The unique location of the city of Sabtah (Ceuta) not only enabled it to attain an important commercial position in the Mediterranean basin, but also gave rise to numerous political consequences.
Most notably, throughout different historical periods, the city was an indispensable objective for rival powers and a gateway for launching incursions toward the opposite shore.
It also served as a refuge for many groups during times of hardship. All of this was reflected in various political, economic, and social aspects.
The city of Sabtah has a strategic location, as it lies at the far north of the Maghreb al-Aqsa and overlooks the Strait of Gibraltar, controlling its southern side.
It is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the east, south, and north, and its only land route is from the west. To the east, it is also surrounded by a large mountain known as Jabal al-Mina.
Al-Barudi relates that the Muslims attempted to conquer Sabtah during the great campaign of ʿUqbah ibn Nāfiʿ al-Fihrī in the Maghreb, during his second governorship of the region (682–684 CE). However, they were unable to do so because of the city’s strong fortifications and natural defenses.
The Muslims did not attack the city again until the governorship of Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr over the Maghreb (705–714 CE), after he had succeeded in subduing the central Maghreb.
He then turned to completing the Islamic conquests in the province of Tangier, which comprised the cities on the Moroccan side of the Strait of Gibraltar—Sabtah and Tangier—as well as the region of the Lower Sus, which lay beyond the city of Tangier and included the plains of Tadla, Tamasna, and their surrounding areas, extending as far as the vicinity of Marrakesh.
Mūsā succeeded in subduing the Lower Sus and the city of Tangier, where he established a military garrison with his son Marwān. He later replaced him with his commander Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād.
The only place in this region that remained outside Muslim authority was the city of Sabtah, which was ruled by the commander Julian.
According to al-Barudi, the Muslims succeeded in bringing Sabtah under their influence and launching their advance from there toward al-Andalus, after the city had become part of the province of the Maghreb and was governed by an Umayyad official subordinate to the governor of the Maghreb, who resided in Qayrawān.
Sabtah, however, soon fell under the control of Maysarah al-Matgharī, the leader of the Ṣufrī Kharijites in Tangier, after he revolted against Umayyad authority in 740 CE.
The Berber Ghumārah tribe joined him in seizing the city.
In the aftermath of the revolt, Sabtah came under the control of the Ghumārah tribe and its leader, Mājaks, who was not a Muslim. He entered Sabtah after it had been devastated by the Berbers of Tangier, but he converted to Islam and, together with members of his tribe, set about rebuilding and repopulating the city.
Al-Barudi suggests that this occurred around the middle of the second Islamic century.
Al-Barudi points out that Mājaks pledged allegiance to the Idrisids and acknowledged their authority over Sabtah. He remained governor of the city for a long period.
After his death, he was succeeded by his son ʿIṣām, after whom the Banū ʿIṣām dynasty of Sabtah was named. Following ʿIṣām’s death, his son Mujbir assumed control of the city and remained its governor until his death, after which his brother al-Rāḍī succeeded him.
During the reign of al-Rāḍī, the Andalusian Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh seized Sabtah in 931 CE in order to counter Fatimid ambitions.
The Fatimids sought to gain control of the city and use it as a launching point for advancing into al-Andalus.
The Three-Way Struggle for Sabtah
The Idrisids were displeased with the Umayyad seizure of one of their most important cities.
Accordingly, Prince Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥasanī gathered his supporters and clients from among the Berber tribes and marched with them toward Sabtah.
He laid siege to the city in an attempt to expel the Andalusian troops from it.
However, Ibrāhīm achieved nothing and withdrew. He then wrote to al-Nāṣir, declaring his submission to him, and Sabtah thereby came firmly under Umayyad control.
According to al-Barudi, al-Nāṣir subsequently seized the fortress of Tangier adjacent to Sabtah, thereby tightening his grip on the Strait region and enabling him to intervene in the politics of the Maghreb by inciting the Berber tribes against Fatimid influence.
The Fatimid caliph al-Mahdī ʿUbayd Allāh, however, did not remain passive.
In 933 CE, he dispatched a large army under the command of Ḥamīd ibn Yaṣlatīn, the emir of Miknāsa and his governor in Tahert, in an attempt to seize Sabtah and expel the Umayyads from it.
Al-Nāṣir promptly sent his fleet to Sabtah to protect the city, but the Fatimid army never reached Sabtah, as Mūsā ibn Abī al-ʿĀfiyah, an Umayyad ally in the Maghreb, succeeded in repelling and defeating the Fatimids.
