The Emirate of Granada, the remnant of Islamic Spain, remains independent of the new Marinid state in the western Maghreb.

The Almohad dynasty of caliphs (not universally accepted), that once ruled most of North Africa and Al-Andalus (Moorish Spain), is extinguished in 1269 when Idris II is murdered in the dynasty's last remaining possession, Marrakesh, by the Marinids, a Berber tribe of the Zenata group established in eastern Morocco for more than a century when, in 1248, their ruler, Abu Yahya, captured Fes and made it the Marinid capital.

Now under Abu Yusuf Ya'qub, they become masters of Morocco.

The influence of the Tunisian Hafsids had rapidly waned in the western Maghreb, and Ceuta's inhabitants had eventually expelled them in 1249.

The Marinid amir, Abu Yusuf Yaqub, enters peacefully into Ceuta in 1279, putting an end to some twenty-five years of independence of the city.

The troops of the Marinid dynasty takes the city of Algiers, at this time independent of the Zenata Berber Ziyanid Emirate.

The Marinids had between 1244 and 1248 managed to take Taza, Rabat, Salé, Meknes and Fes from the weakened Almohads.

The Marinid leadership installed in Fes had declared war on the Almohads, fighting with the aid of Christian mercenaries.

Abu Yusuf Yaqub (1259–1286) had captured Marrakech in 1269.

After the Nasrids ceded Algeciras to the Marinids, Abu Yusuf had gone to Al-Andalus to support the ongoing struggle against the Kingdom of Castile.

The Marinid dynasty had then tried to extend its control to include the commercial traffic of the Strait of Gibraltar.

It was in this period that the Spanish Christians had first been able to take the fighting to Morocco.

The Marinids also strongly influence the policy of the Emirate of Granada, from which they had enlarged their army in 1275.

The Kingdom of Castile had attempted invasions of Morocco in 1260 and 1267, but both attempts had been defeated.

After gaining a foothold in Spain, the Marinids became active in the conflict between Muslims and Christians in Iberia.

To gain absolute control of the trade in the Strait of Gibraltar, from their base at Algeciras they start the conquest of several Spanish towns.

In 1276, the Marinids found Fes Jdid, which they make their administrative and military center.

While Fes had been a prosperous city throughout the Almohad period, even becoming the largest city in the world during that time, it is in the Marinid period that Fes reaches its golden age, a period that marks the beginning of an official, historical narrative for the city.

It is from the Marinid period that Fes' reputation as an important intellectual center largely dates; they establish the first madrassas in the city and country.

The principal monuments in the medina, the residences and public buildings, date from the Marinid period.

The Marinids begin construction in 1276 on the Royal Palace complex at Fés and build a series of elaborate tombs in the hills on the northwest side of the city.

Algeciras, the Marinids’ foothold in Iberia, is besieged from August 5, 1278, by the forces of the Kingdom of Castile under the command of Alfonso X of Castile and his son, Sancho IV.

This siege is the first of a series of attempts to take the city; it will in failure for the Castilian forces a year later.

An armada sent by Castile is also annihilated while trying to blockade the city's harbor.