By Seddiq Abou El Hassan
While casually watching a historical review by an American YouTuber, I couldn’t help being intrigued by the name given to one of the first warships acquired by the Moroccan navy in modern times.
Sid El Turki is a peculiar name for the second modern vessel to serve in the Moroccan navy in the late 19th century, an auxiliary gunboat originally built as a cargo vessel by a German shipbuilding company in Bremen.
Sold to Morocco where it was converted into a gunboat and cruiser, the warship was used during the final Spanish – Moroccan war late 1890s early 1900s. With a crew of at least 100, armed with two 76 millimeter British-made Armstrong, Sid El Turki served both as a coastal defence vessel and as a troop transport vessel along the coastline, during the slow invasion and annexation of Morocco by both Spain and France in this time period.
On the 4th of February 1938 the Sid El Turki sank in a storm, thus ending the history of this gunboat after almost four decades of non-stop service.
A bit of history
The European nations have been trying to establish enclaves in the Maghreb since the 11th century. The fleets of the Normans, the merchant republics, the Portuguese and the Spanish grew bolder as the Almohad empire weakened and subsequent dynasties became embroiled in self-destructive squabbles.
One by one, maritime strongholds from Tripolitania to Ceuta fell to the hands of rising European rulers, through relentless military campaigns consecrated by the Church and funded by the monarchs of catholic Christendom.
Despite heroic resistance, the growing imbalance in firepower allowed the nascent Portuguese empire to seize many vital sea forts along the Atlantic coast. From their fortified positions, the Portuguese garrisons soon engaged in territorial expansion and started establishing colonies in a painful reminder of the Castilian-Aragonese conquest of al-Andalus.
In the year 1578, the Saadian army led by sultan Abd al-Malik and his brother Ahmad al-Mansour put an end to the Portuguese expansion in Morocco, in the Battle of Wadi al-Makhazin (also known as the Battle of the Three Kings).
This momentous battle had great consequences on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, not the least the restoration of Morocco’s sovereignty for as long as the ruling monarchs kept rival clans under control. As the grip of the central power over the peripheries loosened, the country entered yet another cycle of rise and fall.
Rise and fall
Since its beginning, the fate of the Saadi dynasty was intertwined with the rise of the Ottoman Empire. Various sources confirm that an ottoman military contingent led by Abd al-Malik himself was determinant in settling the struggles over succession among the Saadians and, thus, establishing a strong dynasty that would focus on liberating the occupied coastal cities.
Naturally, the Saadi sultans adopted the Ottoman military structure and tried to emulate its highly organised divisions, ranks, titles and event clothing.
The outcome of the Wad al-Makhazin battle further encouraged the Saadi military apparatus to fully adopt the Ottoman model, marking a departure from the ancestral Moorish warfare tactics relying solely on horsemanship and cavalry charges and retreats.
Under Ahmad al-Mansur, in particular, the Moroccan army became structured into a complex subdivision of standing corps including Ottoman officers and instructors alongside Arab, Amazigh, Andalusian and mercenary units. Turkish ranks and titles like sipahi and beylerbey were also introduced.
Under the Alawi dynasty, Sultan Mohammed III invited experts from Astana (Istanbul) the capital city of the Ottoman empire, as part of his plan to revive the ailing arms industry.
The historiographer Abdelhaq Elmarini gives details in his reference book al-jaysh al-maghribi abr at-tarikh (The Moroccan Army Throughout History): “In 1767, a team of 30 Ottoman experts was sent to Morocco and were split into four branches according to their expertise: warship construction, bomb making, mortars and cannons manufacturing and mortar firing experts. The sultan assigned shipwright masters to the jihadiya shipyards of the Two-Banks (as often the twin cities Rabat and Sale located on either side of river Bouregreg are literary referred to). They, thenceforth, became part of the Rabat arsenal, alongside the Moroccan artisans.”
Other Turkish engineers established themselves in Fez where they dedicated their life to pass on their art to fellow Moroccan craftsmen, in the newly built artillery foundry.
Other sources sustain that Mohammed III, usually referred to as the founder of modern Morocco, initiated metal casting workshops and other ambitious projects.
In fact, the expression “hired experts from the Astana” alongside other origins would appear in many instances in the annals of his reign, in his sustained effort to modernise the kingdom and catch up with the Europeans.
This monarch broke a taboo when he commissioned a French architect to build Essaouira, his capital city, following modern features, on the ruins of the medieval Mogador.
Glory and recognition
It is in this spirit that Mohammed III built a large bomb factory in Tetuan under the supervision of Turkish experts who initiated Moroccan artisans to the art of ordnance and munitions’ manufacturing. It was the large-calibre shells, churned out from that factory, that were used to rip through the walls of Mazagan and free it from the Portuguese.
While the identities of the Turkish experts involved in the former branches were lost, as they completely integrated into the local communities, a couple of names survived in the latter category.
Two technicians holding the same family name of Eldrizi (a strongly represented patronym in Algeria and Libya also), probably an alteration of the Albanian surname Idrizi. Ismail Eldrizi and Suleyman Baba Eldrizi, also known under the name of Hajj Suleyman Bombaci, ending with the Turkish suffix “-ci” describing the occupation, as it is still the case for many North African families of Ottoman origin.
His dedication and innovative methods earned him respect and esteem among the Moroccans. In his Tarikh al Du'ayyif, the contemporary historian wrote: “It was him [Hajj Suleyman] who taught the Sons of Rabat, Sale and others [firearm shooting].”
The historian, geographer and statesman Abu al-Qasim al-Zayani (1734/35–1833) was probably referring to Hajj Suleyman El Turki when he stated that “he was coaching the gunners from Sela and Rabat, many of whom became outstanding sharpshooters. Thenceforth, the people of the Two-Banks safeguarded this heritage.”
The same scholar spoke very highly of Hajj Suleyman El Turki again when he mentioned his crucial contribution during the siege and liberation of El-Jadida.
No wonder his reputation outlived his earthly existence. It was perceived as a just recognition of his merit when Sultan Hassan I gave his name to one of the earliest Morocco’s modern warships.
