Marinid Sultanate

Benimerines, Mariníes, Mariníes or Merínidas (1244-1465) is the Spanish name given to the Banu Marin, members of an empire of Zenata Berber origin whose fundamental nucleus was in the north of present-day Morocco. During the 13th and 14th centuries, the Benimerines would also briefly control some parts of Andalusia and the eastern Maghreb. They arose after the fall of the Almohad Empire and were replaced by the Wattasid dynasty. They were founders of the Jdid neighborhood in Fez, which they made their capital and where they also built many monuments.

Origin and first expansion

The Marinids were a nomadic tribe from the eastern Maghreb (Ifrikiya, Zibán) that left the Aurés at the beginning of the XIII century and moved across the Oranesado plateau to the Muluya river basin in southeastern Morocco. In 1213 they were in the Guercif region, from which they continued their march westward, mainly in search of better pastures, since they were nomadic herders. They belonged to the numerous Cenete Berber confederation. Driven by famine, after the defeat of Las Navas de Tolosa, which weakened the Almohad authorities, they began to cross the Muluya River and spread to the northwest. In 1216 they inflicted a serious defeat on the Almohad governor of Fez and in 1217 they also defeated the governor of Taza. Despite their small number, they managed to spread through rural areas and begin to collect tribute from some cities, such as Fez, Meknes and Rabat. The Almohads were unable to defeat them.

Victory and elimination of the Almohads

In 1245, they conquered Meknes; in 1248, Taza and Fez; in 1251, Rabat and Sale; in 1257, Siyilmasa —which they later lost—; in 1269, Marrakesh; in 1271, the region of the Draa river; and finally, in 1274, Tangier, Ceuta and recovered Siyilmasa. In the middle of the XIII century, however, The main part of the Benimerin territory was already in the power of the tribal confederation that gradually transformed into a sedentary and dynastic State, interested in expanding both through the rest of the Maghreb and through the Iberian Peninsula to dominate the trade routes of the region. capital of the new state was set at Fez.

In 1243 or 1245, in the time of Abu Yahya ibn Abd al-Haqq, the Marinids recognized the authority of the Hafsid sultans.

Driven from their southern base, the Marinids moved north under Abu Yahya ibn Abd al-Haqq and took Fez in 1244, making it their capital. Once installed in Fez, they declared war on the weakened Almohads with the help of Christian mercenaries. In 1269 Abu Yusuf Yaaqub (1259-1286) captured Marrakesh and took control of much of the Maghreb by the end of 1268, including present-day northern Morocco, northern Algeria, and Tunisia.

Inner of the madrasa Bou Inania in Mequinez.

Abu Yúsuf: campaigns in the Iberian Peninsula

The first Marinid expedition to the Iberian Peninsula took place in 1275. Sultan Abú Yúsuf left Fez on March 30 for Tangier; he entrusted the expedition to one of his sons and made sure that the lord of Ceuta provided the necessary ships to cross the strait. On May 13, the first Marinid forces landed in Tarifa. In mid-August the sultan himself followed them, with more troops. He then met with Muhammad II of Granada and the arraeces of Málaga and Guadix, enemies with the lord of Granada, to try to coordinate their forces. The Benimerin army began the incursion into Castilian territory on 22 on August. Fundamentally, it was a cavalcade in which they devastated the lands of Córdoba, Úbeda and Baeza. After running through these regions, they turned towards Écija, where they defeated the hosts of Nuño González de Lara, who advanced from the border on 7 of September; The latter, who had tried to avoid the combat, perished in the clash. The victors, however, failed to take Écija and returned to Algeciras in mid-September. At the end of October, the Marinid army set out again, towards the Sevillian lands and then to try in vain to take Jerez. On November 18 he was back in Algeciras, laden with booty. The sultan returned to the Maghreb on January 19, 1276, after probably signing a two-year truce with the Castilian.

Abú Yúsuf had to quell certain rebellions during the first half of 1276, which did not allow him to return to the Iberian Peninsula until the following year. Preparations took so long that the expedition was delayed until June 1277.

