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22-565: The Glaoui family (also transliterated as Glawi) was one of the most powerful political clans in Morocco in the later 19th century and in the first half of the 20th century, having risen to prominent positions of power under Muhammad IV and subsequent sultans. The same family had also constructed a lavish kasbah and fortified residence in Telouet , in the High Atlas, starting in 1860. During

44-966: A cemetery, and large gardens. The largest section of the complex is centered around a large interior courtyard which has a central rectangular pool with a central fountain, flanked by two other fountains rising from smaller water basins. The palace's decoration reflects the wealth of the Glaoui family and features the best of Moroccan craftsmanship at the time, such as zellij tiling, painted wood , and carved stucco . 34°03′33.1″N 4°58′37.7″W  /  34.059194°N 4.977139°W  / 34.059194; -4.977139 Muhammad IV of Morocco Mawlay Muhammad bin Abd al-Rahman ( Arabic : محمد بن عبد الرحمن ), known as Muhammad IV ( Arabic : محمد الرابع ), born in Fes in 1803 and died in Marrakesh in 1873,

66-475: A process that accelerated during the reign of his successor, Hassan I . Following the military defeats at Isly and Tetuan, a new Moroccan army was introduced, 'Askar Nizami . Well-equipped infantry were created, along with modern artillery. A steam engine was built in the palace in Marrakesh in 1863, and the first state-sponsored printing press was introduced to Morocco in 1865. By 1868, over three thousand books, mostly religious instructions, were printed on

88-793: A series of significant military reforms in 1845. Unlike the Ottoman Empire and Egypt , where ancient corps like the janissaries and the Mamluks had to be crushed in order to clear the path, in Morocco the core army units of gish and na'iba were left intact when the first tabors , or battalion-strength units of the 'askar nizami , were created in 1845. There was a totally new nomenclature for ranks and organization, often provided by Ottoman and Egyptian military manuals. The men wore European-style uniforms and carried flintlock rifles made in England . The new units were infantry , as ooposed to

110-660: Is a mistake. The Glaouis built other palaces across Morocco during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the Kasbah of Telouet and the Dar el Bacha in Marrakesh. The palace is located in what was the al-'Uyun ("the [water] Sources") neighbourhood of Fes el-Bali , known today as the Ziat or Ziyat neighbourhood, which until the 19th century had been a garden district with relatively plenty of open space to build, thus attracting

132-759: The Battle of Isly with France in 1844 and the Battle of Tetuan with Spain in 1860. He was succeeded by his son Hassan I . During his father's reign, neighbouring Ottoman Algeria was invaded by France in 1830 , and Muhammad commanded the Moroccan army which was defeated by the French at the Battle of Isly in August 1844 during the Franco-Moroccan War . After the defeat, with his father's permission, Mawlay Muhammad used his capacity as army chief to launch

154-463: The Hafidiya civil war, the head of the clan, Madani Glaoui , turned against Sultan Abdelaziz by supporting his brother Abd al-Hafid . After winning the throne, Abd al-Hafid rewarded Madani with high offices including vizier . Madani's younger brother, Thami , was appointed Pasha of Marrakesh , a title he ultimately kept under French Protectorate rule until 1956, during which time he acted as

176-428: The French resident-general , Hubert Lyautey . After Morocco regained its independence in 1956, Thami El Glaoui, was stripped of his status by King Mohammed V and the Glaoui palaces fell into neglect. The Dar Glaoui today is still privately owned but partly dilapidated. The mansion was a palatial complex with as many as twelve houses and numerous annexes and facilities including hammams , Qur'anic schools, stables,

198-590: The Moroccan army at the Battle of Tétouan in February 1860. The Treaty of Wad Ras signed in April 1860 expanded the enclaves, but more worrisomely imposed a large indemnity payment on Morocco of 100 million francs, twenty times the government's budget. Provisions allowed the Spanish to hold Tetouan until it was paid. The treaty also ceded the enclave of Sidi Ifni to Spain. After the disappointment of defeat and

220-644: The Spanish debt, the Alawite sultan's government (the Makhzen ) was faced with a critical financial situation, and launched the process of "qaidization". Traditionally, the Makhzen had an understanding with the semi-autonomous rural tribes, whereby the tribal leaders agreed to hand over a portion of the taxes they collected and to supply tribesmen to the sultan's army in times of war, but otherwise were left to manage their own affairs. The new financial difficulties from

