Moulay Rashid escaped and resumed assembling troops, but Sidi Mohammed captured him once again, imprisoning him in a smaller cell and allowing only his most loyal servants to enter it.

[7][8] Fleeing the Sultanate of Tafilalt, Moulay Rashid arrived in the Toudga province, where he offered his services as a soldier to the marabout Sidi Mohammed ben Bou Beker.

[9] The sons of Bou Beker realized Moulay Rashid's identity when traveling Tafilalt merchants greeted him as the brother of the sultan; suspecting him to be disguised as part of some plot, they ambushed and tried to kill him.

Eventually, Ali Soliman made Moulay Rashid his lieutenant, giving him command of a number of troops and tasking him with the suppression of unrest in his territories.

[18][19][20] In 1664, under the pretext of an official visit to the governor, Moulay Rashid gained access to this citadel with his men, whereupon he seized control and plundered it for its riches.

After failing to raise new followers from the Western Rif, Moulay Rashid marched on Taza with his existing army, and seized it after a fierce battle.

The Jews there had suffered steady persecution since the 1659 fall of the Saadi Sultanate,[56][57] with the Dilaites ordering the destruction of their synagogues,[57] and Caid Al Doraidi taxing them heavily[58] and pillaging their traffic.

[59] Moulay Rashid promised them peace and relief from the traditional Jizya tax on their community, and in exchange they agreed to help him obtain access to Fez.

Caid Abdallah Al Doraidi fled the city, but Moulay Rashid sent 100 cavalrymen after him, brought him back, and demanded to know where his riches were hidden.

He deployed the greatest kindness towards the inhabitants of Fez and showed a strong desire to revive the Sunnah by upholding the religious law; this behavior soon placed him high in the minds of the entire population, who dedicated him a lively affection".Afterwards, he married a daughter of his longtime supporter Sheikh Al-Lawati.

[61] Moulay Rashid now wished to make allies of the conquered A'aras tribe, in order to secure his hold on central Rif and the northern coast of Morocco.

Abdallah A'aras, overjoyed to learn that his son was alive and being treated well, sent his daughter as a bride for Moulay Rashid, accompanied by a caravan of camels loaded with gifts.

When Abdallah A'aras himself arrived, Moulay Rashid welcomed him, giving him a palace in Fes el Bali, restoring his dominions in central Rif to him and ordering that his tribe return from exile.

Leaving Si Hamdoun Elmezouâr as Qadi of Fez, Moulay Rashid assembled an army of 8000 cavalrymen and 32000 infantrymen, and set out on a campaign against Khadir Ghaïlan of the western Rif.

[62] Ghaïlan exhorted his troops to defend their homeland, but Moulay Rashid's work to sway the people of Rif by an alliance with the A'aras had not been fruitless.

Defeated, Ghaïlan fled to Asilah, pursued by Moulay Rashid's men; from there, he set sail for Algiers to join his family, whom he had sent ahead to safety.

In 1667, Moulay Rashid turned his attention to the Dilaites, who controlled the Middle Atlas and territories of the western plains from southern Rabat to Azemmour.

[63] Sometime between late 1666 and early 1667, Moulay Rashid began hostilities with a raid on the Ait Ouallal, a group of Dilaite supporters, in the outskirts of Meknes.

Abdallah ibn Mohammed al-Hajj responded by mobilizing his armies, bringing them to camp at Bou Zmora near the Fes River, near Fez.

He removed El'aguîd as governor of Meknes, and in Tétouan he arrested Aboùl'abbâs Ahmed Enneqsîs, the head of the city, and a number of members of his party, imprisoning them in Fez.

[65] In secret, he continued to correspond with some of Abdallah ibn Mohammed al-Hajj's sheikhs, promising them benevolent rule and good pay if they would side with him in the battle.

Meanwhile, Abdallah ibn Mohammed al-Hajj also prepared for war, charging his men to conduct levies, sending some recruits to him at Dila and keeping others in reserve in the mountains.

Well [...] if you don't want to follow me, I'm rather happy to go and live among these people than to be the leader of so many cowardly hearts…"Having said this, he led a redoubled attack, and succeeded in driving back the Berbers, killing more than four thousand of the fleeing enemy with a cavalry detachment.

Victorious, Moulay Rashid spared the lives of the Dilaite troops, and sent Ibn Mohammed al-Hajj to Fez, where he remained until February 1669, when he departed with his family for exile in Tlemcen.

Upon Abdul Karim's murder in 1667, he was succeeded by his son Abu Bakr, who now attempted to resist Moulay Rashid with his band of ill-trained men.

Moulay Rashid had him executed by being dragged behind a mule, alongside a number of his family, as well as exhuming and burning the body of his father Abdul Karim.

Moulay Rashid accepted, increasing his army to a total of 25000 horsemen and 48000 infantrymen, armed with bows and arrows, scimitars, slings, and maces.

Finally, however, a group of Berbers stationed behind the mountain pass sent Moulay Rashid a message, offering to betray their comrades and attack from behind, in order to seize the possessions of the whole army for themselves.

[64][71] Illigh was well-fortified, but the population was too great for the city to endure a siege for long, and the sheikh soon fled by night with his family to Bambara Segu.

He added a library to the southern face of the Qarawiyyin Mosque, and ordered the construction of the Cherratine Madrasa, as well as building himself a new palace in Fes Jdid.