The Spread of Islam

The death of Prophet Muhammad, the founder of modern Islam, in Medina on June 8, 632 shook his followers to the core. His disciples, dispersed across southern Arabia, Persia, Ethiopia, and parts of the Byzantine Empire, collectively mourned the loss of their guiding star, and like many other religions, cracks immediately emerged in the bedrock of the Islamic faith following his death. Shortly thereafter, the religion suffered its first great schism, otherwise known as the “Sunni-Shia Divide.”

The rival denominations concurred on a few principles. They agreed that Allah sent Muhammad, his final messenger, to the mortal realm to reinvigorate and further propagate the age-old, yet neglected theology which they believed was the true, prototypical religion practiced by Adam, Ibrahim (Abraham), Musa (Moses), and other early prophets. Both the Shiites and Sunnis partook in prayer five times a day, fasted during Ramadan, performed charitable acts, and dutifully embarked on pilgrimages to Mecca, as dictated by the Five Pillars of Islam. Only by dedicating their lives to praising Allah and adhering to His word would they be granted entry through the gates of Paradise.

After that, however, the two branches failed to agree on much of anything else, and given the absence of a supreme authority to clarify canonical laws and settle disputes, the prophet's followers developed and pursued their own interpretations of the Quran. Initially, the torch was passed on to Abu Bakr As-Siddiq, an intimate companion and the father-in-law of Muhammad through the prophet's third wife, Aisha. But many of the subjects inherited by Abu Bakr, the first Rashidun caliph, vehemently protested against the coronation, and the candidate of their choice was 32-year-old Ali ibn Abu Talib, who was Muhammad's blood cousin (the son of his paternal uncle) and the husband of the prophet's daughter, Fatimah. Those in Abu's camp became the Sunnis, who now comprise 85-90% of the 1.6 billion Muslims across the world today, predominantly located in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and Indonesia. The Shiites, whose loyalties lay with Ali, make up the remaining 10-15%, around 154-200 million, and are mostly based in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Yemen, Palestine, and Lebanon.

The word “Shiite” was a derivative of the aptly-named “shia,” or “The Party of Ali.” Ali's adherents argued that the right to reign over the whole Muslim community solely belonged to the direct descendants of Muhammad, and Ali was the prophet’s closest male relative and thus the true Imam. They believed they were the ones who were qualified to decipher, defend, and uphold Islamic law and Muhammad's hadiths. The term “Sunni,” on the other hand, stemmed from the phrase “Ahl ah-Sunnah,” meaning “People of the Tradition.” Sunnis favored a more democratic approach; occupants of the caliphate's throne were to be determined by vote, cast by an electoral council (Shura) consisting of top-ranking religious officials across the Islamic Empire. Ancestry alone, they contended, should not determine who was caliph; instead, experience, profound piety, mastery of the Quran, and robust leadership skills were the necessary merits.

From Abu Bakr, the Rashidun Caliphate was turned over to Omar I, Muhammad's father-in-law via his fourth wife Hafsah, whose reign was abruptly cut short in 644 when he was slain by a Persian slave. The prophet's son-in-law Uthman ibn Affan, husband of his daughters Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum, served as the third caliph until his untimely death in 656, this time prompted by Egyptian rebels. Ali's time came at last, much to the delight of the Shiites, but alas, he, too, would suffer the same fate.

It was the insurgents who unceremoniously handed Ali the caliphate on a platter, and needless to say, his detractors took issue with this transition, with some audibly accusing him of orchestrating Uthman's murder due to the lack of action taken to punish the fallen caliph's killers. Ali's short-lived reign was punctuated by civil wars, most of them waged by Uthman's cousin Muawiya, then the governor of Syria. To break the stalemate at the Battle of Siffin the following year, a panel of judges was jointly selected to determine the victor. The judges ruled in favor of Muawiya, who then pronounced himself the true caliph.

Ali cried foul, resolutely rejected the verdict, and resumed his rule from his new capital in Kufa, Iraq. In late January 661, three Egyptian Kharajites (a new, separate sect composed of those who detached themselves from Ali when he consented to the tie-breaking arbitration at Siffin, as “judgment [belonged] to God alone”), led by Abd-al-Rahman ibn Muljam, snuck into the Great Mosque of Kufa. The intruders crept up behind Ali, who was halfway through his Fajr prayer, unsheathed their poison-glazed swords, and swung at the oblivious caliph. Ibn Muljam's accomplices missed, but his blow nicked Ali on the crown of his head, and within 48 hours, Ali was dead.

Muhammad's grandson Hasan, the oldest male among Ali and Fatimah's children, was chosen to fill his father's shoes, taking his place as the fifth Rashidun caliph. As expected, Muawiya balked at the council's decision and challenged Hasan. Six months of heated correspondence, internal turbulence within the Rashidun camp, and grueling negotiations later, Hasan agreed to step down on the condition that Muawiya pledged to leave the appointment of the next caliph to the Shura.

Muawiya established a new dynasty, the Umayyad Caliphate, and reneged on their pact, declaring his son Yazid the heir to his throne. This did not sit well with Hasan and his brother Husayn, who would have been the most promising contenders, and their sentiments were echoed by the Shiites. They had refused to bow before the three Rashidun caliphs and would do the same with the Umayyad kings in Damascus and later the Abbasids in Baghdad, pledging their allegiance to Ali, Hasan, and Husayn – the first, second, and third Shia imams – instead.

Fully aware of the Shiites' insubordination, Muawiya sought to stamp out the growing threat as soon as possible. Hasan was poisoned to death by one of his wives, Ja'da bint al-Ash'at, at Muawiya's behest in 670. Husayn was killed by Yazid himself, who was crowned the second Umayyad caliph 10 years later, at the Battle of Karbala (Iraq) in 681. The deaths of the three Imams gave rise to the concepts of martyrdom and Shia-style grieving. Shia Muslims continue to honor Husayn on the anniversary of his death in a yearly ritual known as the “Ashura,” which sometimes features self-mutilation, self-flagellation, and other modes of religious self-harm.

The massacre of the Talib tribe at Karbala left the Shiites prostrate with grief. Of the 72 people who perished from Husayn's party, 20 of them were Talibs, among them Husayn's brothers and his six-month old infant, and all of whom were decapitated. Unsurprisingly, the Shiites' animosity towards the Sunni caliphs and officials, along with those of other Islamic persuasions, became further inflamed, and as evidenced by the Day of Ashura, was a traumatic watershed moment for the medieval Shia Muslims.

The consequences of the Karbala incident were not lost on Yazid. Sensing retribution on the horizon, the oppression and abuses suffered by the Shiites grew exponentially. Like Muawiya, who singled out and slaughtered thousands of Talib sympathizers and their families and seized land, jewels, and other valuable property from dissidents on a regular basis, Yazid finished off several of Husayn's surviving ambassadors, relatives, and companions. The Umayyad army also defiled the mosques in the hallowed cities of Medina and Mecca, butchered hundreds of thousands of Muslims, and raped countless women in these holy metropolises.

Inevitably, the steady proliferation of Shia Islam in the following centuries generated more rounds of hostile infighting on a larger scale within the community. This, in turn, spawned a number of radical factions, including Ismailism, the precursor to the Order of Assassins' Nizari Ismaili faith.

Orthodox Shiites paid tribute to 12 Imams. The last Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, more famously known as the “Hidden Imam,” mysteriously vanished in 940. According to the so-called “Twelvers,” al-Mahdi never died but was instead instructed by Allah to stash himself away in a cave under a mosque in Samarra, an event referred to as “The Occultation.” The “Messianic Deliverer” was prophesied to reemerge at the end of time, whereupon he would reclaim control of the Islamic world and restore justice and peace on Earth.

