Many European observers attest to the existence of this principality in Tazeroualt, a region which includes a small arid basin surrounded by high watered plateaus, located 110 km south of Agadir.

[1] The zaouia of Illigh, unlike the other zaouias which enjoyed strong political influence when the Alawites came to power, was not destroyed by the latter, despite an attempt by Sultan Rachid in 1670; it continued to have local political and economic influence within the Lakhsass tribe, maintaining strained relations with the Alawite Makhzen, until the second half of the 19th century.

Following the accession to the throne of Moulay Zidane at the beginning of the 17th century, the weakened Saadian Makhzen enjoyed only limited power.

Several forces then appeared, including the zaouia of Tazeroualt and the Alaouites, the future ruling dynasty:[4] Abou Hassoun, great-grandson of the great mystic Sidi Ahmed Ou Moussa and founder of the zaouia, established his capital in Illigh, succeeded in obtaining maritime enclaves in Agadir and ensured commercial success (after the ousting of Abou Mahalli) thanks to the reduction of customs duties on foreign traders (in this case French and English).

The territory under its control, the "kingdom of Tazeroualt", then represented the obligatory passage of the trans-Saharan gold traffic on the Gao-Timbuktu-Taroudant axis.