Background, early life, and accession to power , seat of the Alaouite Sharifs from the 13th century Born in 1645 at
Sijilmassa, According to
Al-Istiqsa, his mother was Mubarka bin Yark al-Maghfiri (d. 1668). According to the historian Ibn Zaydan, she was a black slave belonging to the
Saharan Mghafra tribe (direct cousins of the
Oudaya tribe as a cadet branch of it) rather than a member of it by blood or milk. She was reportedly given as a concubine to Sharif ibn Ali by , when he was holding him in captivity under ransom. This remains contested, as it would have made his birthdate in 1637 around the time his father was captive, while he was born in 1645. Moulay Ismail claimed a fictive kinship with the Oudaya by referring to them as his maternal uncles even though Mubarka was, according to
Ibn Zaydan, not related to the Oudaya by blood or milk. , the first sultan of the Alaouite dynasty in 1667 After the death of the
Saadi sultan
Ahmad al-Mansur, Morocco entered a period of unrest, during which his sons fought with one another for the throne, while the country was parcelled up by the different military leaders and religious authorities. From the beginning of the reign of
Zidan Abu Maali in 1613, the Saadi sultanate was very weak. The
Zawiya Dila'iya (or Zawiya of Dila) controlled central Morocco, the
Zaouia of Illigh established its influence from
Souss to the
Draa River, the
marabout Sidi al-Ayachi took possession of the northwestern plains, the Atlantic coast as far as
Taza, the
Republic of Salé became an independent state at the mouth of the
Bou Regreg, and the city of
Tétouan became a city-state under the control of the Naqsis family. At Tafilalt, the Alaouites were appointed by the local people in order to check the influence of the Zaouias of Illigh and Dila. They were an independent emirate from 1631. He abdicated in 1636 and his eldest son,
Sidi Muhammad ibn Sharif succeeded him. Under the latter's reign, the 'Alawi realm expanded into the north of the country, to
Tafna and the Draa river and managed to capture the city of
Oujda. His half-brother, Moulay Rashid rebelled against him and managed to kill him on 3 August 1664, in a battle on the plain of Angad (near Oujda). Moulay Ismail chose to support Rashid and was rewarded by being appointed governor of
Meknes. There, Moulay Ismail devoted himself to the region's agriculture and commerce, to increase his wealth, while Moulay Rashid reigned as Sultan of Tafilalt and then as Sultan of Morocco after his conquest of
Fez on 27 May 1664. On 6 April 1670, in the presence of his brother Sultan Moulay Rashid, Moulay Ismail celebrated his first marriage at Fez to the daughter of a Sa'adi prince. On 25 July, he put to death sixty brigands from Oulad Djama, by crucifying them on the wall of the Borj el-Jadid in Fez. While Rashid continued his campaigns against the independent tribes of the
High Atlas, he was killed on 9 April 1672 at Marrakesh, after falling off his horse. On 13 April, after he had learned of Rashid's death, Moulay Ismail rushed to Fez, where he took possession of his brother's treasury and then proclaimed himself Sultan of Morocco on 14 April 1672, at the age of twenty-six. This proclamation occurred around 2 pm and a grand ceremony followed.
Difficult early reign After seizing power, Moulay Ismail faced several rebellions: most significant was the revolt of his nephew
Moulay Ahmed ben Mehrez, son of Moulay Murad Mehrez, then the rebellions of his brothers, including
Harran ibn Sharif, who assumed the title of King of Tafilalt. The Tetouan warlord
Khadir Ghaïlan also resisted Sultan Ismail, along with several tribes and religious groups. When the news of Rashid's death reached Sijilmassa, Ahmed ben Mehrez rushed to Marrakesh, to have himself proclaimed
sultan. The tribes of
Al Haouz, the Arabs of Souss, and the inhabitants of Marrakesh joined him and he was able to assume control of the area. He rallied the southern tribes and was proclaimed sultan at Marrakesh. In response, Moulay Ismail launched a campaign against his nephew on 27 April 1672. Ismail was victorious as a result of his artillery. He entered the city of Marrakesh and was recognized as sultan there on 4 June 1672. Ahmed suffered a bullet wound and fled into the mountains. He then went back to Fez to collect his brother Rashid's coffin and inter it in the mausoleum of Sheikh Ali ibn Herzouhm, before returning to Meknes on 25 July 1672. Ismail turned northwest to face Khadir Ghaïlan, who had taken control of the
Habt region (the
Gharb and
Khlout plains and part of the
Jebala territory) with the help of the
Ottoman Regency of Algiers. With a force of 12,000 men, Ismail suppressed the rebellion and pacified the northern provinces, He returned again to Fez, which was still under siege by his forces. The heart of the city,
Fez Jdid, finally opened its gates on 28 October 1673, after a siege of fourteen months and eight days. Ismail granted a pardon to the inhabitants of Fez. He reorganised the city and appointed governors in charge of the suburbs of