The Ismailis, or “Seveners,” disaffiliated themselves from the Shiites after the death of the sixth Imam, Jafar al-Sadiq in 765. Jafar's third son, Musa al-Kadhim was appointed as the seventh Imam. Not all were content with the council's choice; some Shiites, who would become the Ismailis, had been banking on al-Sadiq's eldest son, Ismail (hence their name), and adamantly repudiated al-Kadhim's authority. Since the Ismailis' worldview was centered on hard-line egalitarianism, they were strongly opposed to the heathen lifestyles, shaped by excessive extravagance and debauchery, of the Abbasid caliphs. To garner recruits for the grassroots cult and raise awareness for the new movement, obviously outlawed, the Seveners dispatched da'is, who were essentially secret missionaries, to various cities and villages near and far.

The Ismailis' political pull reached its peak in 909 when Ubaydulla, a Sevener scion of the Muhammad-Talib family founded the Fatimid Dynasty, the first Ismaili caliphate. The Fatimid Empire was headquartered in Al-Kahira (now Cairo), which translates to “The Victorious,” and in its prime, consisted of territories in Persia, Syria, Sicily, other parts of Western Arabia, and Central Asia.

While the Muslims across the Arabian Peninsula engaged in internecine warfare, Islam struck at the Middle East and Africa like a thunderbolt over the coming centuries, and unlike Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism, the other monotheistic religions of the region, it was spread by force of arms as a matter of course. Islam does not accept forced conversion any more than Christianity does, but the concept of jihad, a sacred war for the defense of Islam, became the doctrine even during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad. The concept of defense was interpreted in a broad, pre-emptive sense to allow Muhammad’s followers to conquer the Arabian Peninsula and to invade the lands of the Persian and Byzantine Empires. Religion was probably not the primary motivation, however. Arabia possessed limited arable land, water and resources, while the fertile plains of Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia lay temptingly to the north. The peoples they conquered were generally permitted to keep their religion and laws so long as they paid the dhimmi, the tax imposed on non-Muslims which was considerably higher than that paid by Muslims. That was the prescription of Koranic Law. In practice most adopted the religion of the conqueror to avoid paying the tax and for the social and commercial advantages adoption of the state religion conferred.

Jihad figures strongly in the history of Islam and indeed is a continual feature of the struggles of the great Moorish empires that spread across the world. There is a tendency in modern scholarship to emphasize jihad as a spiritual and internal struggle toward perfection, but as the historian David Cook noted, “In reading Muslim literature—both contemporary and classical—one can see that the evidence for the primacy of spiritual jihad is negligible. Today it is certain that no Muslim, writing in a non-Western language (such as Arabic, Persian, Urdu), would ever make claims that jihad is primarily nonviolent or has been superseded by the spiritual jihad. Such claims are made solely by Western scholars, primarily those who study Sufism and/or work in interfaith dialogue, and by Muslim apologists who are trying to present Islam in the most innocuous manner possible.”[1]

As with so many other civilizations, warfare brought material advantages. Islam did not allow the enslavement of Muslims, but it did permit non-Muslims to be enslaved as prizes of war, so the use of slavery, already endemic to pre-Islamic Arabia, became entrenched in Islamic society. Islam also retained polygamy and concubinage from polytheistic Arabic societies, and sexual slavery was common. Slaves were expected to convert to Islam, though strictly speaking they were not supposed to be compelled. Life as a slave for an Arab master was not always oppressive - talented men might become trusted stewards of their lords’ estates or even government officials. The lot of women was more onerous, as Islamic jurists allowed masters to use their female slaves as they wished. A select few women might become legal wives and enjoy considerable status and privilege.

Despite the burdens and indignities imposed on conquered peoples, Islam also brought certain advantages, at least to the Arabs and Muslim converts. All members of the Islamic faith community, the Ummah, were equal before Allah, and all, whether prince or pauper, were bound to observe Allah’s law. The highest lord who acted unjustly might be condemned publicly and even deposed, and the meanest of subjects could not be forbidden from appealing to the law of Allah against his sovereign. Islam taught compassion toward the poor and disadvantaged, the essential dignity of every human before Allah, and religious toleration. The Islamic government was based on the concept of al–Shura (“consultation”), and rulers were counselled by jurists to govern with deference and respect to the needs, advice, and opinions of their subjects. Of course, these lofty principles were not always observed, and their dereliction played a significant role in the history of the Moors.

Muhammad was considered the earthly head of the Ummah, and when he died, his father-in-law Abu Bakr was elected Khalifah (“Caliph, Successor”). The caliph was not a kind of pope or emperor - he had no power to interpret the law of Allah, only to enforce and protect it. The task of interpreting the law in particular circumstances belonged to the Ulema, a kind of college of Islamic jurists who published their judgements as fatwas. A fatwa superseded the decree of the caliph and could even depose a ruler perceived to be defying the Ulema.

Although the caliphate was initially led by Arabs, the force that bound their empire was not ethnicity but religion. As Edward Gibbon put it in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, “Under the last of the Umayyads, the Arabian empire extended two hundred days journey from east to west, from the confines of Tartary and India to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean ... We should vainly seek the indissoluble union and easy obedience that pervaded the government of Augustus and the Antonines; but the progress of Islam diffused over this ample space a general resemblance of manners and opinions. The language and laws of the Quran were studied with equal devotion at Samarcand and Seville: the Moor and the Indian embraced as countrymen and brothers in the pilgrimage of Mecca; and the Arabian language was adopted as the popular idiom in all the provinces to the westward of the Tigris.”

The caliphate first invaded Africa in 639. Egypt was rich, fertile, and the breadbasket of the Byzantine Empire, and after the fall of Alexandria, the Arabs proceeded in 642 to conquer Cyrenaica and Tripolitania (Libya). It was there that the army stopped, despite an eagerness to proceed, for fear of losing control of Egypt, so it was not until 647 that a fresh army attacked the Roman Exarchate of Africa Byzacena (modern Tunisia) and parts of Mauretania and Numidia. The Byzantine Empire was divided in a religious conflict, and Exarch Gregory had declared independence, not only in support of Christian orthodoxy but also in light of the emperor’s inability to defend North Africa. Gregory died at the Battle of Sufetula and the Byzantines withdrew to their fortresses before 20,000 Arabs. The invaders were unable to overcome the defenders’ strongholds and withdrew from the exarchate in return for hefty amounts of gold.

In 661, Mu’awiyah of the Umayyad dynasty seized the caliphate from Hasan, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. The new caliph was more interested in extending the rule of Islam into Anatolia and Asia, and it was not until 670 that an Arab army renewed the invasion of Africa. By this time, the Byzantines, severely mauled by the invasion of 647, were incapable of extending their authority beyond the coastal cities such as Hippo Regius (modern Annaba) and Carthage. The vacuum was filled by a number of autonomous Christian Romano-Berber states. The greater part of Mauretania (Algeria and Morocco) was already ruled by Berber kingdoms (Altava and Quarsenis) which gained independence after the Vandal invasion of the 6th century. Queen Dihya of Jerawa Zenata Berbers ruled a kingdom in the Aures Mountains and resisted the Arab invasion for five years. Though it is known that Dihya existed, most other details are the stuff of legends. The Muslims, no doubt surprised by her strength and ability to defeat the armies of Allah, believed her to be a sorceress, but her eventual defeat at the Battle of Tabarka around 702 ended Berber military power. By this time the Arabs had taken the Byzantine strongholds, including Carthage, which the Arab general Hassan razed to the ground. Icosium (Algiers) fell in 700, and nine years later the invaders reached the Atlantic coast.

The Arab conquerors called their new dominion al-Maghreb, “The West” and they established their base at Tikirwan in what is now Tunisia (called Kairouan by the Arabs). Recognizing the tenacity of the Berber tribes based in the Numidian Highlands, they formed alliances with them, dangling the prospect of Byzantine booty before them. These Berbers, consisting of Christians, pagans, and Jews, mostly accepted Islam, and thus was born the Arab-Berber union that established the people known to Europe as the Moors.

The Moors of the Caliphate

The Muslim leaders of Arabia believed the caliphate should be an Arab empire. The teachings of the Prophet proclaimed the equality of all believers, but they did not know how to translate that into reality and non-Arab converts were treated as second-class Muslims little better than unbelievers. Indeed, the Umayyad caliphs treated the Berbers as if they were infidels, imposing on them the dhimmi tax and exacting tributes of slaves. This was not simply ineptitude - it was a direct contradiction of Islamic law and the cause of much unrest throughout the caliphate.

