TANGIER: THE PORT OF THE EMPIRES

In northern Morocco, on the coast where the Mediterranean and Atlantic waters converge, lies Tangier, one of the kingdom's main port cities, with nearly 1 million inhabitants. The city of Tangier is one of the most important cities in the Mediterranean, as it is the hub connecting the African and European continents. The city was once known by the names Tinka, Tikka, or Tinkis, which in the Berber language means "the high/elevated place". Few cities have had a more varied history than Tangier; a city where history, mythology, and legends intertwine.

Oral legend circulating among some residents states that after the Great Flood, Noah's Ark lost its way at sea. One day, while searching for dry land, a pigeon landed on top of the ship with mud in its feet. The passengers on the ship shouted "Mud Jà, Mud Jà," meaning they were close to dry land. Thus, the land where the ship landed was named Tangier. While Greek mythology recounts that Antaeus, son of Poseidon and Gaia, built the city, naming it after his wife, Tingis, he attacked and killed the travelers, building a temple with their skulls and donating it to his father.

Another episode recounts the battle between Hercules and Antinous and how the sword blows inflicted during the conflict cut the Strait of Gibraltar between Europe and Morocco. While the most common legend recounts that the mythical Hercules reached the slopes of Mounts Calpe and Abila, considered the extremes of the world, he decided to split the mountain in two, creating two columns: the first placed on the Rock of Gibraltar in Europe and the second in Africa, on which he engraved the following inscription: "Nun plus ultra."

The Greeks, however, believed the Pillars of Hercules to be two rocky promontories that formed the Gibraltar strata and represented an impassable boundary beyond which it was no longer possible to go. They believed that beyond this dangerous and unknown stretch of sea would condemn all humankind. In essence, the Pillars marked the outermost edge of the known world at the time. The mystery of what lay beyond the Pillars of Hercules fueled the imagination of many writers. According to Plato, the mythical Atlantis lay beyond the Pillars, while according to Dante, Ulysses managed to glimpse the mountain of Purgatory beyond the Pillars before his ship sank.

Legend holds that Tangier was the final resting place of Hercules before completing his 11th labor, which famously consisted of obtaining the golden apples from the Garden of the Hesperides, a garden located near Lixus, a Moroccan city now known as Laarach. He rested in what has now become a popular tourist destination in Tangier: the Caves of Hercules.

Over time, Tangier has been subjected to numerous invasions from the west and east, by Carthaginian settlers, Vandals, Romans, Phoenicians, and Arabs. In modern times, it has been the target of conquests by the Spanish, French, English, and Portuguese. Some historical evidence dates the city's foundation to 12,000 years ago. Considered one of the oldest in the Moroccan state, around the 10th century, Tangier became a Phoenician and later Carthaginian trading post. Remains from this period are still visible in the ancient Carthaginian settlement of Cotta near Cape Spartel, a site dated to around the 5th century. In 81 BC, the Roman general Quintus Sertorius conquered Tangier (then called Tingis) from the Mauritanian king Bocchus I. In 38 BC, During a series of Roman civil unrest, Tingis was conquered on behalf of Octavian (the future Emperor Caesar Augustus) by Bocchus II and his brother Bogud, who supported Octavian's rival, Mark Antony. In 42 AD, Tingis gained further commercial momentum when it became part of the Roman Empire at the beginning of the 1st century AD. It officially became the capital of the Roman province of Mauretania Tingitana, under the name Tingis Colonia Julia Traducta. After five centuries of Roman rule and a brief occupation by the Vandals in the 5th century, the city was captured and annexed by the Byzantine Empire in the 6th century.

Tangier regained vitality with the beginning of the Islamic conquests: The Arab conquest of the Maghreb (661-750) led to the development of trade throughout the Sahara. Trade was very profitable, and the goods traded included salt, gold, and ivory.

