Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/867

Rh MOROCCO 835 al-Hodna were autonomous under a number of indigenous or foreign princes. The chief of these principalities were that of the Idrisites at Fez (supra, p. 581), the kingdom of Tahart, and that of Nakur. In the tirst years of the 10th century the Fatimite caliphs, at the head of the powerful Berber tribe of Ketama, overthrew the Aghla- bites, thus putting an end for ever to Arab rule in North Africa, and rapidly extended their empire to the Atlantic. When the Fati- mites established themselves in Egypt, the Zirid dynasty reigned as their vassals in the west, and maintained themselves with varying fortunes till the rise of the great empire of the ALMORAVIDES (q.v.), who yielded in turn to the ALMOHADES (q.v.). The latter dynasty was extinguished by the princes of the Beni-Merin, whose chief, Ya kiib b. Abd al-Hakk, captured Morocco in 1269 A.D. The sub sequent history of Morocco and Fez under the Merinids and their successors presents little interest, being as full of internecine wars, contested successions, fratricides, general bloodshed, and barbarities as it is empty of all indications of an advance in civilization. As regards the relations of the country to European nations, four periods may be distinguished (1) a period lasting down to the close of the 14th century, when the Moorish potentates were still the most pro minent representatives of aggressive Mohammedanism ; (2) a period during which the Portuguese and Spaniards, having expelled their invaders, made vigorous reprisals and obtained possession of many towns on the coast of Morocco ; (3) a period in which these nations, disheartened by the disastrous defeat in the Battle of the Three Kings (1579), allowed the Moors to recover much of the ground they had lost, and to become, by their piracies and defiance of inter national law, an object if not of terror yet of apprehension and irritation ; and (4) a period in which the prestige of this after glow of greatness has gradually died out. The following are the more noteworthy events in the Moorish annals since the beginning of the 15th century. 1415. Ceuta captured by the Portuguese. 1436. First expedition against Tangiers by Don Duarte ; capture of Don Fernando, who died in exile in 1459 (it was proposed to ransom him by cession of Ceuta, but the pope objected). 1459. Capture of Alcazar Seguir. 1471. Capture of Tangiers. 1510-1540. Rise of the dynasty of the Sherifs. 1577. Edmond Hogan sent by Queen Elizabeth of England to Muley Abd al-Melek (see Report in Hakluyt). 1578. Defeat of King Sebastian (see Leared, Visit to Court of Morocco, appendix). 1585. Founding of the Company of Barbary Merchants (earls of War wick, Leicester, &c. ) in London ; Elizabeth s second ambassador Henry Roberts well received. 1610. The Moors from Spain settle partly at Rabat, &c., and prove troublesome. 1649. Muley Zidan sends to King Charles I. requesting him to attack Sallee by sea. About this time Ali Sherff of Yanbo, near Medina, is recognized as ruler of Tafilelt, and gradually of the rest of the empire except the city of Morocco ; with him commences the dynasty of the Alides ; on his death his sons, Mohammed and Arshid, dispute the succes sion. 1662. Tangiers (Portuguese since 1471) becomes an English possession aspartof the dowry of Catherine of Braganza. 1664-1672. Reign of Arshid, a warlike, active, and cruel prince, who was the first to take the title of sultan. 1672-1727. Reign of Ishmael, who in ability and ferocity completely outdid his brother Arshid, and supported his throne by an enormous army of slaves from the Sudan. 1678. Great plague ; ambassadors sent to Louis XIV. to ask the hand of Mademoiselle Blois, the king s natural daughter. 1682. The sultan sends two lions to the king of England. 1684. Sir Cloudesley Shovel defends British interests on the coast ; with drawal of the English from Tangiers. 1687. Capture of Larash from the Spaniards. 1694. Siege of Ceuta. 1725. Thomas Betton, who had been a slave in Morocco, left 13,000, the half of his fortune, for the ransom of British captives in that country. 1727-1730. Disputed succession. 1757-1789. Reign of Mohammed. 1778. Locusts. 1780. Great famine ; Agadir opened to the Dutch. 1794- 1822. Reign of Soliman ; abolition of Christian slavery in Morocco ; suppression of piracy. 1822-1859. Reign of Abd er Rahman ; rupture with Spain on account of the decapitation of Consul Darmon for the wounding of a Moor. 1844. Defeat of forces sent to assist Abd al-Kader in Algiers ; bombardment of Tangiers and Mogador by the prince de Joinville ; rout of the Moorish forces in the battle of Isly ; and peace of Tangiers. 1845. Naval demonstration at Tangiers and ratification of treaty ; surrender to Spain of disputed territory at Ceuta. 1853. Establishment of a customs line and regular military posts along the Algerian frontier. 1856. English commercial treaty by which no duty shall exceed 10 per cent, of the value of the wares. 1859-1873. Reign of Mohammed ; Spanish invasion. 