Mulai Muhammad

Coins of Mohamed ben Abdallah

Sultan Mulai Muhammad III or Sultan Sidi Mohamed ben Abdallah ( Arabic محمد الثالث بن عبد الله الخطيب, DMG Muḥammad aṯ-ṯaliṯ b. ʿAbd Allaah al-Ḫaṭīb ; * 1710 ; † 1790 ) was a Moroccan ruler from 1757/1759 to 1790 from the Alawid dynasty .

history

During the lifetime of his father Mulai Abdallah, Mulai Muhammad was appointed heir to the throne and governor of Marrakech under pressure from the people of Marrakech . He managed to end the power struggles that had been going on since 1727 and to re-establish the Sherif dynasty of the Alawids.

During the restoration of the state, his main focus was on taxation, the reorganization of the army and the stabilization of the religious authority of his rule over the sheikhs of brotherhoods and marabouts . To do this, he needed additional funds and a tax system that included trade. He reintroduced the taxation of the markets and sometimes enforced it with military force.

An army reform was carried out and Arab mercenaries from the Banu Hassan group were henceforth under the command of the Alawids. He also organized powerful naval forces that were able to repel European attacks.

In 1765 he had the existing settlement of Essaouira on the Atlantic coast, which was occupied by the Portuguese, expanded and entrusted the French prisoner Théodore Cornut with planning the expansion of individual districts and city ​​fortifications .

He succeeded in expanding Moroccan trade relations through friendship and trade treaties with Denmark (1751–1765), England (1760), Sweden (1773), France (1767) and Portugal (1773). In 1767 he signed a peace treaty with Spain . After the United States was recognized as a sovereign state (1777), a peace and friendship treaty was concluded with this country in 1787.

After his death in 1790, traditional disputes flared up again under his son and successor Yazid (1790–1792) and Hischam (1792–1798) before Mulai Sulaiman (1798–1822) could take over and temporarily stabilize rule.

The Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdallah University ( Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah ) in Fès is named after him.

literature

• Georg Høst: Histoire de l'Empereur du Maroc Mohamed Ben Abdallah. Copenhagen 1791; Translation into French by F. Damgaard and P. Gailhanou, Editions La Porte, Rabat.
• 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 .

Web links

• Portrait drawing of Mohamed Ben Abdallah, 1785