jan 1, 1465 - Moroccan revolution

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The Moroccan revolution was a popular uprising in the city of Fez, then capital of Morocco, against Sultan Abd al-Haqq II, the last ruler of the Marinid dynasty, and his Jewish vizier Harun ibn Batash.

Morocco was in severe crisis in the mid-fifteenth century, including a progressive Portuguese invasion of the country. The theoretical rulers, the Marinids, had little power outside the city of Fez, with large parts of the country in the hands of the Wattasids, a dynasty of viziers. At the same time, new religious trends in Moroccan Islam increased the prestige of the sharifs, or descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. In 1458, Abd al-Haqq regained power from the Wattasids. The sultan then appointed Jews to high-ranking positions in the state, despite opposition from the mostly Muslim citizens of Fez. In most accounts, the actual revolution began in 1465 when a Jewish official abused a female sharif, which led to a pogrom against the Jewish community possibly led by Muhammad ibn Imran, the leader of the sharifs of Fez. Abd al-Haqq was either lynched or executed, and Muhammad ibn Imran became ruler of Fez.

The Wattasids attempted to return following the revolution but were opposed by Muhammad ibn Imran, leading to a war in which the Wattasid dynast Muhammad al-Sheikh conquered Fez in 1471 at the cost of ceding significant territory to the Portuguese. The Wattasids, who retained the Berber tribal structure of medieval Moroccan dynasties, were soon discredited by their incapability to stem the Portuguese advance, and were replaced in the sixteenth century by the Saadis, a non-tribal dynasty of sharifs. Morocco has been ruled by sharifs ever since. The 1465 revolution, while unsuccessful in bringing about lasting sharif rule, was thus an harbinger of the rule by sharifs that would come to define modern Moroccan history.

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