Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
As Muslim refugees arrived from Christian Spain, so did a band of Christian renegades,
Moorish pirates, freebooters and multinational adventurers. Rabat and Salé became safe
havens for corsairs - merciless pirates whom English chroniclers called the Sallee Rovers.
At one point they even created their own pirate state, the Republic of Bou Regreg. These
corsairs roved as far as the coast of North America seeking Spanish gold, and to Cornwall
in southern England to capture Christian slave labour. The first Alawite sultans attempted
to curtail their looting sprees, but no sultan ever really exercised control over them. Cor-
sairs continued attacking European shipping until well into the 19th century.
Meanwhile, Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah briefly made Rabat his capital at the end
of the 18th century, but the city soon fell back into obscurity. In 1912 France strategically
abandoned the hornet's nest of political intrigue and unrest in the traditional capitals of
Fez and Marrakesh and instead shifted power to coastal Rabat, where supply and defence
were more easily achieved. Since then, the city has remained the seat of government and
official home of the king.
