Place:Rabat, Rabat, Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaer, Morocco

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Rabat (also , ; ; ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014)^[1] and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. It is also the capital city of the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra administrative region. Rabat is located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the river Bou Regreg, opposite Salé, the city's main commuter town.

Rabat was founded in the 12th century by Almohads. The city steadily grew but went into an extended period of decline following the collapse of the Almohads. In the 17th century Rabat became a haven for Barbary pirates. The French established a protectorate over Morocco in 1912 and made Rabat its administrative center. Morocco achieved independence in 1955 and Rabat became its capital.

Rabat, Temara, and Salé form a conurbation of over 1.8 million people. Silt-related problems have diminished Rabat's role as a port; however, Rabat, and Salé still maintain important textile, food processing and construction industries. In addition, tourism and the presence of all foreign embassies in Morocco serve to make Rabat one of the most important cities in the country. The Moroccan capital was ranked at second place by CNN in its "Top Travel Destinations of 2013". It is one of four Imperial cities of Morocco, and the medina of Rabat is listed as a World Heritage Site. Rabat is accessible by train through the ONCF system and by plane through the nearby Rabat–Salé Airport.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Ancient Sala

In the first millennium BC the Phoenicians founded several trading colonies along the Atlantic coast of what is now Morocco, but the existence of a Phoenician settlement in the area, called Sala or Shallat, has been debated by archeologists. By the first century BC the local inhabitants were still writing in the neo-Punic language, but the region came under the influence of Rome. It was controlled by the ancient Berber Mauretanian Kingdom until it was formally annexed by Rome in the first century BC. On the site now known as Chellah, just south of the walled city today, the Romans built a city named Sala Colonia. Excavations have revealed that older Mauretanian structures existed on the site before Roman structures were built over them.^[2] Along with Lixus, Sala Colonia was one of the two main naval outposts held by the Romans on the Atlantic coast of the Mauretania Tingitana province. The port of Sala (now disappeared) was used by commercial Roman ships as a way station on their southwestward passages to Anfa and the Insula Purpuraria (Mogador island).

Archaeological objects of Visigothic and Byzantine origin found in the area attest to the persistence of commercial or political contacts between Sala and Roman Europe, up to the establishment of a Byzantine presence in North Africa during the 7th century. However, Sala began to be abandoned in the 5th century and was mostly in ruins when the Muslim Arabs arrived in the 7th century and established Islamic influence in the region.

Medieval Islamic period

In the 10th century the Umayyads of Cordoba, or their Zenata Berber allies in the region, founded a ribat or fortified monastery/outpost in this area, to defend against the Barghawata Berbers who had established a Kharijite state to the south. This ribat was most likely on the same site as the current Kasbah of the Udayas, but its location has not been confirmed by historians.^[3] Around 1030, a new town called Salā (the present Salé) was founded on the opposite side of the river (the north side) by the Banu 'Ashara family.

One of the last Almoravid emirs, Tashfin ibn Ali (r. 1143-45) built a new ribat on the site of the current kasbah as part of his efforts to hold back the Almohads.^[3] Almohads nonetheless defeated the Almoravids and destroyed the ribat shortly after. In 1150 or 1151 the Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu'min built a new kasbah (citadel) to replace the former ribat, within which he included a palace and a mosque.^[4][5] This Almohad kasbah corresponds to the current Kasbah of the Udayas (which was expanded in later periods).^[5] Abd al-Mu'min also had an underground canal dug to divert a water source to this location, allowing for future settlement and urbanization in the area.^[5] The site became a military staging ground for Almohad armies setting out on campaigns to Al-Andalus.^[4]

The Almohad caliph Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur (r. 1184–1199) embarked on an ambitious project to construct a new fortified imperial capital, called al-Mahdiyya or Ribat al-Fath, on the site of what is now the medina (old city) of Rabat, with new walls extending over a vast area beyond the kasbah.^[5] This project also included the construction of an enormous mosque (the remains of which include the Hassan Tower) and of new grand gateways such as Bab er-Rouah and the main gate of the kasbah, now known as Bab Udaya or Bab al-Kbir. After al-Mansur's death in 1199 the mosque and the capital remained unfinished and his successors lacked the resources or the will to finish it.^[5] The new city was never fully inhabited and the site was practically abandoned.^[4]

During the Marinid dynasty period (13th to 15th centuries), the town of Salé across the river grew more important than the settlements of the south bank.^[4][3][6] In 1515 Leo Africanus reported that Rabat had declined so much that only 100 inhabited houses remained. The Marinids did build a Great Mosque in what is now the medina of Rabat and on the nearby site of Chellah (ancient Sala) they built a royal necropolis for their dynasty.^[6]

