Moulay Ismail ibn al-Sharif

Moulay Ismail ibn al-Sharif (c. 1645 – 22 March 1727) was Sultan of Morocco from 1672 until his death, the second ruler of the 'Alawi dynasty. His fifty-five-year reign is the longest of any Moroccan sultan and is considered a high watermark of Moroccan power: he unified the country after long civil wars, built a standing army that reduced the crown's reliance on the tribes, made Meknes his capital and raised an enormous palace complex there, and expelled the Spanish and English from the ports they held. ^{1 2}

He was born around 1645 (1056 AH) at Sijilmasa, the seventh son of Sharif ibn Ali, Emir of Tafilalt and first sovereign of the 'Alawi dynasty, whose clan claimed descent from Hassan al-Dakhil, a twenty-first-generation descendant of the Prophet ﷺ Muhammad. His mother's identity is contested: Al-Istiqsa names her as Mubarka bint Yark al-Maghfiri (d. 1668), while the historian Ibn Zaydan held that she was a black slave of the Saharan Mghafra tribe, given to Sharif ibn Ali while he was held captive for ransom — an account that, as the English article notes, would imply a birth around 1637, in the period of his father's captivity, rather than 1645. ^{1 2}

Three rulers preceded him: his father Moulay Sharif, then his half-brothers Sidi Mohammed and Moulay Rashid. Ismail supported Rashid's rebellion against Sidi Mohammed, who was killed at the battle of Angad on 3 August 1664, and was rewarded with the governorship of Meknes; in 1667 Rashid made him his khalifa (viceroy) at Fez and gave him military command of the north. Rashid was killed falling from his horse at Marrakesh on 9 April 1672; Ismail hurried to Fez and was proclaimed Sultan of Morocco there on 14 April 1672, aged twenty-six, fixing his capital at Meknes for its water and climate. ¹

The succession was not uncontested. His nephew Moulay Ahmed ben Mehrez was proclaimed at Marrakesh with the support of the tribes of the Haouz and the Arabs of Souss. Ismail entered Marrakesh on 4 June 1672, but Fez then revolted, his commander Zidan ben Abid Elamri was killed, and the city held out until Fez Jdid opened its gates on 28 October 1673 after a siege of fourteen months and eight days; Khadir Ghailan was killed at Ksar el-Kebir on 2 September 1673. Ismail retook Marrakesh by force in 1674, crushed the attempted Dila'iya revival in Tadla and his brothers' revolt in Tafilalt by 1677, and fought Ahmed ben Mehrez until the latter was killed in mid-October 1685 by soldiers who did not recognise him — Ismail ordered him a funeral — while resistance ended only when Moulay Harran fled into the Sahara in April 1687, after thirteen years of war. In the campaign of 1692–93 he subdued the Sanhaja Braber of the Middle Atlas, the last pocket of the Bled es-Siba, becoming the first 'Alawi sultan to hold all of Morocco. ¹

His military successes are explained by the strong army he created: the guich tribes, above all the Udaya, and the Black Guard (the 'Abid al-Bukhari), black slaves wholly devoted to him, which allowed the central power to rely far less on frequently rebellious tribes. At Meknes he built an enormous citadel and palace complex beside the old city, with grand residences, gardens, monumental gates, mosques and more than forty kilometres of walls. ^{1 2}

Once Morocco was unified he resolved to end the Christian presence in the country. His general Ali ben Abdallah Er-Riffi besieged Tangier from 1680; the English, finding the garrison too costly, demolished their fortifications and harbour in the winter of 1683, and the Moroccan army entered the city on 5 February 1684. La Mamora fell in 1681, its 309 Spaniards and its artillery taken and the city renamed al-Mahdiya. Larache was taken on 11 November 1689 after a siege that cost the Moroccans an estimated 10,000 dead, with 1,600 Spanish soldiers captured; the Spanish garrison of Asilah then evacuated by sea and Moroccan troops occupied it in 1691. In the east he was less fortunate: he failed against the Ottoman Regency of Algiers at the Battle of Moulouya in 1692 in his attempt to expand toward Tlemcen, and after conquering the Western Beylik and looting the Bey's palace in the Maghrebi War he was pushed back at the Battle of Chelif in 1701; Laghouat followed successfully in 1708, and he besieged Ceuta and nearly took it. ¹

Despite the conquest of Tangier, the English supported him against Spain and signed treaties of friendship and commerce with him, joining the blockade of Ceuta in 1704 during his siege of that city; he also sent embassies to the deposed James II, offering him aid and asking him to convert to Islam. He died at Meknes, following a sickness, on 22 March 1727 (1139 AH). His harem is said to have held over five hundred women and his confirmed children numbered more than eight hundred; after his death, his military supporters became kingmakers, enthroning and dethroning sultans at will. ^{1 3}