[May 24] Abu al-Hasan, sultan of Morocco

Marinid Dynasty banner

True Name: Abu Al-Hasan 'Ali ibn 'Othman (أبو الحسن علي بن عثمان‎)
Surnamed: The Black Sultan
Parents: Abu Sa'id Uthman II, sultan of Morocco, and an Abyssinian woman

Date of Birth: circa 1297

House: Marinid
Spouse: Fatima, daughter of Abu Bakr, ruler of Ifriqiya

Predecessor: Abu Sa'id Uthman II

Reign: 1331 – 1351

Summary: Abu al-Hasan was the descendant of a recent line of Moroccan sultans. His mother was Abyssinian, making her sub-Saharan in origin and dark in complexion. Throughout his life, Abu al-Hasan was known as "the Black Sultan."He became sultan in 1331 and quickly married Fatima, the daughter of a local rival. The marriage created an alliance between the Marinids and Hafsids which was quickly used in a war against the Abdalwadids of Algeria. In 1333, the ruler of Grenada asked for help in fighting the Christians and Abu al-Hassan landed a large army in Hispania. After two months, he took Gibraltar from Castile and began moving north. The Grenadans suddenly became afraid and assassinated their own sultan, Muhammad IV. The new sultan, Yusuf I, maintained the alliance with Morocco. In 1335, al-Hasan invaded Algeria to back up the army of his uncle. A three-year siege outside of the city of Tlemcen created nearly a second city beside the besieged. In 1336, he was forced to deal with a rebellious brother in the south. Meanwhile, Tlemcen finally fell and the entire territory—roughly half of modern Algeria—was annexed to Morocco.

The war with Castile escalated in 1339 when Yusuf I called for help again. Seeing the threat, Alfonso XI of Castile allied with his one-time rival Afonso IV of Portugal to face the onslaught. In 1340, Castilian forces met Moroccan ships at Ceuta. At the battle of Gibraltar, the Castilian fleet was almost completely destroyed. al-Hasan spent the rest of the summer sending troops to Grenada and then attacked Castile directly. A joint Portuguese-Genoese fleet managed to cut off the supply line to Morocco late in 1340 while the Portuguese and Castilian kings joined forces outside of Seville to attack the Muslims. The Moroccan and Grenadan forces were destroyed at the Battle of Rio Salado and al-Hasan fled to Morocco. He never returned. When his father-in-law died in 1346, al-Hasan decided to take over the rest of the old Almohad Empire and conquered his wife's hereditary lands. He then attempted a reformation of the government, replacing tribal leaders with bureaucrats. In 1348, Arab and Moorish tribesmen attacked and defeated the Moroccan army and Morocco lost control of Tunisia and northern Algeria. Tlemcen was recovered by the disinherited sons of the former ruler. The entire Moroccan empire fell soon after. In 1349, al-Hasan left Tunisia and had to take to the seas because Algeria was no longer under his control. His ship crashed on foreign shores and he rallied troops to try and retake Tlemcen but failed. His son, seeing his father's recent failures, took over the government and much of the government joined him. His son forced his father into southern Morocco then pursued him further south. In 1351, al-Hasan was finally compelled to abdicate in favor of his son. He died a few months later in his refuge in the Atlas Mountains.

Date of Death: 24 May 1351

Successor: Abu Inan Faris

Other Monarch Deaths:

David I, king of Scots (1153)

Taejo, king of Korea (1408)

[January 25] Geiseric, king of the Vandals & Alans

The Sacking of Rome, by Karl Briullov (1833 – 1836)

Parents: Godigisel, king of the Hasdingi Vandals

Date of Birth: c. 389

Royal House: Vandal

Reign: 428 – 477

Predecessor: Gunderic

Summary: Geiseric was one of the greatest Germanic kings of the Migration period. He was responsible for raids into Hispania but decided against settling there because of the Visigoths. He made a vast fleet and sailed for North Africa, overrunning Roman outposts in Morocco and Algeria. In 435, the Roman Emperor Valentinian III made peace with the Vandals, granting them all the lands of North Africa west of Carthage (Tunisia). Four years later, Geiseric broke the treaty and took Carthage, capturing much of the Roman fleet that was moored there. With this fleet, the Roman Empire lost control of the western Mediterranean Sea. The Vandals quickly took Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and the Balearic Islands. For the remainder of his life, Geiseric ruled a great sea empire in the western Mediterranean, pirating and looting the lands of southern Gaul, Italy, and Hispania.

Perhaps Geiseric's most famous plunder, however, was the sacking of Rome in 455 that prompted the word "vandalize". When Valentinian III was murdered and Maximum usurped the throne, Geiseric deemed his contract void. He negotiated with Pope Leo I to open the door to Rome for them, and the Vandals invaded. Interestingly, they did not destroy the city, but they did deprive it of much of its wealth. Geiseric took Valentinian's widow and daughters as booty, marrying the elder daughter, Eudocia, to his own son, Huneric, thereby solidifying a treaty that had been signed in 442. This raid on Rome caused the last cooperation between the Eastern and Western Roman Empires. The East sent a fleet to subdue the Vandals but it was horribly defeated. Emboldened, the Vandals attempted an invasion of southern Greece, but failed. The Vandals and the Eastern Roman Empire finally made peace in 474. The Western Roman Empire fell two years later.

Date of Death: 25 January 477

Successor: Huneric

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Gregory, patriarch of Constantinople (389)
• Gregory IV, pope of Rome (844)
• Sayf al-Daula, empire of Aleppo (967)
• Yingzong, emperor of China (1067)
• Charles II, duke of Lorraine (1431)
• Ferdinand I, king of Naples (1494)
• Christian II, king of Denmark (1559)
• Nicholas II, duke of Lorraine (1670)

[January 23] Ya'qub al-Mansur, emir of Morocco

True Name: Abū Yūsuf Ya‘qūb al-Manṣūr (بو يوسف يعقوب المنصو)
Parents: Abu Ya'qub Yusuf, emir of Morocco

Date of Birth: c. 1160

Royal House: Almohad

Reign: 1184 – 1199

Predecessor: Abu Ya'qub Yusuf

Summary: Al-Manṣūr led a short life of continuous warfare. From the time that he ascended the throne in 1184, he vowed vengeance against the Christian crusaders who killed his father. But he first had to deal with the recently-ousted rival dynasty, the Almoravids. He finally defeated them and invaded the Iberian Peninsula. He had a great military conquest but returned home with many slaves. A full Christian uprising happened in his wake. Al-Manṣūr returned and defeated the Christians again, taking many more slaves than the first time and selling them to sub-Saharan traders. 

Morocco and the Almohad territories thrived during al-Manṣūr's reign. Architecture, science, and philosophy reached new heights in continental Europe, but it was to be short-lived. In July 1195, al-Manṣūr defeated the Castilian king Alfonso VIII at the Battle of Alarcos and sent the Castilians into a hard retreat to Toledo. Al-Manṣūr took up residence in Seville and continued to raid southern Iberia for the next four years. He took the title "al-Manṣūr Billah" which means "Made victorious by God". In 1198, al-Manṣūr finally lost interest in Iberia since he had reconquered most of the original Umayyad lands of four hundred years previous. He returned to Morocco and died a few months later. His empire crumbled under the reign of his son in 1212 at the Battle of Las Nevas de Tolosa, and the Muslim presence in Iberia began a permanent decline.

Date of Death: 23 January 1199

Successor: Muhammad an-Nasir, amir of Morocco

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor (1002)
• Jiajing, emperor of China (1567)