Key
Moroccan
Dynasties
» » Idrissid 8th-10th
century
» » Almoravid 11th-
12th century
» » Almohad 12th-13th
century
» » Merenid 13th-15th
century
» » Saadian 16th-17th
century
» » Alawite 17th
century-present
Christian mercenaries and Jewish policy advisors to help conduct the business of the Merenid
state.
But this time the new rulers faced a tough crowd not easily convinced by promises of piety.
Fez revolted, and the Castilian Christians held sway in Salé. To shore up their Spanish
interests, the Merenids allied with the Castilian princes against the Muslim rulers of Granada.
Once again, this proved not to be a winning strategy. By the 14th century, Muslim Spain was
lost to the Christians, and the Strait of Gibraltar was forfeited. The Merenids also didn’t expect
the Spanish Inquisition, when over one million Muslims and Jews would be terrorised and
forcibly expelled from Spain.
Without military might or religious right to back their imperial claims, the
Merenids chose another time-tested method: marriage. In the 14th
century, Merenid leaders cleverly co-opted their foes by marrying
princesses from Granada and Tunis, and claimed Algiers, Tripoli and the
strategic Mediterranean port of Ceuta.Death by Plague & Office Politics
But the bonds of royal marriage were not rat-proof, and the Merenid
empire was devastated by plague. Abu Inan, son of the Merenid leader
Abu Hassan, glimpsed opportunity in the Black Death, and proclaimed
himself the new ruler despite one minor glitch: his father was still alive. Abu
Hassan hurried back from Tripoli to wrest control from his treacherous son
in Fez, but to no avail. Abu Inan buried his father in the royal Merenid
necropolis outside Rabat in 1351, but he too was laid to rest nearby after
he was strangled by one of his own advisors in 1358.BERBER PRIDE & PREJUDICE
Despite a rich tradition of poetry, petroglyphs, music and art dating as far back as 5000 BC, the Amazigh were often
misconstrued as uneducated by outsiders, because no standard written language had been consistently applied to their many
distinct languages. The Romans tried for 250 years to take over Amazigh territory and institute Roman customs – and when
that failed they bad-mouthed their adversaries, calling them ‘Berbers’, or Barbarians. The name stuck, and so did anti-Amazigh
prejudice.
The protectorate established French as the official language of Morocco to make it easier to conduct (and hence control)
business transactions and affairs of state. Complex Amazigh artistic symbolism and traditional medicine were dismissed as
charming but irrelevant superstition by those not privy to the oral traditions accompanying them, and the educated classes
were encouraged to distance themselves from their Berber roots. But Amazigh languages and traditions have persisted in
Morocco, and the Berber Pride movement has recently reclaimed ‘Berber’ as a unifying term.
After independence (1955–56), Arabic was adopted as the official language, though French continues to be widely spoken
among the elite, and Darija is the commonly understood Moroccan Arabic dialect. As recently as the 1980s, the use of Berber
script was subject to censure in Morocco. But with the backing of King Mohammed VI – who is part Berber himself – the
ancient written Tifinagh alphabet that first emerged around the time of Egyptian hieroglyphics was revived in 2003, and a
modernised version is now being taught in some schools as a standardised written Berber.
More than 60% of Moroccans now call themselves Amazigh or Berber, and Berber languages are currently spoken by some
8.5 to 10 million Moroccans. Berber Pride is now mainstream in Morocco, with the introduction of the official Moroccan Chaîne
Amazigh, offering TV and radio broadcasts in three Amazigh languages. Yet Human Rights Watch reported that in 2010,
parents who gave their children Amazigh names were told the names were rejected by state bureaucrats as ‘not recognizably
Moroccan’. After a public outcry, the policy was reversed, so babies too can show Berber Pride in Morocco.