Fez el Bali and Fez Jdid. He was disturbed once more by his nephew Ahmed ben Mehrez, who seized Marrakesh sometime after May 1673. When Ismail learned of it in 1674, he first launched a campaign against the Arab tribes of the Angad region who were engaging in banditry. He severely defeated the Sgoûna tribe and then put in place the preparations for a major campaign against his nephew. Ismail marched at the head of his army into the
Tadla region and encountered Ahmed ben Mehrez's army at Bou Agba, near
Oued El Abid. Ismail was victorious over his nephew's army and killed its commander, Hida Ettouïri. Ahmed was chased by his uncle all the way to Marrakesh, where he entrenched himself. Ismail besieged the city and took it by force in 1674, forcing Ahmed to flee to the province of Drâa. The sultan then led a number of operations against the
Chaouia tribes. The sultan's troops were repulsed by a force of 8,000 Berber infantry and 5,000 Berber cavalries. A second expedition followed, and this time the Sultan's forces inflicted a heavy defeat on the rebels, seizing substantial booty. In 1675, with the help of the inhabitants of
Taroudant, Ahmed secretly returned to Marrakesh, expelled the royal army, and reoccupied the city. Ahmed eventually had to flee the city on 26 June 1677, heading for Souss. This time, Ismail violently sacked the city as punishment for supporting Ahmed. While still at Marrakesh, Ismail learned that Ahmed ben Abdellah ad-Dila'i, grandson of
Mohammed al-Hajj ibn Abu Bakr al-Dila'i, had gathered a large army of Sanhaja tribes from the mountains, crossed the
Moulouya River and was raiding the Arab tribes of Tadla and
Saïss, forcing them to flee to the cities of Fez, Meknes, and Sale. Ahmed was attempting to revive the defunct Zawiya Dila'iya and was supported by the Ottomans in Algiers, who had previously given him refuge. Since Ismail was busy with Ahmed ben Mehrez at Souss, he sent an autonomous force of 3,000 cavalries. They were defeated by the Berber army of Ahmed ben Abdellah and the force's commander, Caid Ikhlef, was killed. Ismail then sent two further armies, numbering 4,000 men each, which were also beaten – the first near Meknes and the second at
Kasba Tadla, which was then seized and destroyed by the Sanhaja. Meanwhile, Ismail also learned that three of his brothers, Moulay Harran, Moulay Hammada, and Moulay Murad Mehrez (the father of Ahmed ben Mehrez) had revolted and attacked Tafilalt. The sultan decided to deal with the unrest at Tadla first. He personally intervened and routed the Berbers in a battle in which say 3,000 Berbers dead and several hundred soldiers of the imperial army. He retook Tadla, stabilised the Middle Atlas region with his artillery and an enveloping maneuver carried out by the guich of Oudaya. Moulay Ismail returned to Meknes at the end of 1677 and ended his brothers' rebellion. He captured Moulay Harran but chose to spare him.
Stabilisation of the empire Between 1678 and 1679, Moulay Ismail attempted an expedition over the
Amour mountain range into the region of Cherg, accompanied by a large contingent of Arab tribes, including the Beni Amer. The Turkish artillery put all the Arab tribes in the expedition to flight and the Sultan was forced to set the border between the Regency of Algiers and Morocco at
Tafna. Moulay Ismail restored and reorganised Oujda on his return. He reorganised the south of the empire following an expedition in 1678, from Souss and the oasis of
Touat to the
provinces of Chinguetti on the border of the
Sudan region in modern
Mauritania. During his journey, Ismail appointed caids and
pashas and ordered the construction of forts and
ribats to demonstrate his control to the
makhzen in these regions. During this expedition, the Sultan received embassies from all the
Banu Maqil (Maqil tribes) in the Saharan provinces of the country, which stretched all the way to the
Senegal river. Moroccan control over the
Pashalik of Timbuktu was established in 1670 and continued throughout Moulay Ismail's reign. On their return journey, a blizzard struck the force as it crossed the Atlas at Telwet or Elglâoui on the Jbel Ben Deren, destroying nearly three thousand tents, part of the army, and the booty. After he had achieved the unification of Morocco, Moulay Ismail decided to end the Christian presence in the country. He first launched a campaign to recapture the city of
Tangiers, which had been under
English control since 1471 – initially Portuguese, the city had passed into English hands after the marriage of
Catherine of Braganza to
Charles II. The city was strongly fortified and had a large garrison of 4,000 men. Moulay Ismail assigned one of his best generals, , to
besiege Tangier in 1680. At Tangiers, the English resisted, but, as a result of the high cost of maintaining the garrison, they decided to abandon the city, demolishing their fortifications and harbor over the winter of 1683. The Moroccan army entered the city on 5 February 1684. In 1681, while the siege of Tangiers was still ongoing, Moulay Ismail sent part of his army under the command of Omar ben Haddou El-Bottoui to conquer the city of
