Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Pirates & Politics: The Early Alawites
The Saadian dynasty dissolved in the 17th century like a sugar cube in Moroccan mint tea,
and civil war prevailed until the Alawites came along. With illustrious ancestors from the
Prophet Mohammed's family and descendents extending to the current King Mohammed
VI, the Alawites were quite a change from the free-wheeling Saadians and their anarchic
legacy. But many Moroccans might have preferred anarchy to the second Alawite ruler, the
dreaded Moulay Ismail (1672-1727).
A despot whose idea of a good time included public disembowelments and amateur
dentistry on courtiers who peeved him, Moulay Ismail was also a scholar, dad to hundreds
of children and Mr Popularity among his royal European peers. European nobles gushed
about lavish dinner parties at Moulay Ismail's palace in Meknès, built by conscripted
Christian labourers. Rumour has it that when these decidedly non-union construction work-
ers finished the job, some were walled in alive. The European royal party tab wasn't cheap,
either, but Moulay Ismail wasn't worried: piracy would cover it.
In Her Majesty's Not-So-Secret Service: Barbary Pirates
Queen Elizabeth I kicked off the Atlantic pirate trade, allying against her arch-nemesis
King Phillip II of Spain with the Saadians and specially licensed pirates known as privat-
eers. The most notoriously effective hires were the Barbary pirates, Moriscos (Spanish
Muslims) who'd been forcibly converted and persecuted in Spain and hence had an added
motivation to shake down Spaniards. James I outlawed English privateering in 1603, but
didn't seem to mind when his buddy Moulay Ismail aided and abetted the many British and
Barbary pirates who harboured in the royal ports at Rabat and Salé - for a price.
But pirate loyalties being notoriously fickle, Barbary pirates attacked Ireland, Wales, Ice-
land and even Newfoundland in the 17th century. Barbary pirates also took prisoners, who
were usually held for ransom and freed after a period of servitude - including one-time
English allies. Captives were generally better off with Barbary pirates than French profit-
eers, who typically forced prisoners to ply the oars of slave galleys until death. Neverthe-
less, after pressure from England secured their release in 1684, a number of English cap-
tives were quite put out about the whole experience, and burned the port of Tangier behind
them. But other English saw upsides to piracy and kidnapping: when the Portuguese were
forced out of Essaouira in the 17th century, a freed British prisoner who'd converted to
Islam joined a French profiteer to rebuild the city for the sultan, using free labour provided
by European captives.
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