Marinid Sultanate
The Marinid Sultanate was a Berber Muslim empire from the mid-13th to the 15th century which controlled present-day Morocco and, intermittently, other parts of North Africa (Algeria and Tunisia) and of the southern Iberian Peninsula (Spain) around Gibraltar.[3] It was named after the Banu Marin (Arabic: بنو مرين, Berber: Ayt Mrin[4]), a Zenata Berber tribe.[5][3] The sultanate was ruled by the Marinid dynasty (Arabic: المرينيون al-marīniyyūn), founded by Abd al-Haqq I.[5][6]
Marinid Sultanate
Sultanate
1244
1465
In 1244, after being at their service for several years, the Marinids overthrew the Almohads which had controlled Morocco.[7] At the height of their power in the mid-14th century, during the reigns of Abu al-Hasan and his son Abu Inan, the Marinid dynasty briefly held sway over most of the Maghreb including large parts of modern-day Algeria and Tunisia.[3] The Marinids supported the Emirate of Granada in al-Andalus in the 13th and 14th centuries and made an attempt to gain a direct foothold on the European side of the Strait of Gibraltar. They were however defeated at the Battle of Río Salado in 1340 and finished after the Castilians took Algeciras from the Marinids in 1344, definitively expelling them from the Iberian Peninsula.[8] Starting in the early 15th century the Wattasid dynasty, a related ruling house, competed with the Marinid dynasty for control of the state and became de facto rulers between 1420 and 1459 while officially acting as regents or viziers. In 1465 the last Marinid sultan, Abd al-Haqq II, was finally overthrown and killed by a revolt in Fez, which led to the establishment of direct Wattasid rule over most of Morocco.[3][9]
In contrast to their predecessors, the Marinids sponsored Maliki Sunnism as the official religion and made Fez their capital.[10][3] Under their rule, Fez enjoyed a relative golden age.[11] The Marinids also pioneered the construction of madrasas across the country which promoted the education of Maliki ulama, although Sufi sheikhs increasingly predominated in the countryside.[3] The influence of sharifian families and the popular veneration of sharifian figures such as the Idrisids also progressively grew in this period, preparing the way for later dynasties like the Saadians and Alaouites.[12]
History[edit]
Origins[edit]
The Marinids were a faction of the Berber tribal confederation of the Zenata. The Banu Marin were nomads who originated from the Zab (a region around Biskra in modern-day Algeria).[13][14] Following the arrival of Arab Bedouins in North Africa in the middle of the 11th-12th centuries, they were pushed to leave their lands in the region of Biskra.[15][16] They moved to the north-west of present-day Algeria,[17] before entering en masse into what is now Morocco by the beginning of the 13th century.[18] The Banu Marin first frequented the area between Sijilmasa and Figuig,[17][19] at times reaching as far as the Zab.[20] They moved seasonally from the Figuig oasis to the Moulouya River basin.[21][18]
The Marinids took their name from their ancestor, Marin ibn Wartajan al-Zenati.[22] Like earlier Berber ruling dynasties of North Africa and Al-Andalus had done, and in order to help gain legitimacy for their rule, Marinid historiography claimed an Arab origin for the dynasty through a North Arabian tribe.[23][24][25] The first leader of the Marinid dynasty, Abd al-Haqq I, was born in the Zab into a noble family. His great-grandfather, Abu Bakr, was a sheikh of the region.[26][27][28][29][30]
Rise[edit]
After arriving in present-day Morocco, they initially submitted to the Almohad dynasty, which was at the time the ruling regime. Their leader Muhyu contributed to the Almohad victory at Battle of Alarcos in 1195, in central Iberian Peninsula, though he died of his wounds.[17][18] His son and successor, Abd al-Haqq, was the effective founder of the Marinid dynasty.[6] Later, the Almohads suffered a severe defeat against Christian kingdoms of Iberia on 16 July 1212 in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. The severe loss of life at the battle left the Almohad state weakened and some of its regions somewhat depopulated.[4] Starting in 1213 or 1214,[17] the Marinids began to tax farming communities of today's north-eastern Morocco (the area between Nador and Berkane). The relationship between them and the Almohads became strained and starting in 1215, there were regular outbreaks of fighting between the two parties. In 1217 they tried to occupy the eastern part of present-day Morocco but were defeated by an Almohad army and Abd al-Haqq was killed.[18] They were expelled, pulling back from the urban towns and settlements, while their leadership passed on to Uthman I and then Muhammad I.[9] In the intervening years, they regrouped and managed to establish their authority again over the rural tribes in the regions around Taza, Fez, and Ksar el-Kebir.[18] Meanwhile, the Almohads lost their territories in Al-Andalus to Christian kingdoms like Castile, the Hafsids of Ifriqiya broke away in 1229, followed by the independence of the Zayyanid dynasty of Tlemcen in 1235. The Almohad caliph Sa'id nonetheless managed to defeat the Marinids again in 1244, forcing them to retreat back to their original lands south of Taza.[18]
