North Africa’s Muslim story in the 14th century mostly stars a Moroccan dynasty we call the Marinids, after their founder whose first name was Marin. They were Berbers of the Zenata tribe, locked in long rivalry and conflict with other Berber tribes such as the ones who had become the ruling Alhomad dynasty. The Marinids spent some time in the mountains, then swept down into the valley and began assaulting the Almohads’ main cities.
The Almohads had one foot on the Iberian Peninsula, where the Reconquista led by Castile had powerful momentum. Losses in Spain weakened the Almohads generally, so that their dynasty was vulnerable. The Marinids over-ran their capital and key fortress of Marrakesh in 1269, overthrowing them as a ruling power.
They, however, centered their new capital on Fez. The Marinids built a new quarter onto Fez, called Fez J’did (“New Fez”), a center for civil administration. That’s now part of the Old City of Fez that tourists visit. Fez had a thriving Jewish section, too. Marrakesh remained an important city for Sufi pilgrimages, because it had the tombs of seven Muslim saints. But it never regained administrative or commercial power until after 1500.
The Marinids had a key problem: Arabic nomads had settled among the Berbers during the early Conquest years. By now, they were as “native” as the Berbers, but they were ethnically distinct and felt superior by their genetic connection to the Prophet. They still kept track of themselves as tribes, often called the Bani Something—-the Sons of Somebody. Originally very small groups of no more than 200 settlers, they had become almost a majority in much of Western Sahara, Mauritania, and Southern Algeria. They’re still a large presence in those places. They speak a dialect of Arabic called Hassaniya, probably of much interest to linguists because it’s a transplantation of classical Arabic that developed in isolation from Arabia, with influence from African languages like Wolof. There are about 3 million Hassaniya speakers today.
The Berber Marinids wanted to rule over the Arab tribes, but the Arab tribes strongly believed that a descendant of Mohammed should be in power. They were the launch-pad of the Fatimid Dynasty around 900, after all; they may have adopted Sunni theology, but they still cared deeply about Mohammed’s genetic line. The Marinid solution was to talk up the lineage of Idris.
Idris had been a great-grandson of Mohammed’s grandson Hasan. He fled to hide among the Berbers after an unsuccessful rebellion of Ali’s descendants against the Abbasid Caliphs. He is known as the first Muslim king of Morocco, Idris I. He founded a town called Moulay Idris, and he conquered cities like Fez and Tlemcen. He married the Berber chief’s daughter but was poisoned by Caliph Harun al-Rashid in 791, two months before his son Idris II was born. The Berbers raised the child and kept him in power, establishing the first kingdom of Morocco. Their dynasty lasted until 985, when it had been wiped out by Abd al-Rahman of Cordoba.
Idris made a good founding myth for the Marinids. He was a Sharif, that is, a descendant of Hasan (Sayid means a descendant of Husein). Although his dynasty was not in power, plenty of men could claim to trace their ancestry back to the family of Idris. The Marinids encouraged and financed some official Sharifs to show respect to the line of Mohammed, while actually cutting the Arab tribes out of power. It seems to have worked some of the time, at least well enough to keep the Marinids in power.
Northwest Africa was divided into roughly four zones of rule or influence: the Empire of Mali and the Kingdoms of Ifriqiya, Tlemcen, and Fez. Fez, of course, was the perch of the Marinids, and we’ve separately looked at Mali with its caravan city, Timbuktu. The other two kingdoms were portions of the Mediterranean coast. Starting with Fez in the extreme west, next came Tlemcen, roughly modern Algeria. Next to the east, Ifriqiya was ruled by the Hafsid dynasty. It was a much larger area, expanding as far east as Egypt would tolerate.
Tlemcen’s independence from the Marinids lasted until 1337. Prior to the annexation, there had been chronic war. Starting in 1299, the Marinids had built a rival city to draw trade away from Tlemcen. Their city had nicer streets and a public bath, and it did succeed in emptying Tlemcen’s markets and port. But only for a while: after winning a battle, the rulers in Tlemcen tore the rival city down. With Tlemcen annexed, the Marinids had absolute control of the western end of the Saharan trade routes. Their control must have extended only so far south, with the powerful Empire of Mali jealously controlling its ability to tax and mine gold.
Ifriqiya’s fortunes went up and down, after it had become an independent kingdom in 1229 when its Alhomad governors dared the weakening Almohad kings to come stop them. It was the scene of the 9th Crusade, when King Louis landed at Tunis, then died. The resulting trade treaty with Sicily must have increased its wealth and security. It often controlled the islands off Spain, such as Majorca, too.
The Marinids’ Kingdom of Fez grew to its largest size under Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Uthman, between 1331 and 1351. His name in simpler form was Hasan, son of Uthman II (1310-1331). Both of these kings worked to stabilize the Kingdom of Fez. Uthman established many madrassas in Fez and cities like Rahat, to support the growth of a middle-class civil servant base. Uthman had a little breathing space from Arab tribal revolts because his mother had been a tribal leader’s daughter.
Uthman probably married at least one Arab girl, but the wife who became the next ruler’s mother was an Ethiopian. Her son Hasan was called “the Black Sultan.” I’m not sure what advantages were gained with this alliance, but you can be sure there were some. The Black Sultan then chose very strategically: he married a princess of the Hafsid dynasty of Ifriqiya, which left Tlemcen squeezed to death and probably aided its 1337 annexation.
Hasan had enough power to get back into the Spanish game. In 1309, Castile had captured the island of Gibraltar, the stepping-stone between Africa and Europe. Even while they were still busy fighting Tlemcen, Hasan’s navy managed to capture back Gibraltar in 1333. The Emir of Granada was worried that the Marinids would try to annex their foothold in Spain, too, in spite of past Marinids having renounced their Spanish land. But the year following the recapture of Gibraltar, a three-way truce was signed between Fez, Granada, and even Castile. The truce was for four years, allowing all parties to rebuild their strength. It ran out in 1338, and in 1340, the Marinids had a major naval battle against Castile—-and won.
During the years when Granada’s Emir was building the Alhambra Palace, Granada acted more or less like a client state to the Kingdom of Fez. As long as the Marinids controlled the entire Mahgreb—-the coastlands and mountains of northwest Africa—there was a stable balance of power.