Saadi dynasty

The Saadi Dynasty (Arabic: سعديون) (in English also Saadite or Saadian, original name Bani Zaydan), began with the reign of Sultan Mohammed ash-Sheikh in 1554. From 1509 to 1554 they had ruled only in the south of Morocco. The Saadian rule ended in 1659 with the end of the reign of Sultan Ahmad el Abbas. The Saadī family claimed descent from Muhammad through the line of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Fatima Zahra (Muhammad's daughter). The Saadi came from Tagmadert in the valley of the Draa River. The family's village of origin in the Draa was Tidzi (a qsar, some 10 km north of Zagora) [ The Saadian sultan Mohammed esh Sheikh es Seghir wrote in a letter to the a member of the Alaouite family (Moulay Mohammed ould Moulay Cherif ): "We are from Tidsi, one of the qsour of the Draa." (Nozhet el Hadi, p. 15). The geographical position of Tidzi is: Latitude: 30° 59' 52 N, Longitude: 7° 24' 49 W.] . They claimed sharifian origins through an ancestor from Yanbu and rendered Sufism respectable in Magreb. The name Saadi or Saadian was given to the Bani Zaydan (shurafa of Tagmadert) by later generations and rivals for power, who tried to deny their Hassanid descent by claiming that they came from the family of Halimah Saadiyya, Muhammad's wet nurse. [The use of Analogy and the Role of the Sufi Shaykh in Post-Marinid Morocco, Vincent Cornell, International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 15, no. 1 (feb, 1983), pp.67-93)] The most famous sultan of the Saadi was Ahmad al-Mansur (1578–1603), builder of the El Badi Palace in Marrakech and contemporary of Elizabeth I. One of their most important achievements was ousting the Portuguese from Morocco and defending the country against the Ottomans. Before they conquered Marrakech, they had Taroudant as their capital city.

The Saadian Tombs were rediscovered in 1917 and can be seen in Marrakech.

Rulers

Until 1554 only in Southern Morocco:
*Abu Abdallah al-Qaim (1509-1517)
*Ahmad al-Araj (1517-1544)
*Mohammed ash-Sheikh (1544-1557) (ruling all of Morocco after 1554)

*Abdallah al-Ghalib (1557–1574)
*Abu Abdallah Mohammed II (1574–1576)
*Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik I (1576–1578)
*Ahmad al-Mansur (1578–1603)
*Abou Fares Abdallah (born 1564) (r.1603–1608 in parts of Morocco)1603-1659 the Saadian rulers of Morocco based in Marrakesh
*Zidan Abu Maali (r.1603–1627)
*Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik II (r.1627–1631)
*Al Walid ibn Zidan (r.1631–1636)
*Mohammed esh Sheikh es Seghir (r.1636–1655)
*Ahmad el Abbas (r.1655–1659)1603-1627 the Saadian rulers based in Fes (with only local power)
*Mohammed esh Sheikh el Mamun (born 1560), (r.1604-1613)
*Abdallah II (r.1613-1623)
*Abd el Malek (r.1623-1627)

ee also

*El Badi Palace
*Saadian Tombs
*Draa River
*Kingdom of Fez
*History of Morocco
*History of Spain

References and links

*Rosander, E. Evers and Westerlund, David (1997). "African Islam and Islam in Africa: Encounters Between Sufis and Islamists". C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. ISBN 1-85065-282-1
*http://www.mincom.gov.ma/english/generalities/history/history.html History of Morocco
**Morocco in the Sixteenth Century. Problems and Patterns in African Foreign Policy by Dahiru Yahya, "Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines", Vol. 18, No. 1 (1984), pp. 252-253