MOULAY IDRISS Al AKBAR:
Name and origins:
IDRISS son of ATIKA daughter of ABDULMALIK and ABDULLAH AL KAMIL(127Hijri/743- 177Hijri/793) son of AL HASSAN AL MOUTHANA ”AL Hassan the second” son of AL HASSAN ASSIBT – ASSIBT means grandchild – son of ALI IBNU ABI TALIB and FATIMA AZZAHRAE daughter of the Prophet ‘MOHAMED peace be upon him’. Heis considered the first Arabian that entered the kingdom of Morocco. He was well treated by the locals (The AMAZIGH).They even made him king over them because of the love they had for the “Prophet MOHAMED” peace be upon him. He married “KENZA” she was anAMAZIGH queen. In 172 Hijri, MoulayIdriss Al Akbar established the “IDRISSID dynasty” which isconsidered the second Islamic nation that does not submit to the KALIF regimein the far west. THE UMMYAD was the first in the Andalous (South of Spain).
How MoulayIdrissEnded Up In Morocco:
The failed attempted coupbyAL HOUSSAIN son of ALI(169 Hijri-786) had a negative impact on theALAWISdue to their implication, as a response the ABBASSIDStried to eradicate them. But the destiny had other words.MoulayIdriss and his brother YAHYA survived the attack. Afterwards, each one of the brothers followed his own path, MoulayIdrisschoseMorocco as his destination(West), while his brother YAHYA opted for the East for various reasons, one of them, being near “DAR AL KHILAFA. The choice of MoulayIdriss wasn’t taken randomly, he chose Morocco mainly because it was out of reach from the military power of the “ABBASSIDS”, also the country was independent ( after the fall of” THE UMMYAD” 132 Hijri/ 749). (Without forgetting to mention the honorablerole that RACHID AL AWRABI(meaning from Awraba. A tribe near “WALILI-VOLUBILIS)played in the escape ofMoulayIdriss (his master) from the attack and from the city. RACHID posed as the master and MoulayIdriss as hisservant. The story continued like that until they arrived to EGYPT. They kept on going until they arrived to AL KAIRAOUAN – 90 Miles from Tunis City. From there to TLEMCEN-Algeria, then they went to TANGIERSin Northern Morocco, and finally resided in WALILI. RACHIDkept some of his Berberchildhood habits (like his father), thus he presented MoulayIdriss to his father-in-law (ISHAAQ-ISAAC) who accepted MoulayIdrissas his guest for quite a longperiod of time (6 months), ISHAAQ was a devout Muslim, who benefited from the knowledge and the expertise of MoulayIdriss.After being amazed by MoulayIdriss, ISHAAQ’s attachment kept on growing, which led him to recede from ABBASIDS obedience, and pledge allegiance to MoulayIdriss. ISHAAQ seized the opportunity of the holy month of Ramadan; then reunited his fellows from the tribe, and presented MoulayIdrissthedescendant of the Prophet MOHAMED peace be upon him.They all pledged allegiance to him, and swore themselves to follow him inhis conquest, to do what he says and follow his commands (the allegiance was on Friday 4th of Ramadan 172 Hijri-789). AWRABA, a powerful tribe, invited the other tribes (MGHILA and SDENA) to pledge allegiance to MoulayIdriss which they did.
After the allegiance of the first supporters, MOULAY IDRISS made a short speech, this is an excerpt from it: ‘thank God and praise the prophet MOHAMED peace be upon him, Oh people don’t submit yourselves and pledge allegiance to anyone else, because you won’t be able to find what we will give you elsewhere (knowledge)’. That short speech was sufficient to enlighten MOULAY IDRISS vision which is the caliphate is within “AHL-AL-BAYT – the descendants of the prophet MOHAMED peace be upon him. After thewide spread of the news, other tribes came to pledge also their allegiance (GOMARA- ZNATA-MKNASSA-SADRATA-ZWARA- RIATA) then all the BERBERtribesof western Morocco. After the allegiance, the journey of spreading Islam across all Morocco started. MOULAY IDRISS gathered his troops then went to TAMSNA (near Rabat). He started withCHALAH- fortress (now. it was a Romanian city then)after the conquest of “CHALAH” “MOULAY IDRISS” took the outposts surrounding the city, then he continued his conquering journey and added “the city of TADLA” to the Muslim cities of Morocco. Afterwards, it wasMASSA’s turnThe habitants of those regions were mainly Jews, Christians, Pagans, while the Muslim community was a minority. After MOULAY IDRISS, passage, the Muslim population started to grow.
After the success of the first campaign, MOULAY IDRISS returned to his base camp (HQ) in “VOLUBILIS” and stood there until June 789/ Moharam 173 Hijri. Then, once againMOULAY IDRISSwent on a second journey to continue his mission. He started withFANDLAWA then, MEDIOUNA, afterwards it was BAHLOULA’S turn in addition to the fortresses of GHIATA, and the city of “FAZAZ”. The campaigns taken by MOULAY IDRISS to spread Islam were peaceful; he barely needed to use his military forces. The people adopted ISLAMas a religion by their own will. AllthatMoulayIdriss did was speaking to them. He continued to do so until all the people of Morocco became Muslims. This does not mean that ISLAMwas not present beforeMOULAY IDRISSor that there was no one who tried to spread Islam before him. But his predecessors focused on using military power and forcing people to become Muslim. It was nearly in vain due to the smallnumber of Muslims that MoulayIdriss found when he first entered. They had as main objective adding colonies, and in second position spreading Islam. This explains why after Muslims were defeat, or when they left a city, people revoked instantly Islam. MOULAY IDRISShad an opposite vision of things. He focused on spreading the Islamic religion instead ofconquering.After the closure of this other chapter, MOULAY IDRISScame back once again to his capitalVOLUBILIS- WALILIto prepare foranother journey and this time the destination was TILMSANE- ALGERIA. He rested for a month before heading to Tilmsane in January 789/173 Hijiri. During his travel MOULAY IDRISSpassed by the tribes of MAGHRAWA and BENI YFREN. This time, not only he didn’t need to use the force but also he didn’t even give a speech. Once the camp was established outside of TILMSANE, the Prince MOHAMED BEN KHAZAR came out seeking peace and allegiance.He was well received byMOULAY IDRISS.The ceremony of the allegiance took place all the resident pledged allegiance without being forced (he/she whodoes not want to become a Muslim is free to keep his/her religion), then “THE IMAM MOULAY IDRISS” asked some of his subjects to start teaching the Islamic basis to people, building a mosque and teaching the holy Quran to people. He remained there untileverything was going flawless and that the people fully committed to the religion then he went back to “VOLUBILIS” (nearly a year after).
AL FAKIR