Mawlay Mohammed al-Shaykh al-Sharif al-Hassani, known as Mohammed al-Shaykh, was the first sultan of the Saadian dynasty of Morocco (1544–1557). He was particularly successful in expelling the Portuguese from most of their bases in Morocco. He also eliminated the Wattasids and resisted the Ottomans, thereby establishing a complete rule over Morocco.
Mohammed al-Shaykh initially had his capital in the southern Moroccan city of Taroudannt, the walls of which he built. The capital was then moved to Marrakesh after its conquest in 1524.
The Saadi Sultanate, also known as the Sharifian Sultanate, was a state which ruled present-day Morocco and parts of West Africa in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was led by the Saadi dynasty, also known as the Zaydanids, an Arab Sharifian dynasty from southern Morocco.
Extent of the Saadian empire at the beginning of the 17th century
The Zawiya and mausoleum of Al-Jazuli today, founded in Marrakesh after Ahmad