The Lion of the Atlas: Muhammad al-Shaykh and the Saadian Conquest of Marrakech

In the early 1500s, Morocco's Wattasid sultans were crumbling under Portuguese pressure from the coast. From the deep south, a religious brotherhood in the Draa Valley rallied behind a sharif named Muhammad al-Qa'im, who proclaimed a holy war. But it was his son, Muhammad al-Shaykh, who would forge the Saadian dynasty through a daring betrayal and a dramatic siege of Marrakech. This episode takes you inside the power struggle that ended Wattasid rule and launched a new imperial age—years before the more famous exploits of Ahmad al-Mansur. We follow Muhammad al-Shaykh from the Zawiya of Jazuliyya to the gates of Marrakech, where he defeated the last Wattasid sultan in 1524 and established a capital that would define Moroccan history. Featuring the role of Sufi networks, the Portuguese fort of Santa Cruz, and the brutal civil war between Saadian brothers. #Saadian #MuhammadAlShaykh #Marrakech #Wattasid #DraaValley #Suz #Zawiya #Jazuliyya #PortugueseMorocco #SantaCruz #SiegeOfMarrakech #Sharif #Mahdi #MoroccanHistory #SixteenthCentury #Berber #NorthAfrica #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo