Marrakesh

Who holds it

Name

Muhammad al-Nasir

Title

The caliph in person; the town's governor and judge under him

Since

January 1199

Born

About 1181-1182

Family

Almohad dynasty

Confidence

high

al-Marrakushi (Fagnan p. 293-300)

Lord in 1200

The caliph Muhammad al-Nasir, resident; the chief judge Ibn Marwan al-Wahrani (records al-Nasir, Chief qadi)

Overlord

The caliph Muhammad al-Nasir

How things stand that morning

The court is in residence; the city is at its height.

Wealth

The richest city of the West in 1200: the court, the treasury, the mint.

Military

The caliph's guards; the Almohad tribes of the Atlas a few days away.

Charter

None: the caliph's own city.

Council

The caliph's government is the town's government. The chief judge (qadi al-jama'a) Ibn Marwan al-Wahrani; a market inspector (muhtasib); the talaba of the capital; the Almohad shaykhs.

Communities

Almohad Berbers of the Atlas tribes, the Kumiya, Andalusi scholars, secretaries and craftsmen, Arab horsemen, Ghuzz Turks, black slaves; Jews, forced converts in name since the 1140s, under al-Mansur's dress laws; Christian captives. The Sufis round al-Sabti.

Fairs and markets

Daily markets and the covered market (qaysariyya); the city's weekly markets for the tribes of the Haouz (days not pinned).

Militia

None separate: the caliph's guard, the Ghuzz, the Kumiya and the black slave guard hold the city.

Walls and castle

The Almoravid walls of rammed earth (1120s) with their gates; al-Mansur's qasba walled apart with the gate called Bab Agnaou; the Kutubiyya and its minaret.

Trade and crafts

The court's demand drives the market: textiles, leather, metalwork, books; the gold of the Sahara passes through the treasury and the mint; caravans to the Sus, the Draa and Sijilmasa.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1204 (601 AH)Death of Abu al-Abbas al-Sabti, buried outside the walls, later patron saint of the city.Depends on: Natural death. Stopped by: Nothing in play.

Places of note

• Kutubiyya: The great mosque

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The capital is the best documented place of the empire; the city's officers other than the judge are not named for 1200.

On the map: The city with its near gardens; the rest of the Haouz is on al-Nasir.

Primary sources for Almohads

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• History of the Two Dynasties, the Almohad and the Hafsid, al-Zarkashi (Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Lu'lu'i al-Zarkashi) (about 1490 to 1495, at Tunis). A short Hafsid-era chronicle whose Almohad opening gives, in a few lines a reign, the succession of al-Mansur and al-Nasir, the Banu Ghaniya's seizure of Ifriqiya and its recovery, and the sending of Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs to Tunis, which the Hafsids counted as the start of their house. Read online
• The Complete History: the passages on the Maghreb and al-Andalus, Ibn al-Athir (about 1220 to 1231, at Mosul). The year entries for 595 to 597 of the Hijra (late 1198 to 1201) record the death of Yaqub al-Mansur, the accession of al-Nasir and the opening of Yahya ibn Ghaniya's war in Ifriqiya; the following years follow Yahya and the Ghuzz captain Qaraqush through Tripoli, Gabès and Mahdia to al-Nasir's reconquest in 1206, with the best eastern account of Qaraqush's career. Read online
• The Garden of Pages: a History of the Kings of the Maghreb and of the City of Fez, Ibn Abi Zar al-Fasi (completed in 1326 at Fez, for the Marinid sultan Abu Said Uthman). The Almohad chapters give a brisk dated narrative of al-Mansur's death and burial, al-Nasir's accession and the Banu Ghaniya troubles, with the kind of detail (coinage, public works at Fez and Rabat, prices, plagues) that a Fez compiler cared about, and the annals of Fez supply the city's governors and markets. Read online
• The Wondrous Account of the History of al-Andalus and the Maghreb, Ibn Idhari al-Marrakushi (about 1312, at Marrakesh). The Almohad section is the fullest year-by-year narrative of the caliphate around 1200: the last campaigns and the death of Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur in January 1199, the accession of his son Muhammad al-Nasir, the renewed war of the Banu Ghaniya in Ifriqiya under Yahya ibn Ishaq and his ally Qaraqush, the Almohad losses of Mahdia and Tunis a few years later, and al-Nasir's reconquest of Ifriqiya in 1205 to 1206 followed by the appointment of Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs as governor. Read online
• Historical Monuments of Portugal: Writers (Annals of King Afonso, Chronicon Conimbricense, Chronica Gothorum and others) (12th to 15th centuries). The Portuguese annals in one volume. Read online
• Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile, Anonymous, probably Juan of Osma, chancellor of Castile (about 1223 to 1239). The chancellor's chronicle of Alfonso VIII's reign, detailed from the 1190s. Read online
• The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
• Memoirs of the Mahdi Ibn Tumart and the Beginnings of the Almohad State, Abu Bakr ibn Ali al-Sanhaji, called al-Baydhaq (about 1150 to 1165). Nothing for the year itself: al-Baydhaq's memoir ends in Abd al-Mu'min's early reign.

17 more in the sources library for The Maghreb and the Sahara.