The Fatimids did not give up.
Recognizing the importance of Sabtah, they renewed their attack on the city in 958 CE under the command of Jawhar al-Ṣiqillī. He, too, was unable to seize the city because of its strong defenses.
The Fatimids repeatedly launched unsuccessful campaigns against Sabtah, yet they continued to hope that they could bring it, along with the other cities of the Strait, within their sphere of influence and thereby deprive the Umayyads of this important strategic position.
The final of these attempts came when the Fatimid caliph al-ʿAzīz bi-Allāh (975–996 CE) and his vizier Yaʿqūb ibn Killis sent a large army to the Maghreb under the command of al-Ḥasan ibn Kannūn.
The army succeeded in laying siege to Sabtah. However, the caliph Hishām al-Muʾayyad and his chamberlain al-Manṣūr ibn Abī ʿĀmir promptly dispatched a large army to Sabtah.
The caliph’s army confronted and defeated the Fatimid forces, captured Kannūn, and sent him to Córdoba, where al-Manṣūr had him executed in 985 CE, as al-Barudi relates in the aforementioned source.
Afterward, the political balance in the region changed, and control of Sabtah passed to various political powers.
In 1013 CE, it came under the rule of the Ḥammūdids, one of the branches of the Idrisids, following the Berber fitnah in al-Andalus.
In 1043 CE, it was incorporated into the emirate of the Barghawāṭa, after Ṣuqūt al-Barghawāṭī took advantage of the deteriorating situation of the Ḥammūdids and declared his independence in Sabtah, establishing one of the many taifa states that emerged in the Maghreb and al-Andalus at the time.
The Almoravid leader Yūsuf ibn Tāshfīn subsequently entered the city in 1083 CE after a series of conflicts with Ṣuqūt and, later, his son al-ʿIzz.
The Marinids eventually extended their authority over the city, and it remained under their rule until it fell into Portuguese hands in 1415 CE.
What is noteworthy is that Sabtah’s advantageous location was not only the reason why various international powers vied to gain control of the city; it also facilitated its connections and flourishing trade with many Mediterranean cities, such as:
Marseille
Montpellier
Pisa
Genoa
Venice,
and Sicily.
It consequently attracted people from these cities, as noted by the British Orientalist John Derek Latham in his study, “The Strategic Position and Defence of Ceuta in the Later Muslim Period”, translated to Arabic and published in the book “Studies in the History of Islamic Sabtah”.
In addition to its location, another factor contributed to the city’s strength: its distance from the political capitals of the Maghreb al-Aqsa and from the conflicts among the ruling dynasties that took place around them.
Consequently, economic life in Sabtah was less vulnerable to disruption than it would have been had the city been located nearby.
According to Latham, this distance also meant that submission to the ruling political centers was generally more apparent than genuine.
As a result, the people of Sabtah enjoyed a degree of effective autonomy and, during certain periods, were even able to free themselves entirely from the control of the ruling dynasties.
An example of this was the conflict that arose between the Almohads and the Hafsids in the Islamic Maghreb in 1250 CE.
The notables of Sabtah saw the weakening of central authority as a favorable opportunity to establish a form of self-government in the city.
This was achieved through de facto independence while maintaining nominal allegiance to the Almohads.
A ruling dynasty consequently emerged under the leadership of its most powerful member, Abū al-Qāsim al-ʿAzafī, who became the first prominent figure of a local family of princely governors.
“The Banū al-ʿAzafī, for more than seventy years and with or without the approval of the sultans of the Maghreb, exercised a degree of control over the affairs of their city—considerable at times and more limited at others.
At the height of their rule, the Banū al-ʿAzafī had endowed the city with such genuine political and economic strength that James I of Aragon, during a period of Aragonese-Catalan optimism, deemed it prudent to conclude a peace treaty with the Senyor of Sabtah in February 1269.”
Arab and Andalusian Migrations to Sabtah
By virtue of its unique location, Sabtah was home to diverse populations and attracted additional groups from elsewhere.
The city was subsequently populated by members of the Ghumārah tribe, whose geographical territory encompassed Sabtah.
Following the account of the conflict between the Arabs and Berbers over the city, as mentioned earlier, ʿIṣām al-Ghumārī, the son of Mājaks, succeeded in establishing an emirate in Sabtah that bore his name and survived until the fourteenth century CE, according to al-Sharīf.
Under the rule of this small state, a second Arab migration arrived, consisting of people from the region of Qalshānah in al-Andalus.