This policy was a result of attempting to maintain the Arabs as the ruling class. The burden of taxation fell upon the non-Muslim subjects, but as these converted, the pool of revenue rapidly diminished and the Arabs therefore saw that they had no choice but to impose the dhimmi even on converts. The proud Berbers took the imposition especially badly, particularly as they had been promised a share in the caliphate’s wealth in return for converting and swelling the ranks of its armies. In the invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Chapter 4) the Arab governors of the Maghreb gave the Berbers the most onerous tasks but a lesser share in the spoils than their Arab masters. In 718 Caliph Umar II recognized the threat posed by hostile Berbers and other non-Arabs and forbade the levying of dhimmi on them, but his successor Hisham, faced with military reversals, reimposed it in 724 by duplicitously claiming that it applied not to persons but to their lands.

The policies of the Umayyads were met with resistance, and religious movements began to emerge advocating their overthrow and the reform of the caliphate on the basis of the equality of all peoples and fidelity to the law of Allah. Local revolts broke out, especially in Andalusia (Muslim Spain) and in 721, Yazid, the Arab governor in Kairouan, was assassinated after reimposing the hated tax even before Caliph Hisham had done so himself.

The last straw came in 740 when Omar, the deputy governor of Tangiers, decreed that the Berbers in his district were to be considered conquered people and thus subject to confiscation of property and enslavement. The tribes of western Mauretania rose under their leader Maysara al-Matghari. At the time, the bulk of the Arabic-led army was engaged in Sicily and Tangiers was conquered and the hated Omar killed. Maysara proclaimed himself caliph and unleashed a series of campaigns down the length and breadth of the land now called Morocco, killing the Umayyad governors as he went.

The Arab Governor of Maghreb in Kairouan, Ubayd Allah, immediately recalled his forces from Sicily. Dissensions within the Berber camp led to the overthrow of Maysara, and his replacement Khalid annihilated a force of cavalry sent to contain the Berbers at Tangiers until the Sicilian force returned. The encounter became known as the Battle of the Nobles, for it effectively destroyed the Arab aristocracy.

Habib, commander of the force that was to invade Sicily, returned to Africa to find it in a state of panic. He could do nothing but entrench himself at Tlemcen (western Algeria) and send to the caliph at Damascus for reinforcements. In February 741, Caliph Hisham dispatched some 30,000 men under the command of a new governor of Africa, Kulthum ibn Iyad al-Qasi. The bulk of this army was made up not of Arabs but Syrians who maintained an ancestral disdain for the ruling Arab class, and their presence was considered almost as unwelcome as that of the Berbers. The Syrian commanders treated Arab and Berber alike with contempt, and it took all of Kulthum’s diplomatic skills to prevent an uprising against them.

The Syrians were confident that they would smash the Berber rebels, whose army probably numbered 200,000. The Syrians and Arabs combined only numbered 70,000, but many of the Berbers had no armor and were only armed with knives. They shaved their heads in the manner of religious fanatics and appeared to Kulthum to be disorganized and undisciplined. But Habib and the few remaining African commanders urged against engaging the Berbers in open battle and counseled defensive tactics instead. But the governor would not hear of it, and urged by his Syrian underlings set out to engage the rebel army. The two armies met at Bagdoura, near modern Fez, in October 741.

From the very beginning of the fighting, it was evident that Kulthum and the Syrians had seriously underestimated the Berbers. Skirmishers armed with slings and bags of pebbles succeeded in unhorsing the elite Syrian cavalry, and those who came to the aid of the unhorsed warriors were likewise ambushed. The Berbers drove horses maddened by water bags and leather straps tied to their tails into the Syrian cavalry, creating confusion. What remained of the cavalry array rallied and furiously charged the Berbers on foot, only to discover that the infantry parted to allow them to pass through their lines. They then closed, separating the horsemen from the infantry. The bulk of the Berbers then fell upon the infantry while a rearguard fended off the separated cavalry. The Arab and Syrian commanders were specifically targeted, and after the bulk of them were slain, the lines collapsed. The Syrian cavalry too succumbed and a general rout ensued. Almost 40,000 perished, including Governor Kulthum and Habib, the general who had counseled against the battle.

The Umayyads did not long survive the Battle of Bagdoura and in 747 a Persian general, Abu Muslim, led a revolt against the dynasty. It was widely supported by both Arabs weary of mismanagement, corruption and military reversals, and by non-Muslims promised equality. At the Battle of Zab (January 25, 750) in Mesopotamia, Abu Muslim defeated Caliph Murawan II and was proclaimed caliph himself. Thus began the reign of the Abbasids, so-named after Mohammad’s uncle Al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, from whom Abu Muslim claimed descent. Establishing his court at Baghdad rather than Damascus, the new caliph proclaimed the end of the Arabs’ privileged status, de-centralized the caliphate, and brought non-Arab Muslims into government.

The re-energized Caliphate regained a measure of control over the province of Africa (Tunisia and eastern Algeria) but in Mauretania the Berbers remained independent. Several states emerged in the lands now called Morocco. The largest and most powerful of these was established by Idris, a survivor of the Battle of Fakhkh (near Mecca, June 11, 786), whereby the Abbasids suppressed an attempt to install Al-Husayn ibn Ali, another descendant of the Prophet Mohammad, as caliph. Idris was himself a descendant of the Prophet, and he built the city of Fez and established himself there as emir. He is commonly regarded as the founder of the Moroccan state, though the name itself would not be used until much later. The Idrisids coaxed Arab settlers back to the region and used Arabs as viziers (ministers), thus renewing the union of Arab and Berber but on more equitable terms. Under the Idrisid emirs, the progenitor of the Moroccan state dominated the region until 927.

The Fatimids, Almoravids, and Their Successors

Africa, which encompassed modern Tunisia, eastern Algeria and Tripolitania (western Libya), was nominally under Abbasid control but in practice was ruled as an independent state by an Arab dynasty known as the Aghlabids. However, in 902, the Arab nobleman Abu Abdullah, claiming descent from Mohammed’s granddaughter Fatima and her husband Ali, overthrew the Aghlabids and proclaimed a new caliphate at Raqqada, 10 kilometers south of Kairouan. He established the first Shia regime, representing those Muslims who believed that Ali had been appointed Caliph to succeed Mohammad.

According to the Fatimids, both the Umayyads and Abbasids had usurped the caliphate against God’s will. The new regime injected new religious fervor into the Maghreb but it was not generally intolerant. All Muslims were incorporated into government and tolerance was extended to Christians and Jews, though there were notable persecutions.

The Berbers were pivotal to the success of the Fatimids. They flocked to the banner of the new caliph, especially the Kutamas who occupied the coastal lands of what is now eastern Algeria north of the Aures Mountains. As soon as they established themselves in Africa, they moved against the Idrisid state in Mauretania. The Moroccan armies collapsed, but the Fatimids struggled to maintain control of the region, hotly contested by Idrisid claimants and Umayyads from Andalusia while the Kutama armies conquered Egypt. They then returned and in 965 the Fatimid Caliph Muizz conquered Mauretania once and for all, placing the chieftains of the Berber Zenaga tribe as governors.

After the conquest of Egypt, the Fatimids moved their capital to Cairo, thus weakening their hold on Mauretania. During the latter half of the 10th century the Umayyad caliphs of Andalusia (Spain) extended their influence over the western Maghreb but in turn gave way to a number of Berber dynasties. The most prominent of these were the Almoravids, founded by Abdallah ibn Yasin in 1040. The name is a European transliteration of al –Murabit, “one who is ready for battle in a fortress.” He was of the tribe of Gazzula and was based at Aghmat about 30 kilometers south-east of Marrakesh. He was also a disciple and preacher of the Mālikī school of Islam, which accepted not only the Koran and the sayings of the Prophet as sources of law, but also the rulings of pre-Umayyad caliphs.

