Sharif ibn Ali
The Tafilalt was an oasis region in the Ziz Valley of eastern Morocco; its capital city is Sijilmasa, which is, historically, an important terminus of the trans-Saharan trade routes.
[12] Moulay Youssef's wife was Seyida (Lady in Arabic) Khalifa Tālākakīn al-Ṣanhājī of the Almoravid dynasty, he was also wedded to her sister Halima.
[20] Moulay Sharif's rise to sovereignty took place when the power of the Saadi Sultanate was declining and multiple regional factions rebelled and fought for control of what is present-day Morocco.
Another faction was led by Aboulhasen Ali ben Mohammed Essoussi Essemlali (commonly named Bou Hasen or Abu Hassun[citation needed]), who, initially serving the Saadians, had rebelled with his army and became leader of the Sous and the Draa River in 1614.
Moulay Sharif's eldest son Sidi Mohammed, who knew about the plans carried out by the people of Tabouasamt against his father's authority, took the opportunity to retaliate.
[clarification needed] Moulay Sharif was then informed of the capture of the citadel by his son; this act healed his heart of further revenge he was planning on them.
Bou Hasen gifted him a mulatto slave from the M'gharfa tribe, who later gave birth to one of his sons, Moulay Ismail.
[28] While his father was a captive, his eldest son Sidi Mohammed (or Muhammad II)[7] decided to become the de facto Emir.
Upon Moulay Sharif's release in 1637 and when he was safely far from Sous,[29] Sidi Mohammed led a rebellion which expelled Bou Hasen's followers from Sijilmasa.
[30] Having relinquished the throne to his eldest son Sidi Mohammed, Moulay Sharif abandoned politics and concentrated his life in piety.
The man, Dom Louis Gonsalez, was a Portuguese captive (a fidalgo and knight of the Order of Christ)[31] who got lost during an adventure then brought unwillingly to Tafilalt despite explaining that his master was Ben Bakar the chieftain of al-Gharb province.
[20][35] Among the children he had with his wives and slave concubines were: With an unnamed wedded wife was born: An Arab, the details known about this woman are that she was beautiful and that she was very dear to Moulay Sharif.
[37] The latter sold her to the head of the zaouïa of Illigh Bou Hassoun el-Semlali,[37] and when Moulay Sharif was the later's captive he gave him Mubaraka as a slave concubine,[37] and offered her to him upon his release in 1636.
Since other chronicles explain that he was born the same year of the battle of al-Qa'a (Zawiya Dila'iya against Muhammad ibn Sharif) which happened in 1645.
[37] And according to Moulay Ismail's own words, the M'grafras are his maternal uncles,[15] without further explanation on this degree of kinship, but it implies that in that case his mother is a free-born Muslim woman.
[15] Mubaraka is attributed as sons: Moulay Ismail had a full brother: Little information came to light about his other children, and no further details survive about his other wives.
