Muley Abd Errahman Was Chosen By His Uncle, On Account Of His Pacific
And Frugal Habits, Educated As He Was By Being Made In Early Life The
Administrator Of The Customs In Mogador, And As A Prince Likely To
Preserve And Consolidate The Empire.
The anticipations of the uncle have
been abundantly realized by the nephew, for Muley Abd Errahman, with the
exception
Of the short period of the French hostilities, (which was not
his own work and happened in spite of him), has preserved the intact
without, and quiet during the many years he has occupied the throne.
His Moorish Majesty, who is advanced in life, is a man of middle
stature. He has dark and expressive eyes, and, as already observed, is a
mulatto of a fifth caste. Colour excites no prejudices either in the
sovereign or in the subject. This Emperor is so simple in his habits and
dress, that he can only be distinguished from his officers and governors
of provinces by the _thall_, or parasol, the Shereefian emblem of
royalty. The Emperor's son, when out on a military expedition, is also
honoured by the presence of the Imperial parasol, which was found in
Sidi Mohammed's tent at the Battle of Isly. Muley Abd Errahman is not
given to excesses of any kind, (unless avarice is so considered), though
his three harems of Fas, Miknas, and Morocco may be _stocked_, or more
politely, adorned, with a thousand ladies or so, and the treasures of
the empire are at his disposal. He is not a man of blood; [4] he rarely
decapitates a minister or a governor, notwithstanding that he frequently
confiscates their property, and sometimes imprisons them to discover
their treasures, and drain them of their last farthing. The Emperor
lives on good terms with the rest of his family. He has one son,
Governor of Fez (Sidi Mohammed), and another son, Governor of Rabat. The
greater part of the royal family reside at Tafilett, the ancient country
of the _Sherfah_, or Shereefs, and is still especially appropriated for
their residence. Ali Bey reported as the information of his time, that
there were at Tafilett no less than two thousand Shereefs, who all
pretended to have a right to the throne of Morocco, and who, for that
reasons enjoyed certain gratifications paid them by the reigning Sultan.
He adds that, during an interregnum, many of them took up arms and threw
the empire into anarchy. This state of things is happily past, and, as
to the number of the Shereefs at Tafilett, all that we know is, there is
a small fortified town, inhabited entirely by Shereefs, living in
moderate, if not impoverished circumstances.
The Shereefian Sultans of Morocco are not only the successors of the
Arabian Sovereigns of Spain, but may justly dispute the Caliphat with
the Osmanlis, or Turkish Sultans. Their right to be the chiefs of
Islamism is better founded than the pretended Apostolic successors at
Rome, who, in matters of religion, they in some points resemble.
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