Abdallah was a fanatic, observing Islam strictly, and formed an alliance with like-minded Berber tribes, and struck to build an empire which uncharacteristically arose many miles from the shores of the Mediterranean. His base was Aoudaghost – now a ruin in southern Mauretania – from where he convinced his followers to join him on a holy war to purify the true religion. From 1053 they made their way along the Saharan caravan routes, converting the Berbers by words backed with swords. When Abdallah perished in battle in 1059, his holy empire encompassed a vast area corresponding to what is now Mauretania, Western Sahara, south-western Algeria and northern Mali, but had still only touched upon the Moorish lands of the Mediterranean. Abdallah’s brother Abu Bakr succeeded as leader of the movement and during his tenure, the city of Marrakesh was founded and Almoravid rule extended into present-day Morocco. By the 1090s their influence extended to the borders of Africa.

The empire of the Almoravids was unique in being the first Arab-Berber state not based in the Mediterranean coastal strip formerly ruled by the Roman Empire. Rather than imagining fierce religiously–motivated soldiers with the swarthy skin coloration of Mediterranean people, the reader might consider the darker tones of Sub-Saharans, like the Moor Othello in Shakespeare’s play. They were also the first such state to extend their borders south of the Atlas Mountains, conquering the pagan Ghana Empire around 1076.

In religious matters the Almoravids were conservative, interpreting the teachings of Islam strictly and their military prowess was due in no small part to the strict religious discipline of their military. It was said that Almoravid soldiers generally fought to the death. The Almoravid army relied principally upon its infantry, armed with javelins for attack and pikes for defense and it fought in phalanx formation supported by camel men and cavalry.

The ruler of the Almoravids was called the Emir (Commander) of the Muslims, though he did not dare to take the title Caliph, then still claimed by the Abbasid monarch in the Middle East.

In 1084 the independent taifas or principalities of Andalusia faced a threat from the Christian King of Leon, Alphonso VI. In 1085 he had taken Toledo, the former capital of a once powerful and united Moorish state. The fall of Toledo convinced the emirs of the taifas that they were all in danger of losing their territories and they then requested Yusuf ibn Tashfin, also Tashafin, the Almoravid Emir of the Maghreb, to come to their aid. The call was probably motivated by desperation, given the severe reputation of the Almoravids. The luxurious lifestyle of the taifa emirs and their tolerant, even servile, attitude toward their Christian neighbors were hardly likely to endear them to the fundamentalist Almoravids. Perhaps the emirs half-hoped Yusuf would not respond, or if he came, would leave shortly after defeating the Christian princes, but he did respond, crossing the Straits of Gibraltar with an army in 1086. A joint force defeated the kings of Leon, Castile and Aragon at the Battle of Sagrajas, north-east of Badajoz, on October 23, 1086. More than half the Christian army was lost to Yusuf’s fanatical swordsmen and javelin throwers; yet, the Moorish casualties were also heavy, and they could not follow up on their victory. The remainder of the Christians retired but without suffering any sizeable loss of territory. Even their grand prize, Toledo, remained in Castilian hands. Nevertheless, the Moors had achieved their aim: the Christian advance had been checked.

It must have been with some relief that the emirs saw Yusuf return to his homeland, but if they hoped he would stay there, their hopes were dashed. The indolence and corruption of the emirs offended them, and it took little for Yusuf to convince his followers to return and subjugate them. But there was an obstacle. Islamic law forbade war against fellow Muslims, and Yusuf was nothing if not devout. But the clerical scholars obligingly issued a fatwa (judgment) declaring that the corrupt taifa emirs were heretics and therefore not true Muslims. Between 1090 and 1094 Almoravid armies conquered all the taifas except for Saragossa and Andalusia was absorbed into the Almoravid Empire and ruled from Marrakesh.

Ultimately, even when the great emir’s warrior-fanatics celebrated their triumph over ungodliness, their power was beginning to ebb. The founder of the Almoravids was decrying the infidelity and indolence of those rulers, and for Ibn Tumart, the theology of the Almoravids bordered on idolatry and its morals on permissiveness. When he began publicly challenging the Almoravid clerics, Emir Yusuf banished him, after which he dedicated himself to an eremitical life of prayer and ascetism. His sermons were popular, and his followers increased, until in 1121 he declared himself to be the Mahdi. In Islamic theology the Mahdi will appear before the Day of Judgment to cleanse the world from sin.

Now at war with the Almoravid authorities, Tumart withdrew into the Atlas Mountains and organized the Masmuda tribes there into a force that would act as the instrument of God. Tumart’s adherents called themselves Almohads, “those who profess the unity of God.”

Tumart’s rebellion grew, and by 1147 they had conquered the Almoravid capital at Marrakesh. By this time Tumart was dead, and his successor Abd al Mu'min proclaimed himself caliph, believing the Abbasid caliphs to be in error regarding the interpretation of the laws of Islam.

In matters of religion the Almohads were even more narrow than their predecessors. One major point of difference with not only the Almoravids but all Muslims concerned the treatment of non-Muslims. Mainstream Islamic theology held that they were to be unmolested in religious matters as long as they paid the dhimmi tax. Forced conversions, though they did of course happen, were contrary to the teachings of the Prophet. But the Almohads believed that the Prophet had been grossly misinterpreted, and that all non-Muslims under Islamic rule were bound to convert. Jews, who previously had been unmolested and even respected in Islamic society, were persecuted.

The Almohad Empire did not extend as far south as the Almoravid, but it did advance further west and by 1159 they had reached the borders of Egypt. In 1145 they crossed into Andalusia and destroyed the last remnants of the Almoravid Empire. Almohad rule in Andalusia was a terror both to the Christians and Jews and to the Muslims as non-Muslims were forced to convert or to wear distinctive clothing and many fled north to the protection of the Christian princes. The fanatical Muslims of the Maghreb considered their northern co-religionists corrupted by their co-existence with the Christians. To the kings of Leon, Castile, Navarre and Aragon the Almohads were a fresh threat, and they renewed their attack on Andalusia. For all their fanaticism the Almohads failed to turn back a series of invasions, and in 1212 Caliph Muhammad al-Nasir was defeated by an alliance of states led by Alphonso VIII of Castile at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa.

An interesting aside concerning developments in the province of Africa might be worth mentioning. While the Almohads were establishing themselves in Mauretania and Iberia, the Province of Africa was returning to Christian rule after a lapse of 400 years. Having conquered the island of Sicily from the Muslims and southern Italy, King Roger II crossed the narrow body of water separating Sicily and Africa in 1135 and invaded Africa. His intervention was possible due to the decline of Almohad influence in the region. His motives were probably economic rather than religious, and the province was in a state of unrest and had little strength to resist him. By 1154, when Roger died, the various minor emirs paid tribute him, and they were not obliged to convert, nor did Africa become a Norman colony. Roger took the title King of Africa, but the new state was short-lived. When the Almohads invaded Africa after Roger’s death, the emirs swiftly accepted the newcomers, and the Normans abandoned the province.

The huge losses at Las Navas severely weakened the Almohad state, not only in Andalusia but in the Maghreb as well. A Berber tribe known as the Marinids began to exert influence, taxing communities in north-eastern Morocco in opposition to the reigning dynasty. Open civil war broke out around 1215 and the Marinid chieftain Abd al-Haqq died in a victorious battle in 1217. His successor Uthman took up the fight from his base at Fez, from which the Marinids did not break out until the 1240s. At this time the Almohads lost Andalusia when the last Muslim taifa, Granada, expelled the Almohad emir. With the conquest of Sijilmassa in south-western Morocco in 1274 the conquest of the western Maghreb was complete, and the Almoravids were extinguished.

Although the heads of the Marinid clan first styled themselves emirs, they broke tradition with their predecessors by using the title Sultan. Originally the title denoted a spiritual authority, but some Islamic rulers, notably the monarchs of the Turks, used it to express their sovereignty but without claiming the title Caliph. Thus the Marinids struck a middle course between pretended subservience to a distant caliph and to claiming supreme religious and temporal authority over all Muslims. The Marinids had none of the imperial pretensions nor religious fanaticism of the Almohads or Almoravids.

