1537
• Disestablished
1668

The Zaouia of Dila (Berber languages : Ait Idilla) was a Sufi brotherhood, centred in the Middle Atlas range of Morocco.

Contents

Origin

It was founded by Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad al-Majjati al-Sanhaji (1537–1612), [1] a Sanhaja Berber of the Mjjat tribe, [2] a branch of the Ait Idrassen confederation. [3] He was a follower of the famous mystic Muhammad al-Jazuli. The ruins of the town of Dila are situated just south of the city of Khenifra.

Under the leadership of Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr, the brotherhood was able to establish itself in the Berber territory of the Middle Atlas and High Atlas mountain ranges. [4] From 1637 onwards, the brotherhood started with the conquest of large parts of northern Morocco. By 1641, they had conquered Meknes, Fes and the port of Salé; from where a rival marabout, al-Ayachi, was expelled, and assassinated on 30 April 1641. [5] [6] In Fes, the Saadi family was expelled and Muhammad al-Hajj (1635–1688) was proclaimed sultan. [7]

Rise in power

At the beginning of Zouia following the period of anarchy which followed the death of the Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur in 1603 and the accession to the throne of Moulay Zidane in 1613 , several regions of Morocco escape the control of the central power saadien: [8]

The zaouïa of Dila then appears, under the impetus of Muhammad al-Hajj,since its foundation, as a movement combining spirituality and politics, mixing the ideology of holiness and sherifism with aspirations for power by the Berbers. It will take advantage of the weakness of Saadian power and the fragmentation of the country to extend its influence and control over several towns and regions in the north and center of Morocco. [9]

Peak

The Zaouia of Dila reached its peak in the middle of the 17th century, after having ordered the assassination [10] of El-Ayachi in 1641, expanding its influence on the cities of Fez, Tetouan and Ksar el-Kebir and on Republic of Salé, as well as on the plains of the north-west and the corridor of Taza to the Moulouya. [11]

Mohammed al-Hajj, head of the zaouia, thus governs Fez since 1641 [12] and was proclaimed Sultan there in 1659, following the death of the last Saadian Sultan Ahmad al-Abbas. The Zaouia of Dila lost Fez in 1661 following the putch of Caid Al Doraidi. It was dismantled in 1668 by the Alaouites, who took the ascendancy and undertook the reunification of Morocco. [13]

Collapse

The Dila'ites would rule over central and northern Morocco until 1668, when Dila itself was annexed by the Shurafa Alaouites, after their initial conquest of Fez. [14]

List of rulers

Related Research Articles

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Campaign of Tlemcen (1557)

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Capture of Fez (1554)

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History of Fez

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.

References

  1. ↑ Dartois, Marie-France (2008). Agadir et le sud marocain: à la recherche du temps passé, des origines au tremblement de terre du 29 février 1960 (in French). Courcelles. p. 271. ISBN   9782916569307.
  2. ↑ Hajji, M. (1988). Al-Zawiya al-Dila'iyya[The Zaouia of Dila] (in Arabic) (2nd ed.). Rabat. p. 28.
  3. ↑ Chiapuris, John (1979). The Ait Ayash of the High Moulouya Plain: Rural Social Organization in Morocco . University of Michigan Press. pp.  17. ISBN   978-0-932206-83-1.
  4. ↑ Gandini, Jacques (2006). Pistes du Maroc à travers l'histoire (in French). SERRE EDITEUR. p. 1000. ISBN   9782864104391.
  5. ↑ Coindreau, Roger (2006). Les corsaires de Salé (in French). Eddif. p. 52. ISBN   9789981896765.
  6. ↑ Peyron, Michael (1995). "Dila'". In Camps, Gabriel (ed.). Encyclopédie berbère . 15 | Daphnitae – Djado. Aix-en-Provence: Edisud. ISBN   978-2857448082.
  7. ↑ Lugan, Bernard (2016-06-02). Histoire de l'Afrique du Nord: Des origines à nos jours (in French). Editions du Rocher. p. 272. ISBN   9782268085340.
  8. ↑ Harakat, Brahim (1973). "Le makhzen sa'adien". Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée. 15 (1): 43–60. doi:10.3406/remmm.1973.1226.
  9. ↑ Jlok, Mustapha (2003). "The holiness and worship of saints". In Maisonneuve and Larose (ed.). Moroccan cultural heritage. Paris. p. 357-374. ISBN   2-7068-1696-1.
  10. ↑ de Epalza, Mikel (1992). Mapfre (ed.). Los Moriscos antes y después de la expulsión (in Spanish). Madrid. p. 106. ISBN   84-7100-249-3.
  11. ↑ Harakat, Brahim (1973). "Le Makhzen sa'adien". Review of the Muslim West and the Mediterranean (15–16). p. 43-60.
  12. ↑ Akutse Mojuetan, Benson (1995). "The sa'adian state of Ahmad al-Mansur and the aftermath". In Lit International / International African Institute (ed.). History and Underdevelopment in Morocco: the Structural Roots of Conjuncture. Münster / Londres. p. 64-76. ISBN   3-89473-697-6.
  13. ↑ Peyron 1995
  14. ↑ Publications de l'Institut des hautes études marocaines (in French). E. Leroux. 1949. p. 285.
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