His bravery was famous, and with that he was vigorous and solidly membered: one could never stand up to him in hand-to-hand fighting, nor make him let go a defensive position.”[1]During one of the sieges of Tabouasamt, people tell the tale that Sidi Mohammed put his hands in one of the holes issued on one of the citadel's walls, and a considerable number of his soldiers managed to climb the wall so much his arms were solid.
[4][5] It was the first time for a member of the Alawiyin Al Filaliyin family to hold political power, they were until then the spiritual leaders of Sijilmasa.
[8] Tabouasamt people put meticulous effort at aiming to break the intimate links of friendship between Moulay Sharif and Bou Hasen.
Their efforts paid off as Bou Hasen and Moulay Sharif's relationship began to fall apart and reasons of discord between the two men multiplied.
Sidi Mohammed not fooled by their vile plots, took revenge on Tabouasamt people's deeds by assaulting them at night and killing the inhabitants by surprise.
He wrote to Bou Bker, Governor of Sijilmasa, and ordered him to find a way of capturing Moulay Sharif and send him to himself as prisoner.
In 1637, when Sidi Mohammed amassed the huge sum of money he bought his father's freedom and went back home to Sijilmasa.
Once his father was free and far from the Sous, with the new riches he looted from his previous assault on Tabouasamt he was finishing preparing his army for war.
Bou Hasen's men oppression and greed on the Sijilmasa people made all the inhabitants ally their cause to Sidi Mohammed's and come and expand the ranks of his army.
These were enough reasons for Sidi Mohammed to covet annexing Tuat which he did first in 1645 and secondly in 1652 at which point he assigned permanent notaries (quwaad in Arabic) to the oasis.
[5] During his reign he fought and clashed many times against the Zaouia of Dila, the Sultanate of Tafilalt and the Dilaites became rivalling enemies in the region.
Important to note is that his younger half-brother Moulay Rachid once a grown man blamed him, the Sultan, to have let the sacred city of their ancestors be destroyed by some Berber troops.
This brought him to be summoned by the Fassi who swore allegiance to him (Bay'ah in Arabic), he spent some time in Fez (part of the Dilaite State).
Following their defeat the Fassi recognized Mohammed al-Hajj as their leader (he became Sultan only in 1659) once again and he sent his son Ahmed ould Elhadj as Governor to Fez to retrieve order.
[22] At that point in time his rivalry with his younger half-brother Moulay Rachid increased to a state where the latter fled Sijilmasa fearing for his life.
In the early 1660s Morocco's political climate was now composed of three poles of powers who were now looking of domination over the other: the Dilaites, Khadir Ghaïlan of Gharb (or Western Rif) and the Alaouites of Sidi Mohammed.
Sidi Mohammed's eldest son tried to succeed him in Sijilmasa but failed following his defeat to Moulay Rachid's 9 months siege of the city.
[2][30][3] Sidi Mohammed's reign as Sultan of Tafilalet gave the Alaouite the political and military power to succeed at conquering Morocco.