The Marinid Sultans, installed at Fez, did not attempt to unify the Maghreb as the two preceding regimes had done. After the Almohad collapse, the Middle Maghreb; that is, the area corresponding roughly to present-day Algeria passed to the control of the Berber Zayyanids, who ruled from Tlemcen and their dynasty lasted until 1556. The Western Maghreb, including the regions now known as Tunisia and Libya, was ruled by Hafsid governors under the Almohads, and when the caliphate collapsed, the Hafsids proclaimed themselves monarchs, and later caliphs, in their own right. It was Caliph Muhammad I, the first to claim the title, who faced an invasion of French, Sicilian and Navarrese knights, led by the famous warrior-king and canonized saint, Louis IX of France, in 1270. This Eighth Crusade was preceded by a Seventh, also led by Louis, which had ended in his ignominious capture and ransom by the ruler of Egypt. But the king was determined by a sense of chivalry to liberate the lands of the infidels.

Tunis was the target of this new crusade. Sicily provided a ready stepping stone and Pope Clement IV had called upon the knights of Christendom to the cross. But Louis’ first choice had been the Holy Land via Cyprus. Yet the fall of Tunis would disrupt Muslim trade, hinder Moorish raids on the Mediterranean coast and provide a base for the invasion of Egypt. Louis also appears to have thought that Caliph Muhammad might be persuaded to convert to Christianity.[2]

The Crusader fleet landed near Tunis on July 18, 1270 and its troops camped near the ancient town of Carthage. They began the siege of Tunis, and disease immediately struck the Christian army. Crippling dysentery spread throughout the army, made all the worse by a horrendous summer. Thousands perished, including the king’s son. Finally Louis himself perished, on August 25, lamenting his sins. The survivors signed the Treaty of Tunis in November 1270 and the agreement allowed the crusaders to withdraw unmolested in return for a war indemnity and trading rights.

The Eighth Crusade was not the last serious threat to the North African Moors by a Christian power. In the following chapter the reader will learn of the increasing influence of the Hispanic powers in the 15th century. Yet at the beginning of the 16th century the eastern and middle Maghreb would be forced to bend to a new power that was not Christian, but Muslim.

The Era of the Ottomans

From the 14th century, the tribe of the Turk Othman gradually but relentlessly carved out an empire from the remnants of the Roman Empire in western Anatolia, and from there expanded into the Christian lands of the Balkans. The Ottoman Empire reached into Europe first, for its towns and villages could be sacked and its inhabitants enslaved without fear of reproach or condemnation from other Muslim states. It was only later in the 15th century that the Ottoman sultans felt confident enough to conquer their Turkish neighbors to the west using the subtleties of Islamic law. By 1517 the Ottomans had reached Cairo, ruled by the Turkish Mamluk dynasty, and in addition to receiving the surrender of the Egyptian sultan, they forced the abdication of the last Abbasid caliph, Al-Mutawakkil III. The Ottoman Sultan Selim I claimed the title himself, and was determined the restore the political unity of the caliphate.

The disunity of the Ottomans’ opponents certainly played a part in their destruction. Yet the Ottoman military machine was highly organized. It fought with two elite arms: the Janissaries, infantrymen recruited from the children of Christian subjects and trained as Muslims. They were slave-soldiers, members of the sultan’s own household. Yet unlike regular slaves, they were salaried and enjoyed considerable social status and no little political influence. The other military arm was the sipahi, a corps of heavy cavalry raised from the provincial nobility. Unlike many of their opponents, they had mastered the use of firearms, and their artillery was some of the most powerful in the world. The Ottomans could also build large and powerful fleets of galleys which could transport troops at speed.

To the west of the Ottomans’ latest conquests was Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, roughly corresponding to what it now called Libya. These provinces were nominally subject to the Hafsids, though in reality, its ports were the lawless havens for pirates who preyed on Mediterranean shipping. On July 25, 1510 Count Pedro Navarro of Oliveto, a general in the service of the King Ferdinand of Castile, captured the city in the course of a series of campaigns designed to diminish pirating in the Mediterranean. He also captured Béjaïa, Algiers, Oran, Tunis, and Tlemcen. In time, the Zayyanid Sultan of Tlemcen had agreed to pay homage to Ferdinand, and in the western Maghreb the once strong sultanate of the Marinids had disintegrated into a number of principalities also subject to the aggression of Hispanic powers. In 1415, the Portuguese captured the Port of Ceuta with an army of 45,000 men. The subsequent conquest of Tangiers in 1471 deprived the Moroccans of any sizeable port and severely weakened their economic power and it seemed then that the whole of the Maghreb was in danger of becoming a Spanish tributary.

To the Ottomans the threat to Islam in North Africa constituted a worthy call to jihad, and the qualms about conquering fellow Muslims (forbidden by Islamic law) might be deftly overcome with the argument that no true Muslim would allow himself to be subject to infidels. This had been the argument of the Almoravids called to defend the Andalusian taifas against Christian aggression, but the Ottoman conqueror of Egypt, Selim I, was preoccupied with the threat to his eastern borders posed by the Persians, and could not consider an invasion of the Maghreb. The project was left to his son, the famous Suleyman I the Magnificent, who succeeded to the Ottoman throne in 1520. Suleyman had no doubt about his right to rule North Africa, and indeed the whole world.

I am God's slave and sultan of this world. By the grace of God I am head of Muhammad's community. God's might and Muhammad's miracles are my companions. I am Süleymân, in whose name the hutbe is read in Mecca and Medina. In Baghdad I am the shah, in Byzantine realms the Caesar, and in Egypt the sultan; who sends his fleets to the seas of Europe, the Maghreb and India. I am the sultan who took the crown and throne of Hungary and granted them to a humble slave. The voivoda Petru raised his head in revolt, but my horse's hoofs ground him into the dust, and I conquered the land of Moldovia.[3]

By the time of Suleyman’s accession, the political situation in the Mediterranean and elsewhere had changed dramatically. The united kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, along with their dependencies, had passed to the young, energetic and fervently Catholic scion of the Habsburg family, Charles. He also inherited the rich cities of the Netherlands and the ancestral Habsburg provinces of Austria. Moreover, he had been elected Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, King of Bohemia and (disputedly) King of Hungary. He thus ruled the greatest empire seen since that of Charlemagne, and commanded the resources necessary to assert the claims of Christendom over the Maghreb. This empire was a challenge to the territorial ambitions of the Ottomans, who also claimed sovereignty over Hungary following the defeat of King Louis II at the Battle of Mohacs in 1526.

Yet the Turks were not the only power discomforted by the Habsburgs. The monarchs of France resented being hemmed in by the Habsburgs, and so signed an alliance with Suleyman in 1536. This solemn covenant endured almost 300 years, and though France’s “Most Christian Majesty” frequently expressed qualms about the Ottomans enslaving Christians and subjecting their territory to Muslim rule, he had no such reservations about hurting the Habsburgs.

In 1530 the city of Tripoli, along with the islands of Malta and Gozo, were granted by Charles V to the military order of St John, as a base to replace Rhodes, from which they had been recently expelled by the Ottomans. The Knights of Malta planned to use the city as a base to conquer the whole of Tripolitania, and for a while they contemplated moving their base from Malta to Tripoli. Yet this desire diminished in view of Ottoman designs on the city. A short truce between Suleyman and Charles V decreased the threat and gave time for the knights to strengthen the fortifications of the citadel. In 1551, Suleyman I, angered by attacks on shipping by the Maltese knights, attacked Malta in July but was repulsed. In the following month Sinan Pasha attacked Tripoli with 10,000 men. The city’s commander, Gaspard de Vallier, had only 30 knights and 630 mercenaries of Italian and Sicilian origin. The Ottomans established a base at Tajura, some 20 kilometres to the east, and had brought up three batteries of 12 guns each. The resistance of the Tripoli garrison was unremarkable. Characteristically the mercenaries had no incentive to surrender their lives or liberty and they sued for peace. Tripoli capitulated on August 15, 1551. However, they were not spared, but carried off into captivity and the remaining knights were allowed to return to Malta, largely due to the intervention of the French ambassador.

