al-Rashīd

al-Rashīd (died 1672, Marrakech, Mor.) was the founder (1666) of the reigning ʿAlawī (Filālī) dynasty of Morocco. By force of arms he filled a power vacuum that, with the collapse of the Saʿdī dynasty, had allowed half a century of provincial and religious warfare between rival Sufi (see Sufism) marabouts, or holy men, and the rulers of various sheikhdoms. In 1664 Mawlāy al-Rashīd succeeded his brother Muḥammad, who for 30 years had tried to carve...