Battle of Moulouya

The Battle of Moulouya took place in may 1692 at a ford on the Moulouya river in Morocco. It was fought between the armies of the Alaouite Sultan Moulay Ismail and those of the Dey of Algiers Hadj Chabane.

Background

Hadj Chabane had just been elected Dey by the Taifa of the Raïs. He decided to declare war on the Sultan of Morocco as a result of continued efforts to ravage his territory. The borders between Ottoman Algeria and Morocco was first fixed at the Moulouya upon the Tlemcen War in 1551. This was the fixed border until the city of Oujda was temporarly conquered by the Alaouite Sultan Sidi Mohammed in 1647. A peace treaty between the two parties then delimited the border below the Tafna (upstream of Moulouya river). However, Moroccan incursions to the east of the Moulouya upsteam, then Algerian territory, prompted Hadj Chabane to declare war on Sultan Moulay Ismail.

Moulay Ismaïl learned of his arrival to Oujda and attempted to retrace his steps, however the Algerian army reached him at a ford of the Moulouïa which lead to clashes with the Algerians. These tensions at the Algerian border occurred because Moulay Ismail wanted to have his "religious equality" with the Sultan of Istanbul recognized in the eyes of the Europeans. The alliance of France and the Ottomans intrigued him as he believed it could be an opportunity to counter Spain; or in case of war against the Algerians, an opportunity to bring an agreement between the Sultan of Istanbul and Fez. Mouley Ismail even proposed making an alliance with the bey of Tunis.

Battle

The dey marched against Mouley Ismail with 10,000 Janissaries and 3,000 spahis, as well as a contingent of Igawawen Kabyles. The Algerians encountered the enemy, composed of 14,000 infantrymen and 8,000 cavalrymen. Despite the numerical inferiority, they vigorously attacked the Moroccans and killed 5,000 of their men while the Algerians suffered casualties of only a hundred.

Léon Galibert gives the following account:

It was to the king of Morocco, who sometimes came to ravage his territory, that the new dey Chaaban declared war: he went to the western border with 10,000 janissaries and 3,000 spahis. There the Algerians met the enemy army, which was 14,000 infantrymen and 8,000 horses; despite the inferiority of their numbers, they attacked the Moroccans vigorously and killed 5,000 men; the Algerians lost only a hundred.

— Léon Galibert

Aftermath

The dey pursued the fugitives to the wall of Fez, which was protected by an army of 24,000 foot soldiers and 20,000 horses. The Sultan of Morocco, Moulay Ismail commanded it in person, but was reluctant to engage in combat knowing the earlier victory that the Algerians had spread terror among his soldiers. Despite their numerical superiority they forced him to make peace proposals. The two commanders went to a tent erected between the two camps and a peace agreement was signed. Allegedly Moulay Ismail came to the conference with his hands bound in a sign of submission. Kissing the ground three times, he appealed to the protection of the padichah of Constantinople and then said to the Algerian Dey: "You are the knife and I am the flesh that you can cut".

Moulay Ismael and the Moroccan army, terrified by this hard failure, are forced to ask for peace by granting in a treaty the sovereignty of the regency of Algiers on the territories going up to Moulouya. However, Moulay Ismail tried again to annex the territories to the east of the Moulouya in 1693, 1694, 1701 and 1707 but all of these attempts ended in defeat. The territory until the Moulouya river remained under Algiers for more than 100 years.