The Ottoman corsair Dragut was appointed Beylerbey (governor) of Tripoli, and during his administration the city became one of the best fortified in the Maghreb and a base for Ottoman pirates. These pirates or corsairs also based themselves in Africa under Hafsid protection. The most famous of these brigands was Hayreddin, known to the West as Barbarossa, “Red Beard” and with his brother Oruc, he terrorized the Mediterranean coast, raiding as far as Spain and Genoa. They enjoyed considerable success against Spanish war galleys and in 1514 moved their base to Cherchell, east of Algiers, the better to harass the efforts of the Spanish to dominate the western Maghreb. In 1516 Hayreddin captured Algiers, and two years later seized the Zayyanid capital, Tlemcen. Sultan Muhammad fled to the Spanish for help and they obligingly restored him, killing Hayreddin’s brother Oruc in the campaign.

In 1533, Hayreddin, until then a common pirate, was summoned to the Ottoman capital Constantinople and elevated to the status of admiral. Barbarossa now had the resources of the imperial state at his disposal and he used his newly acquired power to capture Tunis, only to lose it to the Habsburg admiral Andrea Doria. From then, Hayreddin ceased to play a significant role in the Maghreb and the Habsburgs took advantage of his absence to mount an attack on the Ottoman outpost of Algiers. Emperor Charles V assembled a large fleet in September 1541 at Majorca with 24,000 soldiers, but it left too late in the season owing to disturbances in Germany and Flanders. Difficult weather meant that the fleet only reached Algiers on October 23. Nevertheless the force of Italians, Spaniards and Germans disembarked and proceeded to surround the city. Many of the notable generals of the time were present: Charles V himself, Andrea Doria, Hernan Cortes, the conqueror of the Aztec Mexico and the Duke of Alba. For a time it seemed Algiers would fall, but then a storm struck, destroying 48 ships and preventing further disembarking. The Algiers garrison began making sorties and inflicted heavy casualties. Soon it was the turn of the Habsburg army to be surrounded, and it was only through the tenacity of the Knights of Malta that Charles V managed to escape. He returned to Spain but he had to abandon his troops. They were either slaughtered or enslaved, and the glut of Christian slaves in Algiers market was apparently so great that a slave could be bought for the price of an onion.[4]

Ottoman victories in Tripolitania and at Algiers were inconsequential if Tunis remained in Christian hands. The city was still governed by the Habsburgs and the Hafsid sultan was a vassal of Charles V. Moreover, the Knights of Malta guarded the approaches to the city. Suleyman sent a great fleet to capture the island in 1565 but the venture failed spectacularly, and the Great Siege of Malta has passed into lore as the greatest glory of the Knights of Malta and one of the greatest ignominies of the Ottoman military. Almost the entire Turkish host perished or was captured.

Not long after the disaster at Malta Suleyman died and was succeeded by his lackluster son Selim II, known to history as “The Sot.” By this time the apparatus of imperial government had grown so powerful that the empire could almost function without a sultan. The de facto ruler of the Ottoman state was in fact the Grand Vizier, and Sokollu Mehmed, appointed by Suleyman, convinced Selim to launch a campaign to wrest control of the Mediterranean from the Habsburgs. In 1569 the Ottoman Bey of Algiers captured Tunis, and two years later Cyprus was taken from Venice. Later in that year, however, the Ottoman fleet was famously destroyed by a Christian fleet commanded by Don John of Austria at the Battle of Lepanto.

It belongs to another book to relate the consequences of Lepanto. Suffice it to say here that Ottoman naval power was checked, and the Turks never again undertook a serious naval invasion in the western Mediterranean. Ottoman corsairs still continued to operate from ports in the Maghreb, and regularly raided the shores of Spain, France and Italy, but those countries were never again threatened with invasion. This is not to say that the southern shores of the Mediterranean were clear of Ottoman naval vessels. On the contrary, they enjoyed largely unrestricted access to the Maghreb, but the sultan dared not risk the security of the provinces by another Lepanto.

One of the immediate consequences of the Battle of Lepanto was the fall of Tunis to John of Austria in 1573. Selim II was anxious to revenge himself, and when the French ambassador (strangely a bishop) urged him to attack the Habsburgs again, he sent a fleet to attack the city. A force of about 100,000 Ottomans commanded by Sinan Pasha attacked Tunis and its citadel-port La Goleta (Halq al-Wadi) on July 12, 1574. Don John attempted to relieve the city, but storms prevented him, and the Spanish, pre-occupied with their rebellious provinces in the Netherlands, could not give any help.

The author of Don Quixote, Miguel Cervantes, was present with Don John as he attempted to relieve the garrison. He wrote:

If Goleta and the fort, put together, held barely 7,000 soldiers, how could such a small force, however resolute, come out and hold its own against so huge an enemy army. And how can you help losing a stronghold that is not relieved, and especially when it is surrounded by a stubborn and very numerous army, and on its own ground?

The fortress fell on September 13. Most of the defenders were killed, and the 300 prisoners enslaved. Moulay Muhammad VI, the Hafsid Sultan, was present at the siege and fought in person and he was transported to Constantinople, where he died in honorable captivity in 1594. The Ottoman Sultan, then Murad III, made Tunisia a province of the Ottoman Empire. In time, however, it assumed considerable autonomy under a dynasty of beys from the 18th century.

The Ottomans now ruled most of the Maghreb. In 1545 the Wattasid rulers of northern Morocco had paid homage to Suleyman the Magnificent, but four years later they were overthrown by the Saadi dynasty, which asserted complete independence. The new sultan, Muhammad ash-Sheikh, resented the haughty attitude of Suleyman, who referred to him as the Governor of Fez, and allied with the Spanish to make war on Tlemcen. He enjoyed considerable success against the Algerians and then in 1553 the corsair Salah Rais led an army of about 11,000 troops, including 600 musketeers and artillery, into Morocco. They captured Fez in January 1554, and Abu Hassan was restored. But the arrogant Ottomans proved so odious that Abu Hassan bribed them into withdrawing and he attempted to instead protect himself with mercenaries, but he was defeated and killed by Muhammad’s troops at the Battle of Tadla in central Morocco.

The Saadis were again in power, though it was not long until dissensions arose. A disaffected member of the family, Abdal Malik, fled to the court of Murad III and sought his help to be installed as sultan. The Ottoman sovereign agreed, and ordered the viceroy of Algiers, Ramazan Pasha, to conquer Fez in 1576 and enthrone Abdal Malik. The new sultan went on to mint coins bearing the image of Murad III and to mention his name in Friday prayers, the traditional method of acknowledging sovereignty in the Muslim world. Thus Ottoman rule extended the entire length of the Maghreb.

In 1578 the ousted Sultan of Morocco, Abu Abdallah Muhammad II, having fled to the court of King Sebastian I of Portugal, returned to Morocco with an armada of ships and men. Sebastian needed to thwart Ottoman influence in Morocco, which threatened Portuguese trade, and 17,000 men landed at Arzila in the Portuguese enclave of Morocco, where they were joined by 6,000 Moors. They then drove toward Fez and encountered Abdal Malik and possibly 1,000,000 men [5] at Alacer Quibir. The result was a glorious Moroccan victory and the almost complete destruction of the Portuguese army. Sebastian was slain, precipitating a dynastic crisis, and Abdal Malik emerged as the hero of Islam. Moreover, he had accomplished this victory without the direct help of the Ottoman Empire. He died of natural causes toward the conclusion of the battle, but his brother Ahmad al-Mansur survived to receive the crown and the praises of the Moroccan people on his behalf. The Saadi dynasty was confirmed, and the new sultan felt sufficiently secure to stop minting Murad’s coins and stop acknowledging him in Friday prayers. Murad ordered Algerian corsairs to attack Moroccan shipping, and began to prepare a retaliatory invasion. This was prevented by a compromise. Ahmad agreed to give the Ottoman sultan “gifts” every year, which Constantinople interpreted as tribute. But he dropped even these “gifts” in 1587, and toward the end of his reign called himself Caliph, thus declaring his independence from the Ottoman caliph. He survived this action by skillfully playing off the Ottomans against the Christian powers of the Mediterranean. In truth Constantinople was far away from Fez, and the kind of armies that threatened Europe in the Balkans or the Persians in Mesopotamia could not reach him. The Ottoman sultan relied upon the local governors in the Maghreb to enforce the sultan’s will, and if these were pre-occupied with the Spanish Habsburgs and their allies, Morocco was safe.