Abu Yaqub (1286-1307)

Abu Yusuf died in 1286 and was succeeded to the throne by his son Abu Yaqub, who had to crush a rebellion against him by some groups and descendants of a former sultan. The rebellions against him were constant from the outset, and were stirred up and used by the eastern neighbor of the sultanate: the Abdalwadis. His advent meant a change of priorities in the expansion of the sultanate: the Iberian Peninsula ceded primacy to the east of the Maghreb, whose conquest should allow the Marinids to access the trade routes in the region. Regional trade was leaving the Moroccan area to focus on more eastern territories, which the Marinids wanted to seize for economic reasons. The raids beyond the Strait of Gibraltar that had marked the previous reign ceased; Abu Yaqub only intervened in the peninsula on one occasion, and as a reaction to a Castilian offensive. The only objective affecting the peninsula was control of the strait, considered necessary to protect the sultanate and its expansion in the Maghreb. This minor Interest in peninsular affairs allowed the Benimerines to renew the truce with the Castilians in 1286 and maintain good relations with the peninsular States in general. The constant internal rebellions and the lack of forces prevented an offensive program in the peninsula.

Castilian rearmament led, however, to the resumption of hostilities between Castile and the sultanate in 1291. The Castilians prevented a first attempt at a Benimerin intervention in the peninsula by beating the enemy fleet on August 6 of that year, a battle in which they had the collaboration of the Granadans. They surrounded Tarifa, which the Benimerines did not try to help, while the Nasrids took control of the rest of their Iberian squares. Tarifa finally fell, after about four months of siege. Attempts to recover the square were minimal and were limited to sending a support contingent to the Nasrids in 1294, who tried to wrest it from the Castilians.

With the peninsular positions lost, the sultan focused on the North African conquest. He subjected Tlemcen to a long eight-year siege (1299-1307), which ultimately failed.

In 1305, another Benimerin rebelled against Abu Yaqub, encouraged by Granada, who wanted to weaken him and maintain indirect control of Ceuta. With the support of the Gumaras and seized Larache and Arcila, he had to gather an army that he handed over to his son to stop the rival's advance. This army was defeated and the claimant supported by Granada was able to continue his march, seize Tiqisas and then with Alcazarquivir (1307). The revolt was not put down until the following reign.

Abu Thabit Amir (1307-1308)

His reign began with new uprisings and succession crises. He was the grandson of his predecessor on the throne, and had to face the ambitions of his uncle. The need to face him forced him to definitively abandon the long siege of Tlemcen and to agree with the Abdalwadis. In the north, the sultanate had lost all claim to conquest and was on the defensive against the Nasrids, who had extended their authority to Ceuta at the end of the previous reign.

He entered Fez in July 1307, but Marrakech and its region rose up against him at the end of the year and the rebellion was not put down until the beginning of the following year. The sultan had to appear in Anfa and Rabat to disrupt the opposition groups also existed in these cities, in addition to the rebels that still existed in the north.

He managed to defeat the rebellious Marinid prince Utman ibn Abi l-Ula after several failed campaigns, but did not completely end his authority. He died unexpectedly on July 28, 1308. At that time the Marinid state suffered a serious crisis that evidenced the problems of trying to combine a tribal system, which tended to the autonomy of the groups that formed it, with dynastic centralizing tendencies.

Once this objective was achieved, they tried to extend their control to the commercial traffic of the Strait of Gibraltar. The Nasrids of Granada ceded Algeciras to the Benimerines and they declared holy war on the Christian states, successively occupying the cities of Rota, Algeciras and Gibraltar, besieging Tarifa for the first time in 1294. They also strongly influenced the politics of the Kingdom of Granada, where from 1275 important contingents of troops stood out. At that time, Alfonso X reigned in Castile, although at the time of the first invasion, which devastated the surrounding countryside of towns such as Écija and Jerez de la Frontera, he was in France to try to get the crown of the Holy Roman Empire. The Marinid Sultan Abu ul-Hasan and the King of Granada enter into a mutual agreement of alliance, preaching that "the Spanish land will soon be conquered and that there will be land for all Muslims." In these fights Admiral Alonso Jofre Tenorio dies, who was beheaded. Castile launched several raids into the western part of the empire, sacking Salé in 1260 and attempting a general invasion in 1267, which was repelled by the Benimerines.

The internal struggles of the kingdom did not prevent Sultan Abu Said Uthman II (1310-1331) from constructing numerous buildings in Fez, among which were the madrasas that served for the recruitment of officials as part of a plan to centralize the kingdom and reduce the influence of the marabouts.

Abu ur-Rabbi Sulayman (1308-1310)

Abu Thabit Amir was succeeded by his brother Abu ur-Rabbi Sulayman, who had to face a new succession crisis, albeit less important than his. Once again, an uncle of the new sultan tried to seize the throne, unsuccessfully Abu ur-Rabbi Sulayman defeated his uncle and also put an end to the long rebellion of Utman ibn Abi l-Ula in August 1308. He also renewed peace with the Abdalwadis, in order to protect the eastern flank against the next offensive against Ceuta. With the same aim, an attempt was made to isolate the Nasrids, an objective that was favored by the displeasure that the Castilians and Aragonese caused the Granada control of the squares near the Strait of Gibraltar.

The Benimerines recaptured Ceuta on July 21, 1309, with the collaboration of the Aragonese fleet. The difficulties of Granada favored them: the Nasrid sultan agreed to cede them some peninsular places (Algeciras, Ronda) to break the league in their against and that the Marinirines stopped collaborating with the Castilians and Aragonese. In 1310 the sultan had to crush a new rebellion against him, supported this time by Castile. Abu ur-Rabí Sulaymán died of poisoning on November 25 of that same year.

Abu Said Uthman II (1310-1331)

The new sovereign, Abu Said Uthman II, was proclaimed in Taza and faced the typical succession crisis characteristic of the Marinids.

The Marinid contingents in al-Andalus

Since the time of Abu Yúsuf, it was common for the Marinid dissidents who rebelled against the sultan and were defeated to go to the Iberian Peninsula, often at the service of the Nasrids of Granada. These contingents, sometimes entire families, did not they sometimes lost the illusion of seizing the throne of Fez and dealt with the sultan's enemies, both Muslims and Christians. Peninsular Christian states. On the other hand, these North African troops obtained notable power in Granada.

Abu ul-Hasan: expansion and instability

The Benimerine troops managed to break the Castilian siege of Algeciras in the winter of 1339-1340 and undertake raids through Arcos de la Frontera, Medina Sidonia and Jerez until they were defeated by the troops of the council of the latter. However, the Benimerin fleet overwhelmingly defeated the one that served Alfonso XI of Castile in the naval battle of April 8, 1340. The Castilian admiral Alonso Jofre Tenorio himself perished in the fight and the Castilian fleet was greatly depleted. This naval victory allowed to the Merinids to transfer new troops to the Iberian Peninsula without embarrassment to undertake a new campaign, which turned out to be the last one they carried out north of the Strait of Gibraltar. For his part, Alfonso XI reinforced the defenses of Tarifa and tried to rebuild the fleet, requesting help from other nations to do so. Their objective was to regain control of the strait. The Genoese agreed to contribute fifteen galleys in June of that same year. Finally, however, the Marinids and their Nasrid allies suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of a Castilian-Portuguese coalition at the Battle of Salado. The Marinid sultan, who had also lost control of the Strait of Gibraltar, had to go to Africa, threatened by a revolt in the Maghreb. The disaster put an end to the campaigns of the dynasty in the Iberian Peninsula. Not so with the attempts to return to the peninsula: the fleets at the service of Alfonso —Genoese, Aragonese, Portuguese and the Castilian itself— had to prevent the passage of troops to al-Andalus in the winter from 141-1342 and they had to deal with enemy ships in May 1243. In these clashes, the Marinid ships bore the brunt and were unable to transport large contingents to Europe. The victory at sea allowed Alfonso to undertake the siege of Algeciras on August 3, 1342. Attempts to rescue the square failed and Algeciras surrendered to Alfonso on March 25, 1344, after a long siege and through the mediation of the Sultan of Granada Yusuf I.

Under Abu ul-Hasan, nicknamed the black sultan, the Marinids tried again to unify the Maghreb. Thus, in 1337 the Zijanid empire in Algeria was conquered, followed in 1347 by the defeat of the Hafsid Empire of Ifriqiya. However, in 1340 the Benimerines suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of a Castilian-Portuguese coalition at the Battle of Salado, and finally had to withdraw from Andalusia. The disaster put an end to the dynasty's campaigns in the Iberian Peninsula.