It was under the leadership of Abu Yahya, whose reign began in 1244, that the Marinids re-entered into the region on a more deliberate campaign of conquest.[4][18] Between 1244 and 1248 the Marinids were able to take Taza, Rabat, Salé, Meknes and Fez from the weakened Almohads.[31] Meknes was captured in 1244 or 1245,[17][18] Fez was captured in 1248, and Sijilmassa in 1255.[17] The Almohad caliph, Sa'id, managed to reassert his authority briefly in 1248 by coming north with an army to confront them, at which point Abu Yahya formally submitted to him and retreated to a fortress in the Rif.[32] However, in June of the same year the caliph was ambushed and killed by the Zayyanids in a battle to the south of Oujda. The Marinids intercepted the defeated Almohad army on its return, and the Christian mercenaries serving under the Almohads entered the service of the Marinids instead.[33] Abu Yahya quickly reoccupied his previously conquered cities the same year, and established his capital in Fes.[33] His successor, Abu Yusuf Yaqub (1259–1286) captured Marrakech in 1269, effectively ending Almohad rule.[34][3]
Government[edit]
In many respects, the Marinids reproduced or continued the social and political structures that existed under the Almohads, ruling a primarily tribal state that relied on the loyalty of their own tribe and allies to maintain order and that imposed very little official civil administrative structures in the provinces beyond the capital.[45][46] They also maintained the Berber traditions of democratic or consultative government, particularly through the existence of a council of Marinid tribal chiefs whom the sultan consulted when necessary, primarily on military matters.[45] To maintain their control over the provinces beyond the capital of Fez, the Marinids mostly relied on appointing their family members to governorships or on securing local alliances through marriage. These local governors were in charge of both the administration and the military.[47][46] After Abu Yusuf Ya'qub captured Marrakesh in 1269, for example, he appointed his ally Muhammad ibn 'Ali, to whom he was related by marriage, as his khalifa (deputy or governor) in Marrakesh, a position that would continue to exist for a long time.[47] In some areas, like the mountainous Atlas and Rif regions, this resulted in indirect rule and a very limited presence of the central government.[46]
The Marinid sultan was the head of the state and wielded the title of amīr al-muslimīn ("Commander of the Muslims").[46][45] In later periods the Marinid sultans sometimes also granted themselves the title of amīr al-mu'minīn ("Commander of the Faithful").[45] The involvement of the sultan in state affairs varied depending on the personality of each; some, like Abu al-Hassan, were directly involved in the bureaucracy, while others less so.[45] Under the sultan, the heir-apparent usually held a large amount of power and often served as the head of the army on behalf of the sultan.[46] Aside from these dynastic positions, the vizier was the official with the most executive power and oversaw most of the day-to-day operations of government.[46][45] Several families of viziers became particularly powerful during the Marinid period and competed with each other for influence,[46] with the Wattasids being the most significant example in their later history. After the vizier, the most important officials were the public treasurer, in charge of taxes and expenditures, who reported to either the vizier or the sultan. Other important officials included the sultan's chamberlain, the secretaries of his chancery, and the sahib al-shurta or "chief of police", who also oversaw judiciary matters.[46] On some occasions the chamberlain was more important and the vizier reported to him instead.[45]
Military[edit]
The Marinid army was largely composed of tribes loyal to the Marinids or associated with the ruling dynasty. However, the number of men these tribes could field had its limits, which required the sultans to recruit from other tribes and from mercenaries.[46][47] Additional troops were drawn from other Zenata tribes of the central Maghreb and from the Arab tribes such as the Banu Hilal and Banu Ma'qil, who had moved further west into the Maghreb during the Almohad period.[46][47] The Marinids also continued to hire Christian mercenaries from Europe, as their Almohad predecessors had done, who consisted mainly of cavalry and served as the sultan's bodyguard.[46] This heterogeneity of the army is one of the reasons that direct central government control was not possible across the entire Marinid realm.[46][47] The army was sufficiently large, however, to allow the Marinid sultans to send military expeditions to the Iberian Peninsula in the 13th and 14th centuries.[48]