That is not to say the Ottomans and Moroccans never again clashed. On the contrary, the Pasha of Algeria and the Sultan of Morocco frequently clashed, notably in 1641, 1692, 1693 and in the Maghrebi War (1699 – 1702). This last war highlighted the ebbing of Ottoman influence in the Maghreb, for the provinces of Tripolitania and Tunis, acting as independent powers, allied with Sultan Ismail Moulay of Morocco against Algeria, whose Pasha wanted to unite the Maghreb under his own rule. All three provinces were still nominally under Ottoman rule, but all ignored the calls of Mustafa II for peace. In Europe the Ottoman Empire was receding before the Austrians and Poles, following the disastrous Battle of Vienna (1683), and its hold was weakening everywhere. Algeria was defeated but the Maghreb was seriously destabilized, leaving Morocco as the least affected state. The Maghrebi War marked the end of Ottoman supremacy, yet neither did it transfer that dominance to the Sultanate of Morocco. Instead North Africa entered a period of political stagnation, waiting for a power to come and supplant the Ottomans.

During this period Morocco did however succeed to some extent in strengthening its position in the region. In 1684 it took Tangier from the English (who in turn had acquired it as a royal dowry from the Portuguese) and in the 1680s they acquired Larache and Mehdya from the Spanish. But in 1774 Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah failed to seize Melilla from Spain despite being backed by British money and the failure marked the end of Morocco’s victories against Christian powers. A new age had come: the age of the warship, a period in which Europeans, and the British in particular, were at a distinct advantage. The future of the Maghreb belonged neither to the Ottomans nor to the Moroccans, but to Europe.

The Barbary Wars and the Age of Colonialism

By the beginning of the 19th century the northern coasts of the Mediterranean had been subject to the depredations of Muslim pirates based in the Maghreb for a thousand years. It has been estimated that up to one and a quarter million inhabitants were captured and sold into slavery between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries alone.[6]

There are no records of how many men, women and children were enslaved, but it is possible to calculate roughly the number of fresh captives that would have been needed to keep populations steady and replace those slaves who died, escaped, were ransomed, or converted to Islam. On this basis it is thought that around 8,500 new slaves were needed annually to replenish numbers - about 850,000 captives over the century from 1580 to 1680. By extension, for the 250 years between 1530 and 1780, the figure could easily have been as high as 1,250,000.[7]

For centuries religious orders such as the Trinitarians raised money to ransom Europeans from captivity in North Africa. The Royal, Celestial and Military Order of Our Lady of Mercy and the Redemption of the Captives, commonly known as the Mercedarians, was one such order. The Trinitarians was another. These religious orders would even give themselves to the Moors in place of captives until enough money could be found for a ransom. These orders still exist, though, of course, they do not fulfill the purpose they once had.

Muslim pirates operated from Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, Oran and other ports and the rulers of Morocco also protected pirate bases along their coasts. The enslavement of non-Muslims was explicitly permitted by Islamic law, and indeed most Muslim societies relied on slavery for its economy. They were mainly active in the Mediterranean, though it was not unusual for pirates to visit the Atlantic coasts of Spain, France, and even the British Isles. Besides providing a labour force, trade in slaves generated wealth that was especially welcome in resource-poor countries. When John Adams, speaking for the United States in 1786 asked the envoy of the Pasha of Tripoli on what basis his monarch could possibly justify the attack of neutral shipping, he was told:

It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy's ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once.[8]

At first the United States paid ransom for captured mariners, but only because it did not yet possess a fleet powerful enough to take on the privateers of what was referred to as the Barbary Coast, ‘”Barbar” being a rendering of “Berber.” But when Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated President in 1801, he refused a demand of tribute for an amount close to $3.5 million by a modern reckoning made by Yusuf Karamanli, the Pasha of Tripoli. Thinking that the US navy was still inadequate to the task of defending its citizens, the Pasha declared war.

Contrary to the Pasha’s belief, the United States had commissioned a small number of frigates and schooners, and was to ready to test them on the seas. But ideally it needed allies. This was the time of the Napoleonic Wars, however, and neither of the major naval powers – the United Kingdom and France – had any inclination to spare warships, especially as they were at war with each other. However, in 1801 US Commodore Edward Preble concluded an alliance with Ferdinand IV of Naples, who supplied some gunboats and offered Sicilian ports. The Swedes also agreed to cooperate with a flotilla, and the ships of all three powers proceeded to blockade Tripoli. Preble attacked the city with limited success and then, in April and May of 1805 US Lieutenant William Eaton led a daring attack on the Tripolitanian port town of Derna. His force consisted of eight marines and about 500 Arab and Greek mercenaries. Derna was captured and the US forces pressed Tripoli to a peace.

In the treaty signed on June 10, 1803 Yusuf Karamanli agreed that

The Bashaw of Tripoli shall deliver up to the American squadron now off Tripoli, all the Americans in his possession; and all the subjects of the Bashaw of Tripoli now in the power of the United States of America shall be delivered up to him; and as the number of Americans in possession of the Bashaw of Tripoli amounts to three hundred persons, more or less; and the number of Tripolino subjects in the power of the Americans to about, one hundred more or less; The Bashaw of Tripoli shall receive from the United States of America, the sum of sixty thousand dollars, as a payment for the difference between the prisoners herein mentioned.[9]

The war had succeeded in limiting the slave trade in Tripolitania, but the Tunisians and Algerians had not been engaged, and these continued to harass US shipping. The United States was distracted by war with Great Britain in 1812, but it returned to the problem in 1815, when it engaged the three Ottoman vassals in the Maghreb. Tripolitania and Tunisia capitulated, but Algeria was recalcitrant. By this time the European powers were taking extreme interest in the activities of the United States and backed its effort to end white slavery in the Mediterranean. When Omar Agha, the Dey of Algiers, contemptuously ordered the slaughter of 200 captives under British protection, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands sent 29 ships to bombard the city of Algiers. On August 27 a fierce bombardment took hundreds of lives and destroyed the Algerian fleet. Lord Exmouth, commander of the British fleet, delivered a message to the dey.

Sir, for your atrocities at Bona [the site of the massacre of the captives] on defenceless Christians, and your unbecoming disregard of the demands I made yesterday in the name of the Prince Regent of England, the fleet under my orders has given you a signal chastisement, by the total destruction of your navy, storehouse, and arsenal, with half your batteries. As England does not war for the destruction of cities, I am unwilling to visit your personal cruelties upon the unoffending inhabitants of the country, and I therefore offer you the same terms of peace which I conveyed to you yesterday in my Sovereign's name. Without the acceptance of these terms, you can have no peace with England.

Omar Agha capitulated and the slave trade in the Maghreb was severely diminished but not entirely abolished. Yet the Barbary Wars had established the domination of Europe over the North African coast and the Ottoman Empire continued to decline, and was incapable of exercising any meaningful influence.

France had not joined the military action against Algiers, having been recently defeated in Europe, but in 1827 the unpopular King Charles X found a distraction for his political troubles in a diplomatic incident concerning the Dey of Algiers. Hussein Dey, smarting under the loss of income created by the suppression of piracy, demanded that France repay a debt incurred in 1799 when Algeria sent supplies to Napoleon in Egypt. The French envoy at the dey’s court refused to give a satisfactory reply, whereupon Hussein struck him with his ceremonial fan and Charles X, responded to the insult by ordering the blockade of Algiers, but he intended more. He would launch a land attack and utterly extinguish the Algerian corsairs once and for all. The French expedition of 24,000 landed on June 14. The Algerian army was 50,000 strong and was routed at the Battle of Statoueli. After a bombardment of Algiers by the French fleet and the destruction of the land defences on the approaches to the city, Hussein sued for peace on the basis of a formal apology and payment of a war indemnity, but Charles refused, meaning to annex the whole of Algeria. The dey, with no means of resisting and with no help coming, agreed to the French terms, and was allowed to retire into exile. Thus Algeria became part of the French Empire.

