In
Their Time, The Portuguese Established Themselves On The Coast Of
Morocco; Their Dynasty Ended In 1550.
8th. The Shereefs (Oulad Ali) of the present dynasty, whose founder was
Hasein, have now occupied the Imperial throne more than three centuries.
This family of Shereefs came from the neighbourhood of Medina in Arabia,
and succeeded to the empire of Morocco by a series of usurpations.
They
are divided into two branches, the Sherfah Hoseinee, so named from the
founder of the dynasty, who began to reign at Taroudant and Morocco in
1524, and over all the empire in 1550, and the Sherfah El Fileli, or
Tafilett, whose ancestor was Muley Shereef Ben Ali-el-Hoseinee, and
assumed sovereign power at Tafilett in 1648, from which country he
extended his authority over all the provinces of that empire. Thus the
Shereefs began their reign in the middle of the seventeenth century, and
have now wielded the sword of the Prophet as Caliph of the West these
last two hundred years. I have not heard that there is anywhere a
dynasty of Shereefs except in this country. They are, therefore,
profoundly venerated by all true Mussulmen. It was a great error to
suppose that Abd-el-Kader could have succeeded in dethroning the Emperor
during the hostilities of the Emir against the lineal representative of
the Prophet. Abd-el-Kader is a marabout warrior, greatly revered and
idolized by all enthusiastic Mussulmen throughout North Africa, more
especially in Morocco, the _terre classique_ of holy-fighting men; but
though the Maroquines were disaffected, groaning under the avarice of
their Shereefian Lord, and occasionally do revolt, nevertheless they
would not deliberately set aside the dynasty of the Shereefs, the
veritable root and branch of the Prophet of God, for an adventurer of
other blood, however powerful in arms and in sanctity.
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