Campaign of Tlemcen (1557)

For the 1551 military operation, see Campaign of Tlemcen (1551).

Campaign of Tlemcen (1557)
Part of Conflicts between the Regency of Algiers and Morocco
Date 1557 Location Tlemcen, Algeria 34°52′58″N 01°19′00″W Result Algerian victory[3]
Belligerents
Saadi Sultanate	Regency of Algiers Kingdom of Beni Abbas[1][2]
Commanders and leaders
Mohammed ash-Sheikh	Hasan Pasha
Strength
30,000 horsemen 10,000 infantrymen 4,000 musketeers	6,000 musketeers 16,000 infantrymen
Casualties and losses
Heavy	Heavy
Battle of Tlemcen (1557) class=notpageimage| Location of the battle of Tlemcen (1557) in Algeria.

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. Mohammed ash-Sheikh, who wanted to conquer Algeria, occupied the city but failed to seize the Mechouar Palace, which was defended by a garrison of 500 men under the command of Caïd Saffa.[4][5]

Background

In 1550, Mohammed ash-Sheikh launched an offensive against the Algerian presence in north-west Algeria.[6][7] The Moroccans seized Tlemcen on June 9, 1550,[8] but failed at 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 Beni Abbas and the pro-Ottoman Zayyanids. Defeated by Hassan Pasha's Turkish contingents, the Moroccan army abandoned Tlemcen.[9]

Salah Raïs gathered an army in Tlemcen of Turkish harquebusiers and Berber soldiers from the kingdom of Kuku. They launched a campaign against Fez with the aim of enthroning Ali Abu Hassun, a Watassid pretender in exile.[10] After heavy fighting near Fez, Mohammed ash-Sheikh was defeated and forced to abandon the city. Troops of the Regency of Algiers entered the city on January 9, 1554. Ali Abu Hassun removed some of the Turks who were guilty of 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.[11][12]

Mohammed ash-Sheikh reorganized his troops in the south and defeated Ali Abu Hassun in the battle of Tadla. This victory allowed him 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 wanted to take advantage of the disorder that had reigned in the government of Algiers since the return of Hassan Corso. Moulay Mohammed El Mehdi, son of the Saadian sultan, marched on Tlemcen at the head of 400 men. The town was defended by a small garrison of the Algerian army commanded by the caïd Çafa. During the attack, the Algerian garrison entrenched itself in the citadel of the city and resisted all assaults while waiting for reinforcements from Algiers.[13]

As soon as he returned to Algiers, Algerian sultan Hasan Pacha assembled a powerful army. Alerted to this offensive, he marched to the aid of Tlemcen with his twenty-two thousand men. On hearing of his arrival, the frightened Moroccans crossed the border again, hotly pursued by the Algerian army which reached them under the walls of Fez.[14]

A counter-battle under the walls of Fez took place. The city was defended by four thousand musketeers, thirty thousand horsemen and ten thousand infantrymen. This Algerian counter-attack, described as stubborn, caused many losses on both the Moroccan and Algerian sides. Hassan Pasha decided to return with his army to Tlemcen after being warned of a possible Spanish attack. For the bey of Algiers, the Saadians were not a problem as long as they did not cross the Moulouya river, which served as the border between Algeria and Morocco at the time.[4]

Aftermath

The Moroccan army ended its campaign when it learned that a Berber revolt had broken out in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains.[15] Mohamed el Mehdi withdrew, leaving Caïd Mansour in place with his troops.[16] Hassan, son of Hayreddin Barbarossa, who had returned at the head of the Regency of Algiers, defeated the Moroccans and launched an assassin, a certain Salah Kahia, to take revenge on Sultan Mohamed ash-Sheikh and his attempted alliance with the Spaniards.[16][3] Another failed Saadi expedition against Tlemcen occurred in 1560.[17][18]

References

1. Hugh Roberts, Berber Government: The Kabyle Polity in Pre-colonial Algeria , IB Tauris , 2014, p.  195
2. Gaïd, Mouloud (1975). L'Algérie sous les Turcs (Algeria under the Turks) (in French). Maison tunisienne de l'édition.
3. Historical Dictionary of Algeria By Phillip C. Naylor
4. Grammont, H.-D. de (2016-07-20). Histoire d'Alger sous la domination turque: 1515-1830 (in French). Collection XIX. ISBN 978-2-346-08756-3.
5. General History of Africa: Africa from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Heinemann.
6. 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.
7. Ruff, Paul (1998-10-15). La domination espagnole à Oran sous le gouvernement du comte d'Alcaudete, 1534-1558 [Spanish domination in Oran under the government of the Count of Alcaudete 1534-1558] (in French). Editions Bouchène. ISBN 978-2-35676-083-8.
8. Boyer (1966), p. 23
9. 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.^[permanent dead link‍]
10. 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)" [Relations between Morocco and Turkey in the second half of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century (1558-1616)]. Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée. 15 (1): 391–401. doi:10.3406/remmm.1973.1258.
11. Spuler, Bertold; Kissling, Hans Joachim (1994). History of the Muslim World. M. Wiener. p. 103. ISBN 978-1-55876-112-4.
12. Bertold Spuler. The muslim world a historical servery - Part III the last greate muslim empires. Brill Archive. p. 114. Retrieved 2020-07-17.
13. Merouche, Lemnouar (2007-10-15). Recherches sur l'Algérie à l'époque ottomane II.: La course, mythes et réalité [Research on Algeria in the Ottoman period: The course, myths and reality] (in French). Editions Bouchène. ISBN 978-2-35676-055-5.
14. Merouche, Lemnouar (2007-10-15). Recherches sur l'Algérie à l'époque ottomane II.: La course, mythes et réalité (in French). Editions Bouchène. ISBN 978-2-35676-055-5.
15. Faure Biguet, Gabriel (1838-1919) (1905). Histoire de l'Afrique septentrionale sous la domination musulmane / général G. Faure-Biguet [History of North Africa under Muslim domination / General G. Faure-Biguet] (in French).
16. Mercier, Ernest (1840-1907) (1888). Histoire de l'Afrique septentrionale (Berbérie) depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à la conquête française (1830). [Tome 3] / par Ernest Mercier... [History of North Africa from the most ancient times to the French conquest (1830) Volume 3 by Ernest Mercier].
17. The Last Crusaders: East, West and the Battle for the Centre of the World. Barnaby Rogerson. Hachette UK.
18. History of Islam: Classical period, 1206-1900 C.E. Masudul Hasan. Adam Publishers & Distributors.