The Bey of Tunis had been sufficiently cowed by the Barbary Wars to suppress its corsairs, and if it had contemplated resuming the slave trade, the annexation of Algeria would have put it entirely from his mind. All the same, the loss of income generated from slaves imperiled the Tunisian treasury, and the government ran up huge amounts of debt. Tunisia became increasingly under the influence of European merchants and diplomats, and the Ottomans, though desperately trying to reform so as to match the power of the European states, failed to restore any of its influence in the country. The rulers of Tunisia attempted reforms of their own but failed to stave off the ambitions of the European powers. In 1881 some border tribesmen raided French Algeria without the knowledge of the bey and the French responded by invading Tunisia and established a protectorate over the country. The bey was permitted to remain in office under French direction. Bey Muhammad VIII was the last monarch of Tunisia and when Tunisia became independent in 1956, he assumed the title king, only to be deposed in 1957.

Tripolitania followed a somewhat different course from Algeria and Tunisia. Using a local disturbance as a pretext, the Ottomans reasserted their rule as part of a program of centralization. Ottoman troops entered Tripoli in 1835 and in 1865 created the Vilayet of Tripolitania and it remained in Ottoman hands until 1911, when the Kingdom of Italy, ambitious to create an empire for itself, invaded the province and succeeded in wresting it from the Ottomans. After the Second World War it became independent as the Kingdom of Libya, and the first and only King of Libya, Idris I, was deposed by Muammar Gaddafi in 1951. Gaddafi’s speech upon assuming power marked a break with the Maghreb’s Ottoman, as well as its Turkish, past.

People of Libya! In response to your own will, fulfilling your most heartfelt wishes, answering your most incessant demands for change and regeneration, and your longing to strive towards these ends: listening to your incitement to rebel, your armed forces have undertaken the overthrow of the corrupt regime, the stench of which has sickened and horrified us all. At a single blow our gallant army has toppled these idols and has destroyed their images. By a single stroke it has lightened the long dark night in which the Turkish domination was followed first by Italian rule, then by this reactionary and decadent regime which was no more than a hotbed of extortion, faction, treachery and treason.[10]

The Sultanate of Morocco likewise succumbed to the influence of the European powers. At the beginning of the 19th century it was a haven for corsairs, but its strategic location afforded it certain protection, and it did not suffer the fate of the other Maghreb powers during the Barbary Wars. Nevertheless France, considering North Africa its sphere of influence, took an interest in Morocco, and after the invasion of Algeria, it used the flight of Algerian leaders into Morocco as a pretext for declaring war. Sultan Abdal Rahman agreed to protect the Algerian resistance which declared jihad on the French. In 1844 the French bombarded Tangiers and Mogador, Morocco’s principal port on the Atlantic, and defeated a force of cavalry at the Battle of Isly in north-western Morocco. Sultan Muhammad IV sued for peace, and though the French exacted no territory, the defeat destabilized a traditional Muslim state which could not bear to see its sovereign come hat in hand to a Christian.

Relations between France and Morocco continued to break down and a string of incidents led to the French bombardment on Salé on November 27, 1851, but the crisis reached a head in 1907 when the French began an invasion of Morocco which, unlike in the case of other North African states, was not an easy undertaking. The conquest of the sultanate was not complete until 1934, even though Sultan Abdal Hafid ceded sovereignty to France in March 1912 and he was allowed to continue as sultan but not to rule. Nevertheless, Morocco was spared complete assimilation, largely because of the outbreak of World War I and because France realized it needed the cooperation of its protectorate in the war effort. An independence movement gained ground during World War II, which intensified in the 1950s. Morocco also had to free itself of Spanish influence, for France acknowledged a Spanish sphere of influence in northern Morocco in exchange for recognizing French rule elsewhere. When France gave Morocco its independence, Spain renounced its protection, but retained the coastal cities of Ceuta and Melilla. It retains those possessions to this day though they are claimed by Morocco. Morocco gained its independence in 1956 and it retained its monarch, who since 1957 uses the title King (Malik) rather than Sultan. The present incumbent is Mohammed VI, who has reigned since 1999 and Morocco is the only state of the Maghreb to retain its traditional monarch.

Not much has been said about the Maghrebi state of Mauritania, not to be confused with the ancient Latin Mauretania, the name of the area of North Africa corresponding to Northern Morocco. The modern country was a creation of the French, who colonized the area in the late 19th century. Its Moorish citizens constitute about 30% of the population and the history of the Arab-Berber inhabitants is tied with that of the Almoravid Empire which spread Islam in sub-Saharan Africa in the 11th century.

Mention might also be made of another community of Berbers. These lived in North Africa though outside the northwest region called the Maghreb. These lived (and continue to live) in Egypt, in the Siwa Oasis, a region between the Qattara Depression and the Great Sand Sea in the Western Desert. The region was settled in the time of the Ancient Egyptians. The Siwa Berbers were Christians in the 7th century, and successfully repelled an Arab incursion in 708. Their being in an urban area surrounded by inhospitable desert probably preserved them from pressure to convert, and they appear to have remained Christian in the twelve century. At this time Arabs are reported living amongst the Berbers, and this probably explains their conversion to Islam and the isolation of the Siwa Berbers has produced a unique culture and sense of identity.

The Moors, by which is meant the Islamic Berbers and the historical Berber-Arab union, have played a prominent role in the history of North Africa and Mediterranean Europe. The Berbers accepted the religion of their Arab conquerors early in the history of Islam and henceforth became vital partners in their conquests. The caliphate would never have reached the Pyrenees or the shores of mainland Italy without their partnership. It was ever an uneasy federation however, and from the middle of the 8th century the Moors began to seek their own destinies independent of the caliph residing in distant Damascus or Baghdad. They established vibrant states in the Maghreb, Andalusia and Sicily, and even extended the influence of Islam far below the Sahara. Many of the Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa owe their spiritual heritage to the Almoravids, Almohads and other Moorish states which either conquered large parts of north-western Africa or established trading routes with them.

The fierce warriors of Islam brought fire, blood and slavery with them, but also refinement, law, sophisticated art, philosophy, medicine, astronomy and other sciences. Volumes have been written on the contribution of the Moors to these fields and the writings of ancient Greek philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato were translated into Arabic and transmitted to Europe through Andalusia and Sicily and such texts provided the basis for a flourishing of Christian philosophy and the Renaissance. Through Andalusia new fruits and vegetables were introduced into Europe: oranges, lemons, artichoke and spinach, for example. Moorish irrigation methods involving channels to conduct water improved agriculture in Europe and Moorish art was highly influential, particularly because they did not usually depict religious subjects that might offend Christian sensibilities. European advances in science and technology were also helped by Moorish inventions. The astrolabe, first invented by the ancient Greeks, found its way into European hands through the Muslims, and likewise, the spinning wheel, water clock, carpet, paper and suction pump all have their origin in lands touched by the Moors. Even the language of Europe was influenced by the Moors. In English there are the words alcohol, admiral (from emir), alchemy, algorithm, caravan, cipher, damask (from Damascus), carrack, cork, etc.

Soon after the independence of the North African states, an attempt was made to forge an economic and political union with the five states of the Maghreb: Morocco, Mauretania, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Tunisia. However, a treaty for union was only signed in 1989, and to date, it has not been able to make significant progress due to a dispute between Morocco and Algeria, and the question of the sovereignty of the Western Sahara, occupied at present by Morocco. Nevertheless, the peoples of these five nations are conscious of a common heritage and destiny, created by Berber and Arab soldiers of the faith 1300 years ago.

Online Resources

Other books about Islamic history by Charles River Editors