Morocco's Dynasties: A Traveller's History You Can See

How to read Morocco's history

Morocco's story is unusually legible on the ground: most of its landmark buildings belong to one of six great dynasties, and learning their order turns a jumble of mosques and palaces into a clear timeline. Each dynasty rose, built a capital and a signature style, and was eventually replaced by the next — but the monuments remained, which is why a single trip can span a thousand years of building.

The broad sequence runs from the Idrisids in the late 8th century, through the Almoravids, Almohads, Marinids and Saadians, to the Alaouites who still reign today. Exact dates are debated by historians and are given here as rough centuries; the aim is orientation, not a textbook.

• Idrisids — late 8th–10th century; founded Fes.
• Almoravids — 11th–12th century; founded Marrakech.
• Almohads — 12th–13th century; the Koutoubia and its siblings.
• Marinids — 13th–15th century; the great madrasas.
• Saadians — 16th–17th century; the Saadian Tombs and El Badi.
• Alaouites — 17th century to today; the current royal family.

The Idrisids — the founding of Fes

The Idrisid dynasty, traditionally dated to the late 8th through the 10th century, is remembered as the first major Muslim dynasty of Morocco. Idris I is credited with establishing the state, and his son Idris II with developing Fes into a true city — the place that would become Morocco's spiritual and intellectual heart.

What you see today is largely later, but the foundation is Idrisid: Fes grew from this period into the city of mosques and learning it remains. The shrine of Moulay Idris II in the Fes medina, and the pilgrimage town of Moulay Idriss Zerhoun near Meknes, keep the dynasty's memory alive, even though the surrounding architecture was rebuilt by those who followed.

• Roughly late 8th–10th century.
• Idris I founded the state; Idris II developed Fes.
• See it in: the Fes medina and the Moulay Idriss pilgrimage towns.

The Almoravids — the founding of Marrakech

The Almoravids, a Saharan Berber movement, ruled in the 11th and 12th centuries and built an empire that reached deep into the Iberian Peninsula (al-Andalus). Their lasting gift to Morocco was the founding of Marrakech, around 1070, as their capital — the city that gave the whole country one of its names.

Almoravid building was austere by later standards, and little survives intact. The exception every visitor should seek out is the Almoravid Koubba (Qubba al-Murabitin) in Marrakech, a small domed ablutions pavilion that is one of the only substantially Almoravid structures left standing — its ribbed dome and carved interior already showing the geometric and floral vocabulary that later dynasties would perfect.

• 11th–12th century; a Saharan Berber dynasty.
• Founded Marrakech around 1070 as their capital.
• See it in: the Almoravid Koubba, Marrakech — a rare survivor.

The Almohads — the age of the great minarets

The Almohads, who supplanted the Almoravids and ruled in the 12th and 13th centuries, presided over one of Morocco's most confident building eras. Their signature is the monumental mosque with a tall, square minaret, and three famous 'sibling' towers descend from this single moment of patronage.

In Marrakech, the Koutoubia mosque and its minaret set the template still defining the skyline. Its relatives are the Giralda in Seville (now a cathedral bell tower) and the unfinished Hassan Tower in Rabat, left as a stump of a vast mosque that was never completed. For Almohad architecture in a remote, near-original state, the mountain mosque of Tin Mal in the High Atlas — the movement's spiritual cradle — is the place to go.

• 12th–13th century; an empire spanning Morocco and al-Andalus.
• The Koutoubia (Marrakech), Hassan Tower (Rabat), Giralda (Seville) — sibling minarets.
• See it in: the Koutoubia and the remote Tin Mal mosque.

The Marinids — the great madrasas

The Marinids ruled from the 13th into the 15th century and made Fes their showcase, founding the new royal quarter of Fes el-Jdid ('New Fes') beside the old medina. They are above all the dynasty of the madrasa — the residential Quranic college — and their finest are among the most beautiful interiors in the country.

The Bou Inania and Al-Attarine madrasas in Fes, and the Ben Youssef madrasa's Marinid-rooted tradition in Marrakech, show the era's mastery of carved cedar, sculpted stucco and zellij tilework wrapped around a serene courtyard. Just outside Rabat, the Marinids turned the older ruins of Chellah into a royal necropolis, its tombs and minaret now half-swallowed by gardens and storks' nests — a quietly atmospheric place to stand inside Marinid history.

• 13th–15th century; capital focus on Fes.
• Built Fes el-Jdid and the great madrasas (Bou Inania, Al-Attarine).
• See it in: the Fes madrasas and the Chellah necropolis, Rabat.

The Saadians — gold, sugar and El Badi

The Saadians, ruling in the 16th and 17th centuries, made Marrakech their capital once more and grew wealthy on sugar and trans-Saharan trade. Their greatest ruler, Ahmad al-Mansur, built on a lavish scale, and the two monuments that survive bookend his ambition perfectly.

El Badi Palace, once one of the most opulent palaces in the Islamic world, was later stripped of its marble and gold and stands today as a vast, evocative ruin of sunken gardens and high pisé walls. By contrast the Saadian Tombs, rediscovered intact in the early 20th century, preserve the dynasty's funerary chambers in dazzling completeness — carved cedar, honeycomb muqarnas and Carrara marble around the royal graves. Together they are the must-see Saadian pair in Marrakech.

• 16th–17th century; capital at Marrakech.
• Ahmad al-Mansur built on a grand scale.
• See it in: the ruined El Badi Palace and the intact Saadian Tombs.

The Alaouites — the dynasty that still reigns

The Alaouite dynasty came to power in the 17th century and rules Morocco to this day — the current royal family. Its early figurehead, Sultan Moulay Ismail, moved the capital to Meknes and built it into a fortified imperial city, with monumental gates, vast granaries and stables, and long walls that still ring the old town.

Because the Alaouites never stopped ruling, their mark is everywhere and ongoing: the royal palaces in cities across the country, the green-tiled roofs of active mosques and shrines, and modern landmarks such as the great Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, built in the late 20th century. In Meknes you can visit the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail, one of the few religious monuments in Morocco that non-Muslims may enter, to stand at the source of the line that still sits on the throne.

• 17th century to the present — the reigning royal family.
• Moulay Ismail built imperial Meknes (gates, walls, granaries).
• See it in: imperial Meknes and the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail.

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