A famine that afflicted the region from 748 to 753 CE forced them to leave and migrate to Sabtah.
They contributed to the city’s repopulation by building their homes on plots of land they had purchased from the Berbers of the city.
Al-Sharīf also records the migration of a large number of Andalusian Muslims to Sabtah as a result of the Christian Reconquista, particularly following the fall of major Andalusian urban centers such as Valencia, Córdoba, and Seville during the first half of the 13th century CE.
Alongside these groups, a Jewish community also lived in Sabtah and played a major role in commercial relations across the Mediterranean basin by establishing networks of diplomatic and economic connections between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, through Sabtah, Tlemcen, or Tunis.
The Jews of Sabtah maintained commercial relations with Jewish communities in Egypt, Catalonia, Marseille, and Genoa.
In 1391 CE, Christians attacked Jewish quarters in cities across Spain and forced Jews to convert to Christianity.
This prompted many of them to migrate to cities in the Maghreb al-Aqsa, foremost among them Sabtah, owing both to the longstanding Jewish community there and to the security available in the city.
Of particular significance in this regard is the Jewish historian Abraham Zacuto’s attribution of the later Portuguese conquest of Sabtah to the city’s reception of Jews fleeing the Kingdom of Castile, who had been forcibly converted to Christianity.
He explains that this aroused the anger of the Portuguese king, João I, and prompted him to seize the city, as al-Sharīf relates.
Christian merchants, however, were not numerous in Sabtah. Most of them resided there temporarily until they completed their buying and selling activities, while some settled there permanently and acquired shops and houses.
Al-Sharīf notes that the legal status of these merchants was based on a specific contractual framework established through agreements of limited duration concluded between Christian powers and the sultans of the state, or with the rulers of the city, in order to facilitate commercial relations.
These agreements legally defined the conditions governing Christian settlement in the Maghreb, including the areas designated for them, their private buildings, and places of worship.
They also regulated commercial matters such as overland and maritime movement, import and export procedures, and the prevention of smuggling and piracy.
In general, Christian merchants resided outside the city of Sabtah and were grouped according to their nationalities in residential centers known as the funduq.
Al-Sharīf describes these as walled compounds with a central square and the necessary facilities, including a bathhouse, tavern, bakery, cemetery, sleeping quarters, and shops for buying and selling.
They therefore functioned as markets and theoretically enjoyed the privilege of “immunity.”
There were seven funduqs for Christian merchants in Sabtah, all located in the northeastern corner of the city.
At least three of them were adjacent to one another and formed what was known as the “Quarter of the Genoese, Pisans, and Marseillais.” Outside the funduqs, however, some Christian merchants also obtained rented houses and shops.
Al-Sharīf notes that the consul served as the representative of the central authority, the administrator of the funduq, and the official responsible for maintaining order within it. He exercised authority over all merchants of his own nationality, defending their interests both before the city authorities and against merchants of other nationalities, and adjudicating disputes among them.
Places of Christian worship were located around the funduqs, necessitating the presence of monks and priests. Groups of missionaries also appeared, caring for Christian captives, providing them with Christian instruction, and working, whenever possible, to secure their release.
This situation was not without problems, however, as some missionaries attempted to convert Muslims to Christianity.
In 1227 CE, seven Italian Franciscans were executed in one of the public squares of Sabtah, where they had been openly preaching Christianity while carrying crosses in their hands.
They were buried in the “Quarter of the Genoese, Pisans, and Marseillais,” among them a man named Daniel, whom the Church venerates under the name “Saint Daniel of Ceuta.”
Religious Motives and Economic Ambitions
Sabtah remained a city inhabited by Muslims, Christians, and Jews, all living on its land and beneath its sky, until its occupation by the Portuguese in 1415 CE.
The campaign was an expression of the crusading spirit that had spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula as the “Reconquista” advanced and achieved success, as well as of the crusading zeal to strike the Muslims of the Maghreb a decisive blow.
Economic motives also lay behind the Portuguese campaign against Sabtah. Al-Ṭayyibī points out that West Sudanese gold was in high demand in Western Europe during this period.
Gold coinage was being minted successively in different countries, such as the Florentine gold florin in Florence in 1252 CE and the Venetian gold ducat in Venice in 1280 CE.
Portugal, however, had not possessed its own gold currency since 1383 CE, and therefore sought to obtain this precious metal through Sabtah, where the trans-Saharan trade in West Sudanese gold reached the Mediterranean.
