Abdallah al-Ghalib

Abu Muhammad Abdallah al-Ghalib ibn Muhammad ( Arabic أبو محمد عبد الله الغالب بن محمد, DMG Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh al-Ġālib b. Muḥammad ; * 1517 ; † 21st January 1574 ) was from 1557 to 1574 the second Sultan of the Saadi in Morocco .

Life

Abdallah al-Ghalib was the third son of the first Saadian sultan, Muhammad el-Sheikh . His two older brothers died in 1550 and 1551, respectively, so that he became heir to the throne. After his father had conquered Fez from the Wattasids , he was installed as governor of Fez and gave the city back its lost political stability and economic prosperity. He also acted as Viceroy of Marrakech .

At the instigation of Hassan ibn Khair ad-Din , son of Khair ad-Din Barbarossa , who was appointed by the Ottoman government as Beylerbey (governor) of Algiers , Turkish officers murdered Muhammad ash-Sheikh on October 23, 1557, in whose service they were alleged deserters had entered. The 40-year-old Abdallah al-Ghalib succeeded his father as Sultan of Morocco after a family struggle and in March / April 1558 delivered the undecided battle of Wadi al-Laban north of Fez to the advancing army of Beylerbey of Algiers , whereupon Hassan ibn Khair ad -Din withdrew again.

Subsequently, Abdallah al-Ghalib, who moved his capital from Fez to Marrakech in 1558, was able to further consolidate the rule of the Saadians in Morocco despite internal and external threats. He had several uprising movements like that of Abd al-Muman in Marrakech in December 1558 suppressed. Three of his younger brothers, al-Mamun, Abd al-Malik and Ahmad al-Mansur , soon fled and sought support from the Ottoman Empire. While al-Mamun was murdered at the instigation of Abdallah al-Ghalib in Tlemcen in Algeria, the other two brothers went to Constantinople and were only able to ascend to the Moroccan throne after the death of Abdallah al-Ghalib in 1576 and 1578 respectively.

Through an alliance with Philip II of Spain , Abdallah al-Ghalib sought to ward off the claims of the Ottomans. Therefore he did not intervene in favor of the Moriscos of Andalusia in their revolt against Philip II (1568-71). Nor had he previously intervened against the 1564 conquest of Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera by García de Toledo , in which company 150 Turkish soldiers had died. He left the northern Moroccan port city of Ksar es-Seghir to the King of Navarre, Antoine de Bourbon , for the exchange of 500 soldiers . In addition, he also promoted maritime trade with England to fend off the Portuguese threat to the coastal areas. However, in March / April 1562, the troops led by his son Abu Abdallah were unable to conquer the Mazagan fortress held by the Portuguese .

Since the relations with European powers, in particular the alliance with Christian Spain and the refused support for the moriscos of Andalusia, met with rejection in the population and among legal scholars, Abdallah al-Ghalib endeavored through a demonstratively pious lifestyle and the establishment of madrasas and mosques in Marrakech and Fez, among others, to accommodate the religious circles in the empire. Around 1570 he renewed the Medersa Ben Youssef in Marrakech . He also sought, inter alia, good relations with the Dschazuliyya to establish -Sufiorden. However, he not only got rid of unwanted family members, but also distrusted various religious leaders. For example, he had the Islamic legal scholar Abu Abdallah Muhammad al-Andalusi, who had called for an uprising against his rule, crucified on April 19, 1573 in Marrakech. Furthermore, like his father, he fought the influence of the Sufis of Fez, to which the Qādirīya order belonged and were led by Abdul al-Wahid al-Wansharis, the son of Ahmad al-Wansharis .

In Marrakech, Abdallah al-Ghalib carried out major construction projects. He not only had the Medersa Ben Youssef restored, but also had some buildings from the Almohad period in the kasbah , such as the palace, the mosque and its minaret. He also ordered the construction of the Jewish quarter ( Mellah ) of Marrakech and had its inhabitants granted its protection.

Abdallah al Ghalib died of an asthma attack on January 21, 1574 at the age of 57 . He was succeeded by his son Abu Abdallah, whose reign lasted from 1574 to 1576.

literature

• Aomar Boum: Abdallah al-Ghalib . In: Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong, Henry Louis Gates (Eds.): Dictionary of African biography , Vol. 1, 2012, pp. 18-20.
• Ulrich Haarmann : History of the Arab World. Edited by Heinz Halm . 4th revised and expanded edition. CH Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-47486-1 ( Beck's historical library ).
• Stephan Ronart, Nandy Ronart: Lexicon of the Arab World. A historical-political reference work. Artemis Verlag, Zurich et al. 1972, ISBN 3-7608-0138-2 .
• R. Le Tourneau: Abd Allah al-Ghalib . In: Encyclopaedia of Islam , 2nd edition, 1st volume (1960), pp. 55f.

Remarks

1. ↑ Aomar Boum, Dictionary of African biography , Vol. 1, p. 18.
2. ↑ Jamil M. Abun-Nasr, A History of the Magrhib in the Islamic Period , 1987, pp. 157f.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Aomar Boum, Dictionary of African biography , Vol. 1, p. 19.
4. ↑ Ulrich Haarmann , History of the Arab World , 3rd edition 1994, p. 512.
5. ^ R. Le Tourneau, Encyclopaedia of Islam , 2nd edition, 1st volume (1960), pp. 55f.