1860. Decisive battle between General O Donnell and the Moors near Tetuan (March). By the treaty of Tetuan Morocco was to pay 20,000,000 piastres to Spain, to surrender territory at Santa Cruz de Mar Pequena for a commercial establishment, and to allow the Spanish missionaries to have a house at Fez like that which they had at Tangiers. Money not being obtainable to pay the indemnity, the Spaniards obtained control of the customs for a term of years. 1864. Decree permitting Europeans to trade in any part of the empire. 1873. Accession of Hasan. 1880. English embassy for improvement of commercial relations ; conference at Madrid to define the rights of European representatives in regard to the protection afforded by them to subjects of the sultan ; num ber of protlgis limited to three. 1882. Expedition to subdue Sid Hosein of High. 1883. Protest of the English Government against the slave trade in Morocco. Madrid, 1881. Besides Renou s Description a masterly criticism of all previous geographical material the following may be mentioned : Ibn Khaldun, Hist, des Herberts (tr. by Baron de Slane) ; Leo Africanus, Descript. Africa ; Diego de Torres, Origen y sucesso de los Xarifes. . . dt Marruecos, &c., 1585 ; Marmol Descr. de I Afriyue, 1667 ; Faria y Sousa, Africa Portuguesa, Lisbon, 1081 ; Addi- son, Account, of West Barbary, 1671 (Pinkerton s Coll., xv.); Chenier, Rech. hist, fur les Maures, 1787 ; Jackson, Account of the Emp. of Morocco, 1809, and Tim- buctoo and Housa, 1820 ; Drummond Hay, Western Barbary, 1S44 ; John David- (4 vols.) ; Rohlfs, Reise durch Marokko, Bremen, 1868 ; Fritsch in &quot;Mittheil. d. Vereins fur Erdk.,&quot; Halle, 1878 ; Leared, Morocco and the Moors, 1875, and Visit to the Court of Morocco, 1879 ; De Amici s Marocco, Milan, 1878 a very graphic sketch, which has been deservedly translated into English, French, German, &c. ; Tissot, Rech. sur la gtogr. compare* de la Mauretanie Tingitane, 1877 ; Cas- tellanos, Descr. hist, de Marruecos, Santiago, 1878 ; Hooker and Ball, Morocco and the Great Atlas, 1878 ; Gatell, Viajes por Marruecos, 1879 ; Payton, Mosses from a Rolling Stone, 1879 ; Liana y Rodriganez, El imp. de Marruecos, 1880 ; Watson, A Visit to U azan, 1880 ; Trotter, Mission to the Court of Marocco, 1881 ; Cowan and Johnstone, Moorish Lotus Leaves, 1882. MOROCCO, or MAROCCO (Marrdkush), one of the quasi- capitals of the sultanate (Fez and Meknes being the other two), lies in a spacious plain about 15 miles from the northern underfalls of the Atlas, and 90 miles east-south east of Saffi, at a height variously estimated as 1639 feet (Hooker and Ball), 1410 (Beaumier), and 1500 (Leared). Ranking during the early centuries of its exist ence as one of the greatest and most flourishing cities of Islam, Morocco has long been in a state of grievous decay; and were it not for the exceptional beauty of its situation, the luxuriant groves and gardens by which it is encom passed and interspersed, and the magnificent outlook which it enjoys towards the mountains, it would be altogether a very miserable place. The wall, 25 or 30 feet high, and relieved by square towers at intervals of 360 feet, is so dilapidated that foot-passengers, and in places even horse men, can find their way in and out through the breaches. Open spaces of great extent are numerous enough within the walls, but for the most part they are defaced by mounds of rubbish and putrid refuse. With the exception of the tower of the Kutubia Mosque and a certain archway which was brought in pieces from Spain, there is not, it is asserted, a single stone building in the city ; and even bricks (though the local manufacture is of excellent quality) are sparingly employed. Tdbiya, or pounded clay, is the almost universal material, and the houses are consequently seldom raised more than two stories in height. The palace of the sultan covers an extensive area, and has its parks and gardens enclosed by walls similar to those of the city proper, but is architecturally quite insignificant. In the whole of Morocco the tower of the Kutubla alone is a worthy memorial of the constructive genius of the early Moors ; both it and the similar tower of Hasan at Rabat are after the type of the Giralda at Seville, and, if tradition may be trusted, all three were designed by the same architect Jabir. The mosque to which the tower belongs is a large brick build ing erected by Abd al-Mumen ; the interior is adorned with marble pillars, and the whole of the crypt is occupied by a vast cistern excavated by Mansur. Other mosques of some note are those of Ibn Yiisuf, Al-Mansiir, and Al-Mo izz ; the chapel of Sidi Bel Abbas, in the extreme north of the city, possesses property to the value of 200,000, and serves as a great almshouse and asylum. As in most other towns throughout Morocco, there is a special Jews quarter walled off from the rest. The general population is of a very mixed and turbulent kind ; crimes of violence are extremely common, and there are countless varieties of the profes sional thief. Almost the only manufacture extensively prosecuted is that of Morocco leather, mainly red and yellow, about 1500 men being employed as tanners and shoemakers. The city was founded in 1062 by Yusuf b.