Abu Said Usman III

The Siege of Gibraltar

The Gibraltar garrison rebelled in 1410 against the ruler of Granada, Yusuf III, and declared allegiance to Abu Saeed Usman III. The Sultan sent his brother Abu Said to take command of an army of about 1,000 horsemen and 2,000 foot soldiers. They occupied a number of castles in the area, as well as the ports of Estepona and Marbella . The Granada counteroffensive in 1411 threw Abu Saeed back to Gibraltar , where he took refuge. The son of Yusuf III, Ahmad, besieged Gibraltar and stopped several Moroccan attacks. In the end, the traitor in the ranks of the garrison helped the besiegers to enter the city. The Granadians stormed the citadel, forcing Abu Said to surrender, and regained control of Gibraltar ^[2] .

Abu Said Usman III wrote to Yusuf III, asking for the execution of Abu Said for surrender. Instead, the Sultan of Granada gave Abu Said an army under command and sent him back to Morocco to put an end to the unsuccessful rebellion against Abu Saeed Usman III ^[2] .

Ceuta

In 1415, the king of Portugal, Juan I, captured Ceuta . This conquest marked the beginning of overseas European expansion. The Portuguese capture of Ceuta took the Moroccans by surprise. In 1419, Abu Saeed Usman III brought an army to regain the city, but the siege of Ceuta failed ^{[3] [4]} . The besieging forces included the troops of Abu Saeed Usman III and the allied forces from Granada. The Portuguese garrison of Ceuta was led by Pedro de Menezes, 1st Earl of Vila Real. The Portuguese gathered a fleet under the command of Princes Enrique the Navigator and Juan to lift the siege of Ceuta. According to the chroniclers, the fleet was not needed: in a bold gambit, Pedro de Menezes led a Portuguese garrison against the Marinid siege camp and forced them to lift the siege before the fleet arrived ^[5] .

Death and Succession

The inability to return Ceuta caused widespread dissatisfaction with the Sultan and instability in the Marinid state. This culminated in a coup in Fez in 1420 , in which the Sultan Abu Saeed Usman III was killed, leaving only the one-year-old son of Abu Muhammad Abd al-Haq II as heir. The fight for the throne broke out immediately, other applicants appeared. The rulers of Granada and the Abdalvadids of the Kingdom of Tlemcen intervened in the turmoil, who promoted their candidates for the Moroccan throne ^{[3] [4]} .

At that time, Abu Zakaria Yahya al-Wattasi served as governor of Sale ^{[6] [4]} . Upon learning of the murder of the Sultan, Abu Zakaria hastened from Sale and seized control of the royal palace of Fez , proclaiming the orphan Abd al-Haqqah the new Sultan and appointing himself regent and vizier. Morocco quickly plunged into chaos and anarchy. The interventions and intrigues of Granada and Tlemcen continued, governors seized control of their districts, religious radicals inspired by the Sufis raised people to capture cities, and the nomadic Bedouin tribes Banu Hilal, taking advantage of the general weakness of the rule of law, began a series of gang raids on small towns and settlements ^{[ 3]} . However, the vizier of Abu Zakaria Yahya al-Wattasi ultimately strengthened the power apparatus, becoming the founder of the Wattasid dynasty, first the Vizier, and later the Sultans.

• Abun Nasr, JM A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic period. - Cambridge University Press, 1987.
• Hills, George. Rock of Contention: A history of Gibraltar. - London: Robert Hale & Company, 1974. - ISBN 0-7091-4352-4 .
• Julien, Charles-André. Histoire de l'Afrique du Nord, des origines à 1830 .-- Paris: Payot, 1931.
• Ibn Khaldūn. Ibn Khaldūn and Tamerlane: Their Historic Meeting in Damascus, 1401 Ad (803 Ah) A Study Based on Arabic Manuscripts of Ibn Khaldūn's "Autobiography," . - University of California Press, 1952. - ISBN GGKEY: F0091PP7QLT.
• Quintella. Annaes da Marinha Portugueza. - 1839. - Vol. one.