The loss of Algeciras put an end to the Marinid expansion projects in the Iberian Peninsula. The increase in the sultanate's war power was not enough to launch simultaneous offensives in the two planned sectors: the Iberian sector and the central and eastern Maghreb. The loss of Algeciras meant that Abu ul-Hasan thereafter focused on expansion to the east, which he achieved, albeit with short-lived results.

The pretext was a succession crisis in the Hafsi state, in which Abu ul-Hasan decided to intervene, theoretically in favor of the legitimate heir to the throne, who had been overthrown by his brother Abu Hafs Umar II. He left the government. He left Tlemcen in the hands of his son Abu Inan Faris and left for the east in the spring of 1347. He soon subdued the southern provinces between the Zab mountains and Tripoli, then seized Bugia and Constantine. Tunisia on September 15 of that year. Thus, he achieved the unification of a large part of the Maghreb.

The triumph, however, was temporary: the sultan was defeated by the Arab tribes of Cairuan on April 7, 1348 and this setback favored the outbreak of a new succession crisis: Abu Inan Faris rebelled and proclaimed himself sultan in June. He made his father flee, but at the same time unleashed a serious crisis in the empire: a grandson of the deposed sultan took Fez, the Abdalwadis recaptured Tlemcen in August or September, part of the Tunisian conquests were lost and the Castilians they took advantage of the situation to advance in the Iberian Peninsula. The Black Death also exacerbated the problem, since it reached the region that year of 1348.

Abu Inan Faris: temporary expansion

The death of his father strengthened the position of Abu Inan Faris, who proclaimed himself prince of the believers to try to reinforce his legitimacy. He resumed attempts to subdue the Maghreb, although he was less successful in doing so than his father. In his reign the strength of the viziers also began, who were obtaining part of the power hitherto held by the sultans. Time and again power remained in the hands of the viziers, who used it for their personal benefit.

He wrested Tlemcen from the Abdalwadis with great difficulty in April/May 1352 and captured Bejaia in September/October, which he lost, however, in February/March of the following year. Internal divisions prevented him from continuing the advance to the east until 1357, the year in which it took possession of Constantine. His supporters seized Tunisia in September/October of that same year, but the sultan himself had to return to Fez due to the seriousness of the internal state crisis, which paralyzed his conquest projects.

Later, after several revolts in the conquered territories, Abu ul-Hasan was deposed by his son Abu Inan Faris (1348-1358), who tried to reconquer Algeria and Tunisia. Despite temporary military successes, the dynasty began its decline after the assassination of Abu Inan Faris, who was strangled by his own vizier in 1358.

Viziers dominate

Abu Salim Ibrahim was assassinated (1361) at the instigation of his powerful vizier Umar ibn Abdalá, who agreed with Muhammad V of Granada to hand over almost all the places that the Marinids still controlled in the Iberian Peninsula —the main one of the which was Ronda—in exchange for the latter interceding with Pedro I of Castile so that he would allow the passage to Africa of a grandson of Abu ul-Hasan whom the vizier wanted to enthrone. in the Iberian Peninsula as the growth of the Nasrid influence.

Abu Zayyan Muhammad II was closely watched by the vizier Umar ibn Abdullah, who had him assassinated when he tried to escape and arrest ibn Abdullah. Some of the Marinid emirs tried to get rid of the vizier in 1362, but the defeated.

The last Benimerin square in the Iberian Peninsula, Gibraltar, was ceded to the sultan of Granada in 1374 in exchange for his favoring a change in the Benimerin throne that would allow the cousin of the then vizier to take over this position. The sultan of then he was Abu Zayyan Muhammad III, but power was actually exercised by his vizier Abu Bakr ibn Gazi ibn al-Kas. The throne then passed to Abu l-Abas Ahmad I al-Mustansir, son of the late Abu Salim Ibrahim and candidate of the new vizier. Muhammad V took advantage of the moment to further weaken his southern neighbor by promoting the passage to the Maghreb of another Marinid, who took control of Siyilmasa and Marrakech, while Abu l-Abas Ahmad kept the territories located further to the north. Thus, the Marinid State was split in two in 1374. From then on, Nasrid interventions in the decadent Marinid State were constant.