Corsair republic

In 1609, Philip III decreed the expulsion of all Moriscos (people of Muslim or Moorish descent) from Spain. About 2000 of these refugees, originally from the town of Hornachos near Badajoz, Spain, settled around Salé and occupied the kasbah, attracting between 5000 and 14,000 other Moriscos to join them.^[4] Rabat and neighboring Salé united to form the Republic of Bou Regreg in 1627. This autonomous republic became a base for corsairs: pirates, also known as the "Salé Rovers", who preyed on merchant ships around the shores of Western Europe.^[4] During this time, the area below the kasbah on the south bank became more heavily populated, thanks to the Morisco and Andalusi refugees. A new "Andalusian Wall" was built to delimit this area in the northern part of the former Almohad walled city. What is now known as the Street of the Consuls became an important road artery even at this time.^[6][4] The name "Rabat" was not yet in use; the city of the south bank was known as "New Salé" while the city of the north bank was known as "Old Salé". Corsair activities were based in New Salé, whereas the inhabitants of Old Salé generally did not participate in piracy.^[6]

'Alawi rule

The pirates did not have to contend with any central authority until al-Rashid, the founder of the 'Alawi dynasty, conquered the area in 1666 and united most of Morocco under his rule.^[6][4] Nonetheless, the 'Alawi sultans allowed the piracy to continue up until the reign of Moulay Slimane in the early 19th century.^[6] This led to the shelling of the city by Austria in 1829 after an Austrian ship had been lost to a pirate attack.

During the early part of the 'Alawi period (17th-18th centuries) the sultans took some interest in the city of the south bank and carried out constructions and repairs to the kasbah.^[6] Moulay Isma'il (r. 1672–1727) expanded the kasbah southward and built a royal residence within it towards the end of the 17th century (it serves as a museum today).^[3][4] Moulay Isma'il was also responsible for settling a part of the Udayas (or Oudayas), a guich tribe (military tribe serving the sultan's army), in the kasbah to serve as a counterbalancing force against other unruly tribes in the region.^[4] Under Sidi Muhammad ibn 'Abdallah (r. 1757–1790) a new royal palace, the Dar al-Makhzen, was established in the southwest part of the Almohad walled area towards the end of the 18th century.^[6] These additions began to give the city the character and function of a royal residence used by the ruling dynasty outside their main capitals.^[6]

Moulay Slimane (r. 1792–1822) built another palace along the seaside called Dar al-Bahr and built new mosques such as the Moulay Slimane Mosque. He also ordered the creation of a Jewish quarter, the Mellah, in the eastern part of the Andalusian medina, in an formerly occupied by orchards.^[6] It was also towards the beginning of the 19th century that the city walls, formerly limited to the Almohad-era perimeter, were extended significantly to the southwest, thus expanding the city to cover around 840 hectares.^[6] The old Almohad walls and gates were still retained and the Almohad-era enclosure remained a more privileged district containing the city's major monuments and its imperial residence. Most of the population remained concentrated in the medina behind the Andalusian Wall in the northern section. In the 1850s Moulay Abd ar-Rahman (r. 1822–1859) further developed and completed the Dar al-Makhzen palace in the southwest corner of this enclosure.^[6] At the end of the 19th century or beginning of the 20th century, the city had some 20,000 to 25,000 inhabitants.

20th century

French invasion

The French invasion of Morocco began in the east with General Hubert Lyautey's occupation of Oujda March 1907 and in the west with the Bombardment of Casablanca August 1907. The Treaty of Fes established the protectorate March 1912. Acting as French administrator of Morocco, Lyautey, decided to relocate the country's capital from Fes to Rabat after the riots of 1912 following the Treaty of Fes. In 1913, Lyautey hired Henri Prost who designed the Ville Nouvelle (Rabat's modern quarter) as an administrative sector. When Morocco achieved independence in 1956, Mohammed V, the then King of Morocco, chose to have the capital remain at Rabat.

Post World War II

Following World War II, the United States established a military presence in Rabat at the former French air base. By the early 1950s, Rabat Salé Air Base was a U.S. Air Force installation hosting the 17th Air Force and the 5th Air Division, which oversaw forward basing for Strategic Air Command (SAC) B-47 Stratojet aircraft in the country. With the destabilization of French government in Morocco, and Moroccan independence in 1956, the government of Mohammed V wanted the U.S. Air Force to pull out of the SAC bases in Morocco, insisting on such action after American intervention in Lebanon in 1958. The United States agreed to leave as of December 1959, and was fully out of Morocco by 1963. SAC felt the Moroccan bases were much less critical with the long range capability of the B-52 Stratofortresses that were replacing the B-47s and with the completion of the USAF installations in Spain in 1959.

With the USAF withdrawal from Rabat-Salé in the 1960s, the facility became a primary facility for the Royal Moroccan Air Force known as Air Base Nº 1, a status it continues to hold.

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