Moulay Ismaël The warrior king
Le 14/04/2024 a Rabat
Moulay Ismail Ibn Sharif: The warrior king
🔴 Reign
He reigned from 1672 to 1727, succeeding his half-brother Moulay Al-Rashid who died after falling from his horse. At the age of twenty-six, Moulay Ismaïl inherited a country weakened by internal tribal wars and royal successions. After al-Rashid's death on April 9, 1672, the city of Marrakech refused to swear allegiance to Ismail, then viceroy of Meknes. Instead, the people of Marrakech opted for their nephew Ahmad ibn Muhriz. This led Ismail to march south where he defeated Ahmad and entered Marrakech in June 1672. But Ibn Muhriz fled to the Sous region in southern Morocco, from where he would return in 1674 and retake Marrakech. Once in control, he set about fortifying the city.
Moulay Ismail was forced to return and place a two-year siege on the city. Marrakech finally fell to assault in June 1677, and this time Moulay Ismail sacked the city. Ibn Muhriz, however, escaped to Sous again. In the following years, he made several attempts to retake Marrakech, before finally being found and killed in 1687.
🔴 Military campaigns
Moulay Ismaïl is considered one of the greatest figures in Moroccan history. He fought against the Ottoman Turks in 1679, 1682 and 1695/96. After these battles, Moroccan independence was recognized. Another problem was the European occupation of several seaports where, in 1681, he took over al-Mamurah (La Mamora) from the Spanish, which he renamed the city al-Mahdiya. Its representative, Kaid Omar, had told the Spaniards that they would not be sold into slavery if they surrendered unconditionally. Although they would be captive, 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 2,000 Spanish captives at al-Mamurah to be ransomed, and they were forced to march to Meknes as loot. their possessions, weapons and artillery (88 bronze cannons, 15 iron cannons, fire pots, muskets and gunpowder) which was written by Germain Mousette "more than what he had in the rest of his kingdom".
Later in 1684 he also conquered Tangier from the English (after they demolished their fortifications and port in the winter of 1683 and then abandoned the former Portuguese colony in February 1684 because of his assaults) and in 1689 captured Larache the Spanish. To celebrate the triumph, Moulay Ismaïl issued an edict prohibiting the wearing of black shoes because the Spanish were said to have introduced the custom to Morocco when they first acquired Larache in 1610. The mufti of Fez was so happy with the victory that he wrote:
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