Whatever happened to Barbary
pirates? How did Islam mesh with
Berber beliefs? And why was Morocco
the exception to Ottoman rule? Jamil
Abun-Nasr unravels these and other
Moroccan mysteries in A History of
the Maghreb in the Islamic Period .In The Conquest of Morocco, Douglas
Porch describes a controversial
colonial war promoted as a ‘civilising
mission’ and supported by business
interests – a chapter of Middle Eastern
history since repeated, as Porch
observes in the 2005 edition.
The Rise of Mellahs
Under the Saadians, Jewish communities also took up crucial roles as dealers of the hottest
Moroccan commodities of the time: salt and sugar. When European Jewish communities faced
the Inquisition, forced conversions and summary executions, the comparatively tolerant Saadian
dynasty provided Jewish communities with some security, setting aside a section of Marrakesh
next to the royal kasbah as a Jewish quarter, or mellah – a name derived from the Arabic word
for salt. This protection was repaid many times over in taxes levied on Jewish and Christian
businesses, and the royally flush Saadians clearly got the sweet end of the deal. Yet several
Jewish Moroccans rose to prominence as royal advisors, and in the Saadian Tombs of
Marrakesh, trusted Jewish confidantes are buried closer to kings than royal wives.
By day, Jewish merchants traded alongside Christian and
Muslim merchants, and were entrusted with precious salt,
sugar and gold brought across the Sahara; by night they were
under official guard in their quarters. Once the mellahs of Fez
and Marrakesh became overcrowded with European arrivals,
other notable mellahs were founded in Essaouira, Safi, Rabat
and Meknès, and the traditions of skilled handicrafts that
flourished there continue to this day. The influence of the
mellahs spread throughout Morocco, especially in tangy dishes
with the signature salted, pickled ingredients of Moroccan Jewish cuisine.
PIRATES & POLITICS: THE EARLY ALAWITES
The Saadian empire dissolved in the 17th century like a sugar cube in Moroccan mint tea, and
civil war prevailed until the Alawites came along. With illustrious ancestors from the Prophet
Mohammed’s family and descendents extending to the current King Mohammed VI, the
Alawites were quite a change from the free-wheeling Saadians and their anarchic legacy. But
many Moroccans might have preferred anarchy to the second Alawite ruler, the dreaded
Moulay Ismail (1672–1727).
A despot whose idea of a good time included public disembowelments and amateur dentistry
on courtiers who peeved him, Moulay Ismail was also a scholar, dad to hundreds of children
and Mr Popularity among his royal European peers. European nobles gushed about lavish
dinner parties at Moulay Ismail’s palace in Meknès, built by conscripted Christian labourers.
Rumour has it that when these decidedly non-union construction workers finished the job, some
were walled in alive. The European royal party tab wasn’t cheap, either, but Moulay Ismail
wasn’t worried: piracy would cover it.
In Her Majesty’s Not-So-Secret
Service: Barbary Pirates
Queen Elizabeth I kicked off the Atlantic pirate trade, allying
against her arch-nemesis King Phillip II of Spain with the
Saadians and specially licensed pirates known as privateers.
The most notoriously effective hires were the Barbary pirates,
Moriscos (Spanish Muslims) who’d been forcibly converted and
persecuted in Spain and hence had an added motivation to
shake down Spaniards. James I outlawed English privateering in 1603, but didn’t seem to mind