242-408: The colonial encroachment prompted the Makhzen to demand ever-greater exactions of troops and taxes from the tribes. As the tribes balked and began to refuse the higher taxes, the sultan decided to circumvent the elected tribal leaders, refusing to ratify their credentials, and instead appointed qaids of his own choosing, imposing them upon the tribes. The qaids were rarely of the same tribal stock as

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264-563: The construction of several new mansions by wealthy families such as the Dar Moqri and the Dar Tazi. The Dar Glaoui in Fez was also the first building in Morocco to have electricity and heating. When the French occupied Fez after 1911, the palace served temporarily as the residence of the French plenipotentiary Eugène Regnault  [ fr ] . After this, it was occupied for a time by

286-478: The crushing financial burden of the Spanish treaty, Muhammad IV gradually retired into passivity, dedicating himself to scholarly and intellectual interests in mathematics, geometry, astronomy, poetry and music, and leaving political affairs to be handled by his palace slave and effective vizier , Si Moussa . As by the Treaty of Tangier in 1863, half of the customs duties of all Moroccan ports were designated to pay

308-484: The lithographic press in Fes . The 'Askar Nizami was subsequently reconstituted by Muhammad IV, who equipped the army with up-to-date weapons supplied by a munitions factory in Marrakesh. A military training school was built at Dar al-Makhzen in Fes, and he searched for Muslim military instructors from Algiers and Tunis to train the new army, rather than Europeans. Muhammad IV's reforms were met with minimal opposition from

330-485: The new army, and in the course of time, many soldiers deserted. He invited a group of officers from Ottoman Tunisia who had served in the Ottoman army to raise and train the first European-style regiment, the askari , as a supplement to the usual palace guards (' abid ) and tribal troops ( ghish and nu'aib ). Muhammad IV set up the M adrasa of al-Muhandiseen , a military engineering school in Fes, supervised by

352-473: The old-style mounted cavalry , enabling the Moroccans to replicate the tactics that had produced the concentrated firepower the French had displayed at Isly. The first adversary against whom they were deployed in the 1840s was the popular resistance hero Abd al-Kader , hounded around western Algeria by Moroccan auxiliaries. This use of the 'askar nizami against the native hero dampened popular enthusiasm for

374-458: The part of a modernizer with his flowing white robes and mane of curly black hair, but he was in fact immersed in the language of reform and fully aware of the technological transformations taking place elsewhere in the region. He had reportedly perused military manuals translated from Turkish and European languages into Arabic, and he had a lively curiosity about technical innovations. Immediately upon ascension to throne in August 1859, Muhammad IV

396-567: The renegade French Count Joseph de Saulty (an artillery officer from Algiers , de Saulty defected after an amorous entanglement, and converted, taking up the name Abd al-Rahman al-Ali). Muhammad IV hired writers to translate various European textbooks on engineering and science. He was personally involved in the translation of the works of scientists such as Legendre , Newton and Lalande . He also struck deals with British Gibraltar and Egypt to receive regular contingents of Moroccan soldiers for artillery training. The new sultan hardly looked

418-539: The strongman of southern Morocco. Madani died in 1918. Upon Abd al-Hafid and Madani's triumph in 1907, Madani had seized many of the properties of Haj Omar Tazi, the former finance minister of Sultan Abdelaziz. One of these was a palace in Fez, now the Dar Glaoui. Tazi had built this palace in the second half of the 19th century. The palace is sometimes attributed by writers to Thami el Glaoui, though according to Abbderrahman El Mezouari El Glaoui (Madani's grandson) this

440-419: The tribes they governed, but were instead ambitious men, chosen primarily for their ruthless ability to crush rebellion and force the tribes to cough up. Initially designed as a centralizing move, this eventually backfired, as the qaids, once esconsed in their tribal fiefs, proved even more ungovernable than the amghars had ever been. During Muhammad IV's reign, Morocco began essentially careening into feudalism ,

462-602: Was faced with his first test, the Spanish-Moroccan War under Isabella II of Spain . Raids by irregular tribesmen on the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in northwest Morocco prompted Spain to demand an expansion of the borders of its enclave around Ceuta. When this was refused by Muhammad IV, Spain declared war. The Spanish navy bombarded Tangier , Asilah and Tetuan . A large Spanish expeditionary force landed in Ceuta, which subsequently went on to defeat

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484-452: Was the Sultan of Morocco from 28 August 1859 to 16 September 1873 as a ruler of the 'Alawi dynasty . He was proclaimed sultan after the death of his father, Abd al-Rahman . His reign marked a series of reform to tackle European influence on Morocco, as Ottoman Algeria had just been conquered by France in 1830, leading to European nations entering military conflicts with Morocco, such as

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