Poet' t,Arios The number of inhabitants is believed to be about 8.0011,000. The popula tion consists of Berbers (about 4,000,000), Arabs and Moors (about :3,000.000), Jews (about 150. 1)0o). and townies and mixed blood (about 2511, 0011). The number of Europeans is between 4000 and 5000. The natives, with the exception of the Jews, are :Mohammedans 14 the most fanatical stripe. The capitals are Fez (140,000 esti mated). Morocco (50,000I. and Mekinez 000). The population of Tangier. an important commercial centre and the seat of the foreign consuls, is estimated at. 30,000.
litsrouv. Morocco was the Boman Province of Mauretania Tingitana, and shared in the vicis situdes of the other Rolla an provinces of Northern Africa during the decline of the Empire. It was reached by the tide of Arabian Mohammedan in vasion in 09S and was reduced to submission and to Mohammedanism after a spirited resist ance. Its people participated in the conquest of Spain. For a number of centuries its history is the rise and fall of successive dynasties, of which the most celebrated were the Almoravides and the Almohades (qq.v.), who passed over into Spain and established their power in that coun try. In faet. during the later Middle Ages Mo rocco was the source whence new reiMforeements were constantly drawn for the declining power of the Moors in Spain. After the fall of Granada in 1492 the population of Morocco was reenfnreell by M 01W, expelled from the Peninsula. In 1546 the sheriffs of Tafilelt conquered both _Morocco proper and Fez., and united the whole try under one government. This is the present ruling dynasty. claiming direct descent from Ali, son in-law of Mohammed. in the sixteenth century Aloroceo was compelled to meet attacks by Spain and Portugal. In 157S Sebastian. King of Portugal, was defeated and slain in the battle of Kasr-el-Kebir (Aleazarquivir). In the middle of the seventeenth Century the Empire of Morocco embraced part of the present Algeria, and extended south as far as guinea. From that time, however, its decline has been almost unchecked. Morocco has had as little as possible to d0 with the outside world. Since the com meneenomt of the nineteenth century the rebel lion of the wild mountain tribes. the wars of (lie French in Algeria. and diffieulties with foreign State, caused by the aggressions of the I:if pirates, have (teen pied the attention of the sul tans. In 1g1 I. under pressure from the Christian nations, the slavery of Christians was abolished; and in 1R17 piracy was prohibited throughout Morocco. The Sultan Aliderrahman. having e-poused the cause of Abd.el•Kader. sustained a crushing defeat at the hands of the French at Isly in 1844. Slogador Wa, bombarded and peace soon followed. In 1859 a Spanish force under Marshal O'Donnell invaded Morocco. Two battles were fought, several ports were bombard ed, and Tetuan was taken. A treaty was signed April 27, 1860, by which the Sultan ceded s?one portions of his territory and granted commercial privileges to Spanish mer chants. Since that time the history of Morocco has been externally uneventful; hut the steady weakening of the Sultan's power lias made future complications with foreign States not unlikely. Local revolts in 1892 nearly led to the interven tion of the Powers, but mutual distrust still keeps them in check. Slulai Hassan, who be came Sultan in 1873, died in 1894, and was suc ceeded by his son, _Slulai Abd-el-Aziz, born Feb ruary 24, 1878. The young Sultan was the sou
of a Circassian slave and had received an excel lent education, which served to imbue hint with a fondness for Western civilization. The Govern ment, however, was in the hands of the powerful Grand Vizier, Sidi-Ahmed ibn-Slusa. who left little opportunity for the Sultan to put his ideas into effect. After the Vizier's death, in Slay, 1900, Mulai Abd-el-Aziz assumed personal charge of the Government, and almost immediately entered upon a series of reforms looking toward the re construction of Sloroceo on something of a Euro pean basis. The improvement of the State prisons, which had become itere plague spots where atrocious cruelties were practiced on the prisoners, first received his attention. Be also set about reducing the onerous customs duties which were levied on goods, especially food prod ucts, carried from port to port within the Em pire. European influence was welcomed at the capital, British interests being especially favored. The mass of the population regarded the progres sive policy of their sovereign with great dissatis faction, and the introduction of such Western innovations as the railway and the automobile aroused profound disgust. A growing spirit of hatred for foreigners speedily asserted itself. In October, 1902, an English missionary was mur dered by a fanatic in Fez and on the murderer's seeking refuge in a mosque, the Sultan caused him to be seized and punished, an act which was regarded by the Moslems as a breach of sanctuary and served to stir up further dissatisfaction. A formidable insurrection among the tribes broke out late in 1902 under the leadership of one Omar Zarabuni, known also as Bu }Tamara or Son of the She Ass. Ile proclaimed himself an elder brother of the Sultan and succeeded in rallying around him the tribes between Fez and Mekinez. Unehecked by several reverses, he suc ceeded finally in defeating the royal troops under a brother of the Sultan (November 29th), and to ward the end of December made himself master of the country around Fez. In January, 1903, the capital was invested by Ihe forces of Bu Hamara.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Rohlfs, Adventures in Mororro, Bibliography. Rohlfs, Adventures in Mororro, etc., trans. (London. 1874) ; Leared, Morocco and the Moors (ib., 1875) ; Amicis, Mororro and Its People, trans. (ih., 1879) Coring. Marokko, dos Land and die Leal(' (Berlin, 1884) : Slareet, La Maroc (Paris, 1885) Erekmann, Le Maroc modernr (Paris. 1885) ; Stutfield, El Maghreb (London, 1885) De Canyon. empire qui croule, le Maroc rontemporain (Paris, 1886) ; Thompson, Travis in the Atlas and Southern Morocco ( London, 1889) ; Alartiniere, Morocco lib., 1889), which has a bibliography; Bonsai, Morocco us It Is (ii)., 1892) ; Diereks, Matcrialica Ltrr Kenntnis der Marokko-Frage (Berlin, 1894) ; Ganniers, Le Maroc d'aujourdhai, d'hicr at de ((twain (Paris, 1894) ; Ream-. Africa (London, 1894) ; Parris, Land of an African Sultan 1889) ; Day. Morocco and the .1100rs 1896) ; Castellanos, Ilistoria I. Marrnf cos (Tangier, 1898) ; Niessel, Le Maroc: aperru tp'ographique (Paris, 1901) ; Sleakin, The Moorish Empire 1899) ; The Land of the Moors (i1)., 1901); Canal, Wographie- elrr Maroc (Paris, 1903) ; Fischer, "Slarokko," in Geo graphisehe Zcitschrift (Leipzig, 1903) ; and Play fair and Brown, Bibliography of Morocco (Lon don, 1892).