Idrisid dynasty

From 788 until 974 the Idrisids ruled most of what is now Morocco, together with part of western Algeria, and their state became the leading power in the far west of the Islamic world. Their founder, Idris I, was a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad through his grandson Hasan who had fled Abbasid persecution in Arabia. The dynasty founded Fez, spread Islam among the Berber tribes of the interior, and is remembered in modern Morocco as the start of its long tradition of monarchy.

By the later eighth century the far Maghreb had slipped out of caliphal control, after Berber revolts that began in 739–40, and was divided among local tribes and principalities. Idris ibn Abdallah, who had fought on the losing side against the Abbasids at the Battle of Fakhkh near Mecca, escaped west, reaching Tangier and then, by 788, the old Roman town of Volubilis. There the Awraba Berbers, already Muslim, accepted him as their imam, seeing a descendant of the Prophet as a source of prestige. He extended his authority across northern Morocco as far as Tlemcen and founded a settlement at Fez, but in 791 he was poisoned, reportedly by an Abbasid agent.

Idris I's son, Idris II, was born after his father's death. He was raised by his father's freedman Rashid and proclaimed imam in 802, at the age of eleven. To free himself from Awraba tutelage he brought in Arab settlers and officials, and in 809 moved his seat to Fez, which he developed into a capital. Arab immigrants arrived from Córdoba in 818 and from Ifriqiya in 824, so that Fez became more Arabic in character than any other city of the Maghreb. By his death in 828 the Idrisid state stretched from western Algeria to the Sous in the south and was the leading power in Morocco, though Sijilmasa, the Barghawata and Nekor remained outside it.

Idris II's successor Muhammad shared the realm among his brothers, creating several Idrisid statelets that soon fought each other. Order returned under Ali ibn Muhammad, who reigned from 836 to 849, and his brother Yahya I, whose rule until 863 was peaceful. Fresh partitions followed, and in 868 Kharijite Berber tribes defeated the ruler Ali ibn Umar before another branch of the family secured Fez.

How to describe the dynasty's faith is debated. Idris I based his legitimacy on descent from the Prophet, which some historians call a proto-Shia or Alid position, and he drew support from Berbers of the Mu'tazili school. Later sources and many scholars, however, describe the state founded by his son as Sunni in doctrine. The Idrisid era advanced the Islamisation of the Berber interior, and their towns were linked to trade routes across the Sahara.

In the tenth century Morocco became a battleground between the Fatimids of Ifriqiya and the Umayyads of Córdoba, fought largely through Zenata Berber allies. In 917 the Miknasa, acting for the Fatimids, forced Yahya IV to accept Fatimid overlordship and later deposed him. An Idrisid briefly regained Fez in 925, but in 927 the city was lost for good. The family retreated to the fortress of Hajar an-Nasr in the north, shifting allegiance between the two caliphates. In 973 the Umayyad general Ghalib invaded, and in 974 the last ruler, al-Hasan, was taken to Córdoba as a hostage. A bid to return in 985 failed.

The tombs of Idris I and Idris II became major pilgrimage sites, and many sharifian families claimed Idrisid descent; one such line, the Hammudids, ruled cities in Spain and northern Morocco in the eleventh century. Later dynasties, from the Marinids and the Wattasids to the ruling Alawis, drew on the Idrisid example of rule by descendants of the Prophet.

Our 800 and 900 maps show the Idrisid Caliphate in northern Morocco; the sources describe its rulers as imams rather than caliphs. Its neighbours were the Aghlabid dynasty to the east and the Umayyad state of Córdoba across the strait, with the Abbasid Caliphate as the distant power it had defied. It was later caught between the Fatimid Caliphate and Abd al-Rahman III of Córdoba.