8th century – 10th century
Western Maghrib, especially Morocco
The Idrisid Kingdom was an independent Alid polity established in the western Maghrib by Idris I and developed by Idris II. Centered successively on Volubilis and Fez, it promoted Islamization, Arabization, and political integration while operating within a predominantly Berber environment. Its authority later fragmented among branches of the ruling family, and the dynasty ended in Morocco in 985.
Continue exploring
The Story
Idris I reached Wulili, the ancient city of Volubilis, on 9 August 788, where the Awraba Berber leader Abd al-Hamid welcomed him. After receiving the bay'a, or oath of investiture, Idris began a campaign of territorial expansion and Islamization. Tlemcen soon opened its gates, but the Abbasid caliphate regarded the new Alid power as a potential threat and arranged Idris's assassination in 795.
The political project survived through Idris I's pregnant Berber slave Kanza, whose son was named Idris after his father. Idris II was invested in 803 and gradually asserted his independence from the Awraba protectors. In 809 he established his quarters on the left bank of the Wadi Fas and surrounded himself with Arabs, while the Idrisid sphere expanded toward the High Atlas, Tlemcen, and the southern Nefis region. Resistance from the Barghawata limited expansion toward the Atlantic west.
Idris II's death in 828 inaugurated a division of the kingdom among seven of his ten sons. Although Muhammad, the eldest, retained Fez and nominal overlordship, the arrangement encouraged political fragmentation. After the death of Yahya II in 859, authority passed to the younger Banu Umar branch of the Rif, and internal quarrels continued until the dynasty ended in Morocco in 985.
The Idrisids played a central role in the emergence of a Moroccan political consciousness and gave the country its first capital, Fez. Idris I founded a settlement on the right bank of the Wadi Fas in 789, and Idris II established a better-planned city on the opposite bank in 809. The two fortified cities were later unified under the Almoravids. Fez benefited from its position on the east-west axis of the Taza valley and from abundant water, wood, stone, and clay.
Fez became a spiritual and intellectual centre through the arrival of refugees and immigrants from Ifriqiya and Cordoba. Five hundred horsemen from Ifriqiya and Spain arrived in 805; survivors of the Cordoban revolt followed in 817–818; and further immigrants came from Ifriqiya in 825–826. The mosque and university of al-Karawiyyin was founded in 859 by a woman from Kayrawan, reinforcing the city's religious and cultural importance.
8th century – 10th century
Western Maghrib, especially Morocco
The Idrisid Kingdom was an independent Alid polity established in the western Maghrib by Idris I and developed by Idris II. Centered successively on Volubilis and Fez, it promoted Islamization, Arabization, and political integration while operating within a predominantly Berber environment. Its authority later fragmented among branches of the ruling family, and the dynasty ended in Morocco in 985.
Continue exploring
The Story
Idris I reached Wulili, the ancient city of Volubilis, on 9 August 788, where the Awraba Berber leader Abd al-Hamid welcomed him. After receiving the bay'a, or oath of investiture, Idris began a campaign of territorial expansion and Islamization. Tlemcen soon opened its gates, but the Abbasid caliphate regarded the new Alid power as a potential threat and arranged Idris's assassination in 795.
The political project survived through Idris I's pregnant Berber slave Kanza, whose son was named Idris after his father. Idris II was invested in 803 and gradually asserted his independence from the Awraba protectors. In 809 he established his quarters on the left bank of the Wadi Fas and surrounded himself with Arabs, while the Idrisid sphere expanded toward the High Atlas, Tlemcen, and the southern Nefis region. Resistance from the Barghawata limited expansion toward the Atlantic west.
Idris II's death in 828 inaugurated a division of the kingdom among seven of his ten sons. Although Muhammad, the eldest, retained Fez and nominal overlordship, the arrangement encouraged political fragmentation. After the death of Yahya II in 859, authority passed to the younger Banu Umar branch of the Rif, and internal quarrels continued until the dynasty ended in Morocco in 985.
The Idrisids played a central role in the emergence of a Moroccan political consciousness and gave the country its first capital, Fez. Idris I founded a settlement on the right bank of the Wadi Fas in 789, and Idris II established a better-planned city on the opposite bank in 809. The two fortified cities were later unified under the Almoravids. Fez benefited from its position on the east-west axis of the Taza valley and from abundant water, wood, stone, and clay.
Fez became a spiritual and intellectual centre through the arrival of refugees and immigrants from Ifriqiya and Cordoba. Five hundred horsemen from Ifriqiya and Spain arrived in 805; survivors of the Cordoban revolt followed in 817–818; and further immigrants came from Ifriqiya in 825–826. The mosque and university of al-Karawiyyin was founded in 859 by a woman from Kayrawan, reinforcing the city's religious and cultural importance.