Fés Figuig Morocco

The Berber and Arab armies finally clash at the Battle of Bagdoura (or Baqdura) in October–November, 741, by the Sebou river (near modern Fes).

Disdaining the experience and cautious advice of the Ifriqiyans, Kulthum ibn Iyad makes several serious tactical errors.

Berber skirmishers dehorse and isolated the Syrian cavalry, while the Berber foot falls upon the Arab infantry with overwhelming numbers.

The Arab armies are quickly routed.

By some estimates, two-thirds of the Arab army are killed or captured by the Berbers at Bagdoura.

Among the casualties are the new governor Kulthum ibn Iyad al-Qasi and the Ifriqiyan commander Habib ibn Abi Obeida al-Fihri.

The Syrian regiments, now reduced to some ten thousand, are pulled together by Kulthum's nephew, Balj ibn Bishr and scramble up towards the straits, where they hope to get passage across the water to Spain.

A small Ifriqiyan contingent, under Habib's son Abd al-Rahman ibn Habib al-Fihri, joins the Syrians in their flight, but …

Idris, founder of the Zaydi Shi'ite Idrisid dynasty, traces his ancestry back to Ali ibn Abi Talib and his wife Fatimah, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad.

In 789, on a bank of the Jawhar rive, he founds the city of Fés.

Fés is today the second largest city of Morocco.

The Miknasa tribe and its leader Masala ibn Habus, acting on behalf of their Fatimid allies, had attacked Fes in 917 and forced Yahya ibn Idris to recognize Fatimid suzerainty, before deposing him in 921.

The Berber Khariji tribes of Madyuna, Ghayata and Miknasa of the Fes region had formed a common front against the Idrisids in 868.

From their base in Sefrou, they had been able to defeat and kill the Idrisid Ali ibn Umar and occupy Fes.

His brother Yahya had been able to retake the city in 880 and establish himself as the new ruler.

The Idrisids have attacked the Kharijis of Barghawata and Sijilmasa, and the Sunnis of Nekor multiple times, but have never been able to include these territories in their state.

The Idrisids of Fés had been ousted in 927 by the Fatimid Caliphate and their Miknasa Berber allies.

After the Miknasa broke off relations with the Fatimids in 932 and formed an alliance with the Spain-based Umayyad Caliphate, the Fatimids mount a failed attempt in 933 to seize the Maghreb al-Aqsa (nowadays Morocco).

Al-Mu'izz has sent his general Jawhar westward in the years 958 and 959 to reduce Fés and other places where the authority of the Fatimid caliph had been repudiated; after a successful expedition, Jawhar advances to the Atlantic.

An offensive by the Spain-based Umayyads brings the Maghribi Idrisid dynasty to an end in 974.

Buluggin ibn Muhammad, the ruler of the Hammadids from 1046, leads an army into Morocco against the Almoravids and briefly captures Fes in 1062.

On his withdrawal, he is assassinated by an agent of his successor Nasir ibn Alnas.

Yusuf is an effective general and administrator, as evidenced by his ability to organize and maintain the loyalty of the hardened desert warriors and the territory of Abu Bakr, as well as his ability to expand the empire, crossing the Atlas Mountains onto the plains of Morocco, reaching the Mediterranean and capturing Fez in 1075.

The city had been contested in the tenth century by the Caliphate of Córdoba and the Fatimids of Tunisia, who ruled the city through a host of Zenata clients.

The Fatimids had taken the city in 927 and expelled the Idrissids, after which their Miknasa were installed there.

The Miknasa had been driven out of Fes in 980 by the Maghrawa, their fellow Zenata, allies of the Caliphate of Córdoba.

It was in this period that the great Andalusian ruler Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir had commissioned the Maghrawa to rebuild and refurnish the Al-Kairouan mosque, giving it much of its current appearance.

According to the Rawd al-Qirtas and other Marinid era sources, the Maghrawi emir Dunas Al-Maghrawi filled up the open spaces between the two medinas and the banks of the river dividing them with new constructions.

Thus, the two cities had grown into each other, being now only separated by their city walls and the river flowing through them.

His sons have fortified the city to a great extent.

This does not keep the Almoravid emir Yusuf bn Tashfin from conquering the city in 1070, after more than a decade of battling the Zenata warriors in the area and constant besieging of the city.

Madinat Fas and Al-'Aliya are united in 1070 by the Almoravids: the walls dividing them are destroyed, bridges connecting the two parts are built and connecting walls are constructed that unify the medinas.

The Meghrawa, a tribe of Zenata Berbers, had been one of the first Berber tribes to submit to Islam in the seventh century.

They supported Uqba ibn Nafi in his campaign to the Atlantic in 683.

They had defected from Sunni Islam and became Kharijite Muslims from the eighth century, and allied first with the Shia Muslim Idrisids, and, from the tenth century, with the Andalusian Umayyads of Córdoba.

As a result, they had been caught up in the Umayyad-Fatimid conflict in Morocco and Algeria.

Although they had won a victory over the allies of the Fatimids in 924, they soon became allied with them themselves.

When they switched back to the side of Córdoba, they had been driven out of central Morocco by the Zirids, who ruled on behalf of the Fatimids.

In 980, however, they had been able to drive the Miknasa Berbers out of Sijilmasa.

Under Ziri ibn Atiyya (to 1001), the Meghrawa had achieved supremacy in Fez under Umayyad suzerainty and expanded their territory at the expense of the Banu Ifran.

A revolt against the Andalusian Umayyads had been put down by Al-Mansur (Abi Amir), although the Meghrawa had been able to regain power in Fez.

Under the succeeding rulers al-Muizz (1001-1026), Hamman (1026-1039) and Dunas (1039) they had consolidated their rule in northern and central Morocco.

However, internal power struggles after 1060 enable the Almoravids to conquer them in 1070 and put an end to their rule.

An-Nasir has able to extend the influence of the Hammadids in the Maghreb after the decline of the Zirids in Ifriqiya resulting from the invasion of the Banu Hilal that had begun in 1051.