Umayyads (661-750)

The first attempts at conversion to Islam date back to 682, the year in which the Arab general Oqbah Ibn Nafi (Sidi Okba), leading the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb region of Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria, raided Morocco, reaching Tangier. In 711, the governors of the Umayyad dynasty took control of what is now Morocco and much of North Africa until 750, a influence that would leave a profound mark on Moroccan history. The Islamic conquests saw the Berber commander Tariq ibn Ziyad, who in 711 launched the Muslim conquest of Visigothic Spain, later known as Al-Andalus, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar from the North African coast, using the passage from Tangier as a starting point for the Umayyads to enter Spanish territory. Tariq established his main landing place in Gibraltar, whose Arabic-Spanish semantic derivation means (Jabal Tariq = mountain of Tariq). However, another Umayyad dynasty also marked Moroccan history: the Umayyads of Al-Andalus, who, along with the Zenet tribes, the Idrisids, and the Fatimids of Ifriqiya, alternately contested the city in a relentless power struggle. The era of the Umayyads and the Fatimids was the period in which the two main forces shook up the medieval history of Morocco. Soon, Berber revolutionaries led by Maysara al-Madghari seized the city, making it their capital in 740 AD, and began spreading Kharijite doctrines throughout Morocco until 791, when the Caliphate's rule returned from the east, establishing itself for the next two years.                                                                                                                                 

From 788 to 974, the Idrisid dynasty ruled most of the territory of present-day Morocco and western Algeria. The Idrisids are traditionally considered the founders of the first Moroccan Muslim state, and their dynasty played a major role in the early Islamization of Morocco, which presided over a surge in Arab immigration to the early urban centers. The dynasty takes its name from its founder, Idris I (reigned 788–791), also known as Idris the Elder, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and considered the founder of Morocco. After the Battle of Fakhkh (786) near Mecca between the Abbasid Caliphate and rebel supporters, in 789 he fled to Tangier and then to Walili (now Volubilis), where he was welcomed by the powerful Awraba Berbers of Volubilis who made him their imam. Recent archaeological excavations have discovered Idris's old headquarters just outside the walls of the Roman city. Idris I conquered much of northern Morocco and, together with his son Idris II, founded the city of Fez and conquered Tlemcen (Algeria).

Fez became the capital of the Idrisid state of Morocco. After his poisoning, around the 10th century, the region came under the political rule of the Zenata tribes, a group of local nomadic Berbers who fought battles on behalf of two rival powers in the region: the Fatimid Caliphate and the Umayyad power of Córdoba. In the following years, Tangier remained under Idrisid rule; the castle of Hajar al-Nasr was repeatedly targeted by Umayyad attacks from the north. After the end of Idrisid rule in Fez, the Fatimid dynasty (958-960), founded by Ziri ibn Manad, which encompassed the territories of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and the Maghreb, occupied Sijilmasa and laid siege to Fez. Their kingdom was extended to the Atlantic, and both emirs of the conquered cities were captured and imprisoned. Of this event, known as the Fatimid expedition, only the cities of Tangier and Ceuta were retained by the Caliph of Cordoba. In 973, the Umayyad general Ghalib invaded Morocco and reasserted Umayyad sovereignty by reconquering Fez.

In 1084, the Almoravids, one of the Berber Muslim imperial dynasties that arose from a coalition of nomadic tribes between Mauritania and Western Sahara, based in Moroccan territory, founded an empire in the 11th century that extended from the western Maghreb, Mauritania, and part of Al-Andalus (1050–1147). The Almoravid capital was established in Marrakesh, a city founded by the Almoravid leader Abu Bakr ibn Umar in 1070. They aimed to spread Islamic traditions throughout North Africa. Under Almoravid control, Tangier returned to Moroccan rule.

The dynasty finally ended in 1147 when the founder's last grandson was killed while trying to flee Marrakesh after his defeat in battle against the Almohads, the then-rising Berber Muslim movement. Between 1147 and 1269, the Almohads, a Berber Muslim dynasty that emerged in opposition to the Almoravids, began to rule parts of the Maghreb and Spain. The Almohads were Islamic revivalists tasked with enforcing strict and pious observance of Islamic rituals and laws, disapproving of the religious tolerance for which Al-Andalus was famous. They retreated to their last stronghold in Marrakesh after being defeated in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 by a Christian coalition of León, Castile, Navarre, and Aragon.

