Alaouite Morocco

Ruling dynasty of Morocco to the present.

☾ The Coming of Islam

The conquest of the Maghrib and the Idrīsids

Muslim armies reached the far Maghrib in the late 7th and early 8th centuries; the Idrīsid dynasty (from 788) founded the first enduring Muslim state in Morocco and made Fez an early centre of religion and learning.

☾ Religious Composition

A Sunni-Mālikī kingdom with a strong Sufi tradition

Moroccans are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslims of the Mālikī school; the king holds the religious title Amīr al-Muʾminīn (Commander of the Faithful), and Sufi brotherhoods and the veneration of saints are prominent in popular religion. A small, ancient Jewish community remains.

Demographic shares are approximate.

▤ Scholars & Institutions

Fez and the Qarawiyyīn

The Qarawiyyīn mosque-university in Fez, founded in 859, is among the oldest continuously operating centres of learning in the world and anchored centuries of Mālikī scholarship in the Maghrib.

At a glance