Campaign of Tlemcen

The Campaign of Tlemcen or Tlemcen campaign was a military operation led by the Saadians of Mohammed ash-Sheikh against Tlemcen in 1557, then under the domination of the Regency of Algiers, a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. The Saadians captured part of the city, but failed to seize the Mechouar Palace, into which a Turkish garrison from Algiers had withdrawn. Mohammed ash-Sheikh puts an end to his campaign when he learns of a revolt by the Berbers of the Moroccan Atlas against his authority.

Campaign of Tlemcen (1557)
Part of Conflicts between the Regency of Algiers and Morocco
Date1557
Location
Tlemcen
Result Algerian victory
Belligerents
Cherifian Empire Regency of Algiers
Commanders and leaders
Mohammed ash-Sheikh Hassan Pasha

Background

In 1550, Mohammed ash-Sheikh launched a great offensive against the Algerian presence in north-west Algeria.[1][2] The Moroccans seized Tlemcen on June 9, 1550,[3] but failed before Mostaganem and were then defeated by the Banu Amir tribe, allies of the Spaniards in Oran. The Ottomans retaliated in 1551, and launched a counter-attack with their Berber allies from the Kingdom of Ait Abbas and the pro-ottoman Zayyanids. Defeated by Hassan Pasha's Turkish contingents, the Moroccan army abandons Tlemcen.[4]

Salah Raïs gathers in Tlemcen an army of Turkish harquebusiers and Berber soldiers from the kingdom of Kuku. They launch a campaign against Fez with the aim of enthroning Ali Abu Hassun, a Watassid suitor in exile.[5] After heavy fighting near Fez, Mohammed ash-Sheikh is defeated and forced to abandon the city. Troops of the regency of Algiers entered the city on January 9, 1554. Ali Abu Hassun hastened to remove some of the Turks who were guilty of several acts of violence against the population, in exchange for a large sum of money that he had promised them, as well as the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera base.[6][7]

Mohammed ash-Sheikh reorganized his troops in the south and defeated Ali Abu Hassun in the battle of Tadla. This victory allowed Mohammed ash-Sheikh to re-seize the city of Fez on September 13, 1554, and to ascend the throne and establish definitively the Saadian dynasty in Morocco.

Battle

The Saadian sultan wants to take advantage of the disorder that reigns in the government of Algiers since the return of Hassan Corso. Moulay Mohammed El Mehdi, son of the Saadian sultan, marches on Tlemcen, led by the Turk Saffa at the head of a garrison of 400 men. The garrison withdrew to the Kasbah while Cherifian troops entered the city. For lack of artillery, the Cherifian troops could not storm the Kasbah and asked the Spaniards of Oran for artillery. There followed negotiations in Spain on the nature of the aid to be sent,[2] which meant that the junction with the Cherifian troops would not be made in time.

Aftermath

The Moroccan army ends its campaign when it learns that a berber revolt has broken out in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains.[8] Mohamed el Mehdi withdrew, leaving Caïd Mansour in place with a few troops.[9] Hassan, son of Hayreddin Barbarossa, who had returned at the head of the regency of Algiers, had the city retaken and launched an assassin, a certain Salah Kahia, to take revenge on Sultan Mohamed ash-sheikh and his attempted alliance with the Spaniards.[9]

References
  1. Abun-Nasr, Jamil M. (1987). A history of the Maghrib in the Islamic period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 156. ISBN 0-521-33184-6. OCLC 14242602.
  2. Ruff, Paul (1998-10-15). La domination espagnole à Oran sous le gouvernement du comte d'Alcaudete, 1534-1558 (in French). Editions Bouchène. ISBN 978-2-35676-083-8.
  3. Boyer (1966), p. 23
  4. III, Comer Plummer (2015-09-09). Roads to Ruin: The War for Morocco In the Sixteenth Century. Lulu Press, Inc. ISBN 9781483431048. Retrieved 2016-12-21.
  5. De La Veronne, Chantal (1973). "Relations entre le Maroc et la Turquie dans la seconde moitié du XVIe siècle et le début du XVIIe siècle (1554-1616)". Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée. 15 (1): 391–401. doi:10.3406/remmm.1973.1258.
  6. Spuler, Bertold; Kissling, Hans Joachim (1994). History of the Muslim World. M. Wiener. p. 103. ISBN 978-1-55876-112-4.
  7. Bertold Spuler. The muslim world a historical servery - Part III the last greate muslim empires. Brill Archive. p. 114. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
  8. Faure Biguet, Gabriel (1838-1919) Auteur du texte (1905). Histoire de l'Afrique septentrionale sous la domination musulmane / général G. Faure-Biguet.
  9. Mercier, Ernest (1840-1907) Auteur du texte (1888). Histoire de l'Afrique septentrionale (Berbérie) depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à la conquête française (1830). [Tome 3] / par Ernest Mercier...
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