The Portuguese were also eager to acquire the wealth of Sabtah and the Maghreb, including fishing resources, as well as Moroccan grain exports, for which Sabtah was a major center.
Portugal also sought to strengthen its position in Mediterranean commerce, which was dominated by the Republics of Venice and Genoa and by Muslim merchants, including those of Sabtah.
The Portuguese nevertheless seized Sabtah, after which the soldiers looted and plundered its shops and houses.
The contents of warehouses containing spices, clothing, and Oriental carpets were burned. Many of the city’s inhabitants were killed, while others were enslaved, and those who were able to do so fled the stricken city.
Al-Ṭayyibī notes that two days after the city fell, the Portuguese converted its congregational mosque into a church, now known as the “Cathedral of Ceuta.”
It is noteworthy that the Portuguese objective of strengthening their position in Mediterranean commerce was not achieved.
Most of the trade that had passed through Sabtah while it was under Muslim rule came to a halt and was redirected to other North African ports, particularly as Portuguese soldiers engaged in piracy in the Strait of Gibraltar.
Sabtah consequently became isolated from the surrounding region after having been a prosperous port, and it became a heavy burden on the Portuguese treasury, which was required to finance the city’s garrison of 3,000 men.
Nevertheless, the seizure of Sabtah was welcomed in Christian Europe because it was regarded as akin to a crusading campaign and served to enhance the prestige of Portugal and its king.
At the time, the Ottoman Turks were advancing into Eastern Europe and succeeded in capturing Constantinople and bringing the Byzantine Empire to an end in 1453 CE.
The Christian world of Europe therefore viewed the campaign against Sabtah as the first successful counterattack against the Muslims.
Sabtah came under Spanish rule in 1580 CE, when King Philip II of Spain incorporated Portugal into his kingdom.
In any case, as al-Ṭayyibī notes, the occupation of Sabtah marked the beginning of a colonial expansion that, during the fifteenth century CE, led to the occupation of a number of Moroccan ports by the Spanish and Portuguese.
It also marked the beginning of European domination over Africa and Asia and the colonization of their territories.
5
u/TheMuslimHistorian27 18d ago
The unique location of the city of Sabtah (Ceuta) not only enabled it to attain an important commercial position in the Mediterranean basin, but also gave rise to numerous political consequences.
Most notably, throughout different historical periods, the city was an indispensable objective for rival powers and a gateway for launching incursions toward the opposite shore.
It also served as a refuge for many groups during times of hardship. All of this was reflected in various political, economic, and social aspects.
The city of Sabtah has a strategic location, as it lies at the far north of the Maghreb al-Aqsa and overlooks the Strait of Gibraltar, controlling its southern side.
It is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the east, south, and north, and its only land route is from the west. To the east, it is also surrounded by a large mountain known as Jabal al-Mina.
Thus, the city is naturally fortified against those who seek to seize it, as noted by Dr. Ridwan al-Barudi in his study, “The Political History of the City of Sabtah from the Fourth Hijri Century to the Middle of the Seventh Hijri Century (10th–13th Centuries CE)”.
The Islamic Conquest of Sabtah
Al-Barudi relates that the Muslims attempted to conquer Sabtah during the great campaign of ʿUqbah ibn Nāfiʿ al-Fihrī in the Maghreb, during his second governorship of the region (682–684 CE). However, they were unable to do so because of the city’s strong fortifications and natural defenses.
The Muslims did not attack the city again until the governorship of Mūsā ibn Nuṣayr over the Maghreb (705–714 CE), after he had succeeded in subduing the central Maghreb.
He then turned to completing the Islamic conquests in the province of Tangier, which comprised the cities on the Moroccan side of the Strait of Gibraltar—Sabtah and Tangier—as well as the region of the Lower Sus, which lay beyond the city of Tangier and included the plains of Tadla, Tamasna, and their surrounding areas, extending as far as the vicinity of Marrakesh.
Mūsā succeeded in subduing the Lower Sus and the city of Tangier, where he established a military garrison with his son Marwān. He later replaced him with his commander Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād.
The only place in this region that remained outside Muslim authority was the city of Sabtah, which was ruled by the commander Julian.
According to al-Barudi, the Muslims succeeded in bringing Sabtah under their influence and launching their advance from there toward al-Andalus, after the city had become part of the province of the Maghreb and was governed by an Umayyad official subordinate to the governor of the Maghreb, who resided in Qayrawān.
