Mawlay Isma’il (1672-1727) was the second sultan of the ‘Alawi dynasty of shurafa’ (descendants of the Prophet) from southeastern Morocco. The dynasty fought its way to power in the vacuum created by the collapse of the previous Sa’di dynasty early in the seventeenth century. When Mawlay Isma’il succeeded his brother, Mawlay al-Rashid, in 1672, ‘Alawi control over Morocco was still tenuous, challenged by both domestic rivals and the existence of Spanish, Portuguese, and British enclaves on the coast. It was therefore Mawlay Isma’il’s task to consolidate ‘Alawi power. To achieve this end he adapted and synthesized elements from Morocco, the Ottoman Empire, and Sub-Saharan Africa with which he had a strong affinity as the son of Mawlay ‘Ali al-Sharif and a black concubine. During his long reign Mawlay Isma’il constructed a tributary state, supported by a slave army and legitimized by reference to Islam, which achieved greater control over Morocco’s towns and tribes than most regimes. He also recaptured several European enclaves and constructed a corsair fleet to assert Moroccan power in Atlantic and Mediterranean waters.
On becoming sultan, Mawlay Isma’il’s had to defeat his domestic rivals for power, the most important of whom were al-Khidr Ghaylan, a northern warlord who had distinguished himself in action against the European coastal enclaves, and his cousin, Ahmad B. al-Mahriz, the governor of Marrakech, who set himself up as counter-sultan on his uncle’s accession. Mawlay Isma’ il defeated Ghaylan in battle, thereby securing the north, but Ahmad b. Mahriz remained a problem for fourteen years, during which he provided a figurehead for regular revolts in the south and east of the sultanate. He could not, however, challenge Mawlay Isma’il’s control over the heartlands of Morocco. The second challenge faced by the new sultan was the construction of a viable system of government.
First he needed a reliable armed force to gather taxes and combat the centrifugal inclinations of the Moroccan tribes. He therefore founded a black slave army, the ‘Abid al-Bukhari, modeled in part on the Ottoman Janissary corps and in part on the tribal forces of earlier Moroccan dynasties. Like the Janissaries, the ‘Abid were a geographically marginal group transformed into a loyal military elite by palace training. Unlike the Janissaries, however, the ‘Abid became a self-perpetuating servile kin-group, described as a “tribe” (qabila) of the army. The tribal aspect was heightened by the corps’ blood relations with the dynasty which resulted from sultanic use of ‘Abid concubines. This gave it the character of a black sharifian super-tribe, a character shared by Mawlay Isma’il’s other main corps, the Udaya, a cavalry corps recruited from southern Arab tribes and the central Saharan oasis of Tuat.
Mawlay Isma’ il selected the small market town of Meknes as his capital and there constructed an enormous royal city, with architecture inspired by the Roman ruins at nearby Volubilis, the mud-brick complexes of Southern Morocco and West Africa, and the decorative styles of al-Andalus. This vast royal city functioned as the sultan’s residence, the ‘Abid training school and barracks, and a stage for ‘Alawi court ceremonial. It was also the place where Mawlay Isma’ il put the Europeans captured by his corsairs to work and received foreign delegations. From this imperial hub, he went on regular military progresses through his domains to extract taxes. During his constant peregrinations he employed the ‘Abid to build and then occupy forts from the Rif mountains in the north to Tafilalt in the pre-Sahara. His fortifications gave provincial Morocco a more comprehensive governmental presence than ever before, and fortified its sensitive eastern frontier with Ottoman Algiers. Although the sultanate was a tributary state levying what it could from the country by deployment of its coercive powers, Mawlay Isma’il incorporated tribal notables into the governmental structure by appointing them governors (qd’id, quwwad), who enjoyed the prestige of their position in return for assisting the state in gathering taxes and maintaining law and order.
Formation of the ‘Abid al-Bukhari and construction of a rural governmental network consolidated ‘Alawi power but did not legitimize it. Many viewed the dynasty as alien and the elite of Fes deeply resented Mawlay Isma’il’s raising of his servile black ‘Abid above free Muslims. To legitimize the institutions he had created, he looked to Islam. In a society where many believed that the descendants of the Prophet held a special right to rule, he used his sharifian ancestry as a platform to transform himself from warlord to commander of the faithful (amir al-mu’minin), the religious and political head of the community of believers, the umma. He signaled his new position by leading the communal Friday prayer in Meknes, patronizing the religious establishment and dedicating the ‘Abid al-Bukhari to the Islamic aim of expelling the ‘infidel’ Europeans from their coastal enclaves. During the 1680s, ‘Abid forces secured the British evacuation from Tanger (1684), and expelled the Spanish from Laraish (1689) and Asila (1691), successes hailed as jihad victories which proved the legitimate right of the ‘Alawi shurafd’ to rule. Devotion of state resources to the jihad also possessed the advantage of legitimizing tax collection as vital for the maintenance of Muslim unity and the financing of Islamic aims. Corsairing confirmed Mawlay Isma’il’s reputation as a holy warrior and brought him considerable revenue which he supplemented by the high duties he levied on foreign trade.
In the 1680s and 1690s, Mawlay Isma’il began to expand southwards into the Sahara to revive the western trans-Saharan trade routes which had faltered due to political insecurity, and eastwards into the province of Algiers to consolidate his control over the eastern marches and capture the city of Tlemsen on the trade route east from Fes to Egypt. Although logical in terms of the close cultural and commercial relations between Fes and Tlemsen, Mawlay Isma’il’s campaigns provoked an Ottoman counter-offensive from Algiers. The Ottoman forces easily defeated the ‘Abid and the sultan was forced to terms in 1701. After this defeat, domestic politics became increasingly unstable as several of Mawlay Isma’il’s sons challenged his rule. When he finally died in 1727, tensions between his many sons, between north and south, between town and tribe, quickly escalated into a civil war which lasted on and off for thirty years. During that time, however, the right to rule of the ‘Alawi shurafd’ was not seriously questioned, suggesting the fundamental genius of Mawlay Isma’ il. During his long reign he had created a durable framework for government, transformed the dynasty from warlords into sharifian commanders of the faithful, and secured the grudging recognition of the Ottoman Empire and several European states.
Amira K. Bennison
See also: Religion, History of; Sahara: TransSaharan Trade.
Further Reading
Abun-Nasr, J. A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Blunt, W. Black Sunrise: The Life and Times of Mula'i Ismail, Emperor of Morocco. London: Methuen, 1951. de Chenier, L. The Present State of the Empire of Morocco.
London: G. and J. Robinson, 1788.
Mercer, P. “Palace and Jihad: The Early ‘Alawi State in Morocco.” Journal of African History. 18, no. 4 (1977): 531-553. Nekrouf, Y. Une Amitie Orageuse: Moulay Ismail et Louis XIV [A Stormy Friendship: Mawlay Isma’il and Louis XIV]. Paris: Editions Michel Albin, 1987.
Pellow, T. The History of the Long Captivity and Adventures of Thomas Pellow. London, 1738.
World History
