Republic of Salé

Not to be confused with Italian Social Republic.

Republic of Salé Republic of Bouregreg
República de Salé República de las Dos Orillas
1627–1668
Flag Flag
Location of Salé Rabat-Salé, where the republic was located
Capital		Kasbah
Languages		Spanish, Arabic, Spanish based lingua franca
Government		Corsair Republic
History
•	Established	1627
•	Disestablished	1668
Population
•	est.	20,000

The Republic of Salé was a short-lived city state at the mouth of the Bou Regreg river, founded by Moriscos from the town of Hornachos, in Western Spain. Moriscos were the descendants of Muslims who were nominally converted to Christianity, and were subject to mass deportation during the Spanish Inquisition. The Republic's main commercial activities were the Barbary slave trade and piracy during its brief existence in the 17th century. The city is now part of the Kingdom of Morocco.

History

File:Bu Regrego ziotys.jpg

The ancient harbor at the Bou Regreg, taken from Salé facing Rabat

Arrival of the Moriscos

The republic traces its origins back to the beginning of the 17th century, with the arrival of approximately 3,000 wealthy Moriscos from Hornachos in western Spain, who anticipated the 1609 expulsion edicts ordered by Philip III of Spain. After 1609, approximately 10,000 down-and-out expelled Moriscos arrived from Spain. Cultural and language differences between the native Saletin people and the Morisco refugees led the newcomers to settle in the old Medina of Rabat, on the opposite bank of the Bou Regreg.

Pirates based on the western bank thrived and expanded their operations throughout the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. In 1624, the Dutchman Jan Janszoon (also known as Murad Reis) became the "Grand Admiral" and President of the Corsair Republic of Salé.

Independence

After Janszoon left Salé n 1627, the Moriscos ceased to recognize the authority of the Sultan Zidan al-Nasir, and refused to pay his tithe on their incomes. They proclaimed a Republic, ruled by a council or Diwan, a sort of government cabinet formed by 12 to 14 notable people whose members annually elected a Governor and a Captain General of the Fortalesa during the month of May. In the early years of the republic (between 1627 and 1630), the Diwan was controlled only by Hornacheros, whose grip on power was resented by the growing population of non-Hornachero Moriscos, called Andalusians. After bloody clashes in 1630, an agreement was reached: the election of a Qaid by Andalusians and a new Diwan of 16 members of whom 8 Andalusians and 8 Hornacheros.

In 1641, the zaouia of Dila, which controlled much of Morocco, imposed a religious hegemony over Salé and its parent republic. By the early 1660s, the republic was embroiled in civil war with the zawiya, and eventually Sultan Al-Rashid of Morocco of the Alaouite dynasty, who still ruled Morocco into the 21st century, would seize Rabat and Salé, ending its independence. It ended up being controlled by the Sultan of Morocco after 1668, when Moulay al Rashid finally vanquished the Dilaites.

In popular culture

The character Robinson Crusoe, in Daniel Defoe's novel by the same name, spends time in captivity of the local pirates and at last sails off to liberty from the mouth of the Salé river.

Bibliography

• (French) Leïla Maziane, « Salé et ses corsaires, 1666-1727: un port de course marocain au XVIIe siècle », Publication Université de Rouen Havre, 2007 (ISBN 978-2-84133-282-3)
• (French) Roger Coindreau, « Les Corsaires de Salé », La Croisée des chemins, 2006 (orig. ed. 1948) (ISBN 978-9981-896-76-5)