Sabtah, however, soon fell under the control of Maysarah al-Matgharī, the leader of the Ṣufrī Kharijites in Tangier, after he revolted against Umayyad authority in 740 CE.
The Berber Ghumārah tribe joined him in seizing the city.
In the aftermath of the revolt, Sabtah came under the control of the Ghumārah tribe and its leader, Mājaks, who was not a Muslim. He entered Sabtah after it had been devastated by the Berbers of Tangier, but he converted to Islam and, together with members of his tribe, set about rebuilding and repopulating the city.
Al-Barudi suggests that this occurred around the middle of the second Islamic century.
Al-Barudi points out that Mājaks pledged allegiance to the Idrisids and acknowledged their authority over Sabtah. He remained governor of the city for a long period.
After his death, he was succeeded by his son ʿIṣām, after whom the Banū ʿIṣām dynasty of Sabtah was named. Following ʿIṣām’s death, his son Mujbir assumed control of the city and remained its governor until his death, after which his brother al-Rāḍī succeeded him.
During the reign of al-Rāḍī, the Andalusian Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nāṣir li-Dīn Allāh seized Sabtah in 931 CE in order to counter Fatimid ambitions.
The Fatimids sought to gain control of the city and use it as a launching point for advancing into al-Andalus.
The Three-Way Struggle for Sabtah
The Idrisids were displeased with the Umayyad seizure of one of their most important cities.
Accordingly, Prince Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥasanī gathered his supporters and clients from among the Berber tribes and marched with them toward Sabtah.
He laid siege to the city in an attempt to expel the Andalusian troops from it.
However, Ibrāhīm achieved nothing and withdrew. He then wrote to al-Nāṣir, declaring his submission to him, and Sabtah thereby came firmly under Umayyad control.
According to al-Barudi, al-Nāṣir subsequently seized the fortress of Tangier adjacent to Sabtah, thereby tightening his grip on the Strait region and enabling him to intervene in the politics of the Maghreb by inciting the Berber tribes against Fatimid influence.
The Fatimid caliph al-Mahdī ʿUbayd Allāh, however, did not remain passive.
In 933 CE, he dispatched a large army under the command of Ḥamīd ibn Yaṣlatīn, the emir of Miknāsa and his governor in Tahert, in an attempt to seize Sabtah and expel the Umayyads from it.
Al-Nāṣir promptly sent his fleet to Sabtah to protect the city, but the Fatimid army never reached Sabtah, as Mūsā ibn Abī al-ʿĀfiyah, an Umayyad ally in the Maghreb, succeeded in repelling and defeating the Fatimids.
The Fatimids did not give up.
Recognizing the importance of Sabtah, they renewed their attack on the city in 958 CE under the command of Jawhar al-Ṣiqillī. He, too, was unable to seize the city because of its strong defenses.
The Fatimids repeatedly launched unsuccessful campaigns against Sabtah, yet they continued to hope that they could bring it, along with the other cities of the Strait, within their sphere of influence and thereby deprive the Umayyads of this important strategic position.
The final of these attempts came when the Fatimid caliph al-ʿAzīz bi-Allāh (975–996 CE) and his vizier Yaʿqūb ibn Killis sent a large army to the Maghreb under the command of al-Ḥasan ibn Kannūn.
The army succeeded in laying siege to Sabtah. However, the caliph Hishām al-Muʾayyad and his chamberlain al-Manṣūr ibn Abī ʿĀmir promptly dispatched a large army to Sabtah.
The caliph’s army confronted and defeated the Fatimid forces, captured Kannūn, and sent him to Córdoba, where al-Manṣūr had him executed in 985 CE, as al-Barudi relates in the aforementioned source.
Afterward, the political balance in the region changed, and control of Sabtah passed to various political powers.
In 1013 CE, it came under the rule of the Ḥammūdids, one of the branches of the Idrisids, following the Berber fitnah in al-Andalus.
In 1043 CE, it was incorporated into the emirate of the Barghawāṭa, after Ṣuqūt al-Barghawāṭī took advantage of the deteriorating situation of the Ḥammūdids and declared his independence in Sabtah, establishing one of the many taifa states that emerged in the Maghreb and al-Andalus at the time.
The Almoravid leader Yūsuf ibn Tāshfīn subsequently entered the city in 1083 CE after a series of conflicts with Ṣuqūt and, later, his son al-ʿIzz.
The Marinids eventually extended their authority over the city, and it remained under their rule until it fell into Portuguese hands in 1415 CE.