Relations between the two Marinid sultans were not good and Abu l-Abas Ahmad ended up taking the rival capital of Marrakech in 1382.

Several Arab tribes outside the control of the government spread lawlessness throughout Morocco, accelerating the decline of the empire. The marabouts ceased their support of the sultan and the Marinid empire ended up fracturing into several minuscule kingdoms and city-states.

After 1420, the Marinid sultans came under the control of the Wattasids, who as viziers wielded real power in the empire. The Marinid sultans, who were often children, followed one another quickly, securing the power of the vizier. However the Wattasíes were unable to consolidate the empire, so that in 1415 Portugal was able to occupy the city of Ceuta, and by 1513 it had gained control over all the important ports on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. After Sultan Abd al-Haqq II (1421-1465) tried in vain to end the power of the Wattasids, they finally overthrew the Marinid dynasty.

The benimerine tombs in Fez, Morocco.

Rulers

• First Benimerines bosses
  • Muhammad al-A'dar ibn al-'Afiya ibn 'Askar al-Mujaddab (?-1145) (of the Banu 'Askar lineage of benimerines)
  • Hamama ibn Muhámmad ibn Wazir (1145-?) (start the Banu Hamama line to which the rest of the benimerines rulers belong)
  • Abu Bakr ibn Hamama ibn Muhámmad (?-1165/1166)
  • Abu Jálid Mahyu ibn Abi Bakr ibn Hamama (1165/1166-1196)
  • Abu Muhámmad ‘Abd al-Haq ibn Mahyu ibn Abi Bakr (after Abd al-Haqq I) (1196-1215)
• 1215-1269: Benimerin chiefs, fighting the Almohads, based in Taza, Morocco, between 1216 and 1244
  • Abd al-Haqq I (1215-1217)
  • Uthman I (1217-1240)
  • Muhámmad I (1240-1244)
• From 1244: Benimerines of Fez
  • Abu Yahya ibn Abd al-Haqq (1244-1258)
  • Join (1258-1259)
  • Abu Yúsuf Ya`qub (1259-1269)
• 1269-1374: Sultan
  • Abu Yúsuf Ya`qub (1269-1286)
  • Abu Ya`qub Yúsuf (1286-1306)
  • Abu Thábit Ámir (1307-1308)
    • Uthmán ibn Abi l-'Ula pretendiente (1307-1309)
  • Abu ur-Rabi Sulayman (1308-1310)
  • Abu Saíd Uthman II (1310-1331)
  • Abu al-Hasan 'Ali (1331-1348)
  • Abu Inán Faris (1348-1358)
  • Abu Zayyan Muhammad ibn Faris (1358)
  • Abu Bakr II (1358-1359)
  • Abu Sálim ‘Ali II (1359-1361)
  • Abu Úmar Tashfín (1361)
  • Abu Zayyan Muhammad ibn Faris (1362-1366), 2nd reign
  • Abu Faris Abd ul-‘Aziz I (1366-1372)
  • Muhámmad III as-Saíd (1372-1374)
• Sultanates in Fez and Marrákush (1374-1382)
  • Abd al-Rahman, Marrákush
  • Abu l-Abbás Áhmad, in Fez
• 1382-1465: Sultan
  • Abu l-Abbás Áhmad (1382-1384)
  • Abu Zayyan Muhámmad IV (1384-1386)
  • Muhámmad V (1386-1387)
  • Abu l-Abbás Áhmad (1387-1393)
  • Abd ul-‘Aziz II (1393-1398)
  • Abdulah (1398-1399)
  • Abu Sa‘id Uthman III (1399-1420)
  • Abd al-Haqq II (1420-1465)
    • Abu Zayyan, the son of the former, changed his name to Fernando de Fez-Muley, the founder of the Fez-Muley family.

Culture

• Ibn Battuta
• Ibn Idari
• Al-Marrakushi ibn Al-Banna (c. 1256-c. 1321)

Marinid art

• Archaeological Park of the Meriní Walls of Algeciras
• Church of Conception (Daimalos)