More details are known in particular about the army during the reign of Abu al-Hasan, which is described by some historical chroniclers such as Ibn Marzuk and al-Umari. His main attack force was composed of Zanata horsemen, around 40,000 strong, along with Arab tribal horsemen, around 1500 mounted archers of "Turkish" origin, and around 1000 Andalusi foot archers.[45][48] The regular standing army, which also formed the sultan's personal guard, consisted of between 2000 and 5000 Christian mercenaries from Aragon, Castile, and Portugal, as well as Black Africans and Kurds. These mercenaries were paid a salary from the treasury, while the chieftains of tribal levies were given iqta' lands as compensation.[45]
The army's main weakness was its naval fleet, which could not keep up with the fleet of Aragon. The Marinids had shipyards and naval arsenals at Salé and Sebta (Ceuta), but on at least one occasion the Marinid sultan hired mercenary ships from Catalonia.[45] Marinid military contingents, mostly Zenata horsemen (also known as jinetes in Spanish), were also hired by the states of the Iberian Peninsula. They served, for example, in the armies of the Kingdom of Aragon and the Nasrid Emirate of Granada on some occasions.[45] In Nasrid Granada, Zenata soldiers were led by exiled members of the Marinid family up until the late 14th century.[49]
Society[edit]
Population[edit]
The population under Marinid rule was mostly Berber and Arab, though there were contrasts between the main cities and the countryside as well as between sedentary and nomadic populations. The cities were heavily arabized and more uniformly Islamicized (aside from minority Jewish and Christian communities). Urban local politics was marked by affiliations with local aristocratic families.[45] In the countryside, the population remained largely Berber and dominated by tribal politics. The nomadic population, however, became more arabised than the rural sedentary population.[45] Nomadic Berber tribes were joined by nomadic Arab tribes such as the Banu Hilal, who had arrived in this far western region during the Almohad period.[47]
Jewish communities were a significant minority in urban centers and played a role in most aspects of society.[45] It was during the Marinid period that the Jewish quarter of Fez el-Jdid, the first mellah in Morocco, came into existence.[50][51] Jews were sometimes appointed to administrative positions in the state, though at other times they were dismissed from these positions for ideological and political reasons.[47] There were also some Christians in urban centers, although these were mainly merchants and mercenary soldiers from abroad, forming small minorities primarily in the coastal cities.[45][48]
Religion[edit]
While the Marinids did not declare themselves champions of a reformist religious ideology, as their Almohad and Almoravid predecessors had, they attempted to promote themselves as guardians of proper Islamic government as a way to legitimize their rule.[46][47] They also restored Maliki Sunni Islam as the official religion after the previous period of official Almohadism.[45] They allied themselves politically with the Maliki ulama (scholars/jurists), who were especially influential in the cities, and with the shurafa or sharifs (families claiming descent from Muhammad), with whom they sometimes intermarried.[47] After establishing themselves in Fez, the Marinids insisted on directly appointing the officials in charge of religious institutions and on managing the waqf (or habus) endowments that financed mosques and madrasas.[47]
The influence of the Maliki ulama of Fez was concentrated in Fez itself and was more important to urban culture; the scholars of Fez had more contact with the ulama of other major cities in the Maghreb than they did with religious leaders in the nearby countryside.[46] Sufism, maraboutism, and other more "heterodox" Islamic currents were more prominent in rural areas.[45][47] Indigenous Berber religions and religious practices also continued to linger in these areas.[45] Some Sufi brotherhoods, especially those led by sharifian families, posed a potential political challenge to Marinid rule and were involved in occasional rebellions, but in general the Marinids attempted to incorporate them into their sphere of influence.[47] They also used their patronage of Maliki institutions as a counterbalance to Sufism.[46] Sufism was also practiced in the cities, often in a more scholarly form and with the involvement of the sultan, state officials, and various scholars.[45]
Language[edit]
As the ruling family and its supporting tribes were Zenata Berbers, Berber (Tamazight) was generally the language spoken at the Marinid court in Fez.[48][47][52][53] The Marinids also continued the Almohad practice of appointing religious officials who could preach in Tamazight.[47] Tamazight languages and dialects also continued to be widely spoken in rural areas.[45] However, Arabic was the language of law, government, and most literature,[47][48] and assimilation of the region's population to Arabic language and culture also advanced significantly during this period.[48]