Between 1244 and 1465, the Berber Muslim Marinid Sultanate overthrew the Almohads and began to control present-day Morocco and parts of Algeria and Tunisia. The Merinids were forced to abandon their lands in the Biska region of present-day Algeria following the arrival of the Arab Bedouins, moving to Morocco. The Merinids supported the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus and attempted to gain a direct foothold on the European side of the Strait of Gibraltar. In contrast to their predecessors, they promoted Maliki Sunnism as the official religion and made Fez their capital. Under their rule, Fez enjoyed a relative golden age, pioneering the construction of madrasas and an intellectual center.

During this period, Tangier became an important military and commercial port, serving as a military center for the defense of Andalusia and a transit port for volunteers. They prevented the city from being conquered by the Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator in 1437, a resistance that ended with its final capture by the Portuguese in 1471. Portugal began occupying parts of coastal Morocco in 1415 with the Battle of Ceuta, a city strategically located on the Strait of Gibraltar, which offered significant trade with the Levant, Egypt, and Libya. Its abundant stocks of tuna, coral, and gold constituted the local export industry and was a place where Barbary pirates carried on their raiding trade. After the capture of Ceuta and the beginning of the Portuguese colonial empire, conquering Tangier was the next objective. In total, the Portuguese managed to conquer six Moroccan cities: Ceuta, Ksar es-Seghir, Asilah, Safi, Azemmour e Tangeri.        

Tangier became an important port of refuge when, during the Marinid-Ouattasia period, it welcomed hundreds of families fleeing from various regions of Andalusia. King Afonso V sent Marquis Montemor Dom Joao to take possession of the city. Tangier's garrison consisted of 40 knights, 470 infantry, 10 artillerymen, and 6 scouts. Following the conquest, they converted its main mosque into the city's cathedral and built European-style houses, chapels, and Franciscan and Dominican monasteries. Portuguese rule over Tangier extended from 1471 to 1661. At this time, thousands of its inhabitants emigrated to the nearby valleys out of fear, and Tangier was thus transformed into the Portuguese military barracks of North Africa. Tangier remained under Portuguese colonization until 1580, when Spanish rule came after the de facto separation of the Kingdom of Portugal from Spain. Ownership of the city passed to the English King Charles II.

In 1580, Tangier, along with Portugal itself, passed to Spain; In 1662, Tangier was transferred to the English crown as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II. The English provided the city with a garrison and a charter that made it equal to English cities. They also planned to improve the port, build a mole that cost £340,000, and build a new fortification. It was during this period that Tangier was the protagonist of one of the most important battles in the Islamic West: the Battle of Tangier. The Battle of Tangier took place on May 4, 1664, during the English colonial period (1661–1684), when a force of Moorish warriors ambushed and defeated a detachment of the English garrison of Tangier, led by Governor Andrew Rutherford, 1st Earl of Teviot.

The Count and Governor of Tangier undertook the construction of new protective fortresses in the area, but his problem was the lack of materials, so he and his troops headed to an unknown area known as Jew's Hill/Mount, probably to gather stones and other materials or for an expedition. There he encountered 3,000 Moroccan warriors, and the English troops pursued them to drive them out. However, they fell into a well-planned ambush, the fighting between the two factions broke out, and the English were overwhelmed. Teviot attempted to rally his troops on the hilltop, but very few managed to escape and were killed.

Subsequently, in 1680, Moorish pressure against the English occupation increased. Despite everything, the English expenditures for maintaining the city (£140,000) against Moroccan attacks initiated by Sultan Moulay Ismail Ibn Sharif of Morocco around 1679 became excessive. The entire city, including the main building and the port facilities previously built, were blown up by the English themselves before finally withdrawing in 1684. Tangier was entirely rebuilt under his aegis and remained an integral part of Morocco.

Since then, after centuries of difficult divisions, Morocco experienced peace and political reunification under Moulay Ismail. His reign is considered half the gold in the country's history, during which it enjoyed security, tranquility, and order. As the second ruler of the Alawite dynasty, he consolidated Alawite power starting in 1684, whose inherited lineage continues to this day with the current king.