La Mamora. This city had been occupied by the Spanish in the period of chaos in Morocco after 1614. Ismail besieged the city, which had no water source, and captured it, along with all the Spaniards in the city, who numbered 309. Caid Omar had told the Spaniards that they would not be sold into slavery if they surrendered unconditionally "Although they would be captives they would spend their days without working, until the first redemption." However Moulay Ismaïl saw no reason to honor Kaid Omar's promises and had no intention of allowing the captives from al-Mamurah to be redeemed so they, including fifty "poor girls and women", were forced to walk to Meknes as booty along with their possessions, arms and artillery (88 bronze cannons, 15 iron cannons, fire-pots, muskets, and gunpowder) which Germain Mousette wrote was "more than he had in the rest of his kingdom". The city was renamed al-Mahdiya. Omar ben Haddou died of the plague on his return journey and was replaced by his brother Ahmed ben Haddou. While his generals were undertaking these operations, Moulay Ismail was focused on stabilising the country. After an expedition to the Cherg region against the Beni Amer, he learned that Ahmed ben Mehrez had made yet another agreement with the Turks in Algiers. He also learned that the Turkish army was approaching Tafna and had already reached the territory of the . Ismail immediately sent a large force to the south of the country to face Ahmed and prepared an expedition against the Ottomans, which did not end up taking place because the Turkish army withdrew. Moulay Ismail undertook two expeditions that succeeded in pacifying several Berber regions. , city which sustained the rebellion of Ahmed Ben Mehrez and Moulay Harran While Moulay Ismail was occupied with these tribes in the Atlas, Ahmed ben Mehrez forged an alliance with Moulay Harran to destabilise Ismail's empire. When Moulay Ismail learned, in 1684/5, that the two rebels had taken control of Taroudant and its hinterland, he immediately set out to besiege the city. Ahmed went out with a group of slaves to visit a sanctuary and was confronted by some members of the Zirâra tribe, who were soldiers of Ismail. Although they did not recognise him, the Zirâra attacked him, sparking a short battle, which ended with the death of Ahmed. The sultan's soldiers only realised who he was after his death around the middle of October 1685. Ismail ordered that he be given a funeral and buried. Many of Ismail's military commanders had lost their lives in this war, under the command of Ali ben Abdallah Er-Riffi and Ahmed ben Haddou El-Bottoui, to seize the city of
Larache, which had been under Spanish control since 1610. The Sultan, who announced his plan in 1688, forced the Spaniards to fortify the city heavily, with 200 cannons and 1500–2000 men. A prisoner exchange was arranged at a rate of one officer for ten Moroccans, one hundred officers were exchanged for a thousand Moroccan prisoners. The rest of the Spanish garrison remained in captivity, as slaves in Meknes, except for those who converted to
Islam. To celebrate the triumph Moulay Ismaïl issued an
edict banning the wearing of black shoes because the Spanish were said to have introduced the custom into Morocco when they first acquired Larache in 1610. The
mufti of Fez was so elated by the victory he wrote, Shortly after Larache was conquered, Ismail sent Ahmed ben Haddou to besiege Assilah. Exhausted, the Spanish garrison evacuated the city by the sea and the Moroccan army occupied the town in 1691. The unconquered tribes comprised the Aït Oumalou, the
Ait Yafelman and the Aït Isri. They were surrounded by Mulay Ismail who used all his artillery to break up the Berber rebels. A terrible battle followed, the Berbers were dispersed and fled into the ravines and valleys. After pursuing them for three days, 12,000 Berbers had been captured by the Sultan, and 10,000 horses and 30,000 guns as booty. Moulay Ismail had now conquered the whole of Morocco and forced all the tribes of the country to recognise his authority. He was the first 'Alawi sultan to achieve this. He quickly organised the defense of the captured regions through the construction of several dozen fortresses throughout the country, which helped the central power to reach distant regions like Fêzzâz. With this victory, the conquest of Morocco was over. In 1693, according to
Ahmad ibn Khalid al-Nasiri: The
Guerouans learned this the hard way. Some men of this tribe who carried out raids in the upper course of the
Ziz River, on the road to Sijilmassa, drew the attention of Moulay Ismail. He ordered the caid Idrassen Ali ben Ichchou El-Qebli to massacre them. In Ahmad ibn Khalid al-Nasiri's
Al-Istiqsa, it is reported that Moulay Ismail provided 10,000 horsemen to Ali ben Ichchou, the caid of the Zemmour and Bni Hakem tribes and told him "I do not want you to return until you have fallen upon the Gerrouans and unless you bring back to me a heads for each man here." So they left to kill as many of the Guerouans as possible and to pillage their encampments. He offered 10
mithqals to anyone who brought back an additional head. In the end, they collected 12,000. The Sultan was very happy with this and extended Ali ben Ichchou's command to include the Aït Oumalou and Aït Yafelmâl territories, which had just been conquered.
Jean-Baptiste Estelle, the French consul in Salé wrote to his minister, the
Marquis de Torcy in 1698: to 150,000 black soldiers in the Black Guard, as well as thousands more in the Guich of the Udaya, Ismail offered his submission to the dey of Algiers and had to send an embassy to Algiers to make peace. He thus fixed his borders with the Beylik of Algiers at the
Moulouya River. In 1693, Moulay Ismail raided the
Oran region and attempted to pillage the Beni Amer which was successful. The city of Oran resisted two attacks, leading to the sultan's retreat. This time, it was the Turks who sent envoys to make peace, at the initiative of the Ottoman Sultan,
Ahmed II. as far as the
Chelif River but his army was routed by the Algerians at the
Battle of Chelif in 1701. Ismail, wounded in the fighting, had to escape on horseback and narrowly escaped capture. Moulay Ismail fought other minor conflicts with the Ottoman Algeria such as
Laghouat in 1708 which turned out successful. Ismail attempted to besiege the city of Ceuta with an army of 40,000 soldiers, but the strength of Spanish resistance meant that the siege dragged on. Part of Ismail's army also besieged
Melilla from 1694 to 1696, but the city's fortifications were too much for them. In 1702, Moulay Ismail gave his son Moulay Zeydan an army of 12,000 men and instructed him to capture the
Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera. The Moroccans razed the Spanish fortress, but failed to retain la Isleta. Meanwhile, the English admiral,
George Rooke joined in the siege of Ceuta, blockading the port in 1704. He was then replaced by Moulay Hafid. This division of the realm provoked jealousy and rivalry between Ismail's sons, which sometimes degenerated into open clashes. In one of these, Moulay Abdelmalek was defeated by his brother, Moulay Nasser, who took control of the whole of Draâ. Moulay Sharif was appointed governor of Draâ by his father in place of Abdelmalek and succeeded in retaking the region from Nasser. In response to the intrigues, slanders, and opposition of
Lalla Aisha Mubarka, who wanted her son Moulay Mohammed Zeydan to succeed his father as Sultan, Ismail's eldest son Moulay Mohammed al-Alim revolted in Souss and took control of Marrakesh on 9 March 1703. When Moulay Zeydan arrived with an army, Mohammed al-Alim fled to Taroudant. His brother besieged the place and captured it on 25 June 1704, and took him to Oued Beht on 7 July. He subsequently eliminated a caid of Marrakesh who had been responsible for Moulay Mohammed al-Alim's acquisition of the city, with exceptional violence. Moulay al-Alim committed suicide at Meknes on 18 July, despite precautions that his father had put in place to prevent this. On learning of the atrocities which Moulay Zeydan had committed at Taroudant, especially the massacre of the city's inhabitants, in
Meknès, MoroccoTo prevent further trouble, Moulay Ismail rescinded the governorships that he had conferred on his sons, except for Moulay Ahmed, who retained his post as governor of Tadla and Moulay Abdelmalek who became governor of Souss. Since Abdelmalek behaved like an independent and absolute monarch and refused to pay tribute, Ismail decided to change the order of succession – this was aided by the fact that Abdelmalek's mother was no longer close to him. Abdelmalek belatedly apologized, but Ismail remained hostile to his son. As a result, Moulay Ismail chose Moulay Ahmed as his successor. In 1720,
Philip V of Spain, who wanted to get revenge on Morocco for having aided the Grand Alliance in the
War of the Spanish Succession, sent a fleet commanded by the
Marquess of Lede to raise the siege of Ceuta which had been ongoing since 1694 and to force the Moroccans to give up on retaking the city. The Spanish fleet managed to raise the siege, but Moulay Ismail resumed it in 1721, after the Marquess of Lede had returned to Spain. The Sultan further planned a large armada for an invasion of Spain, but it was destroyed by a storm in 1722. The siege of Ceuta continued until Ismail's death in 1727. He was succeeded by Moulay Ahmed. The empire immediately fell into civil war, as a result of a rebellion of the Black Guards. More than seven claimants to the throne succeeded to power between 1727 and 1757, some of them repeatedly, like
Moulay Abdallah who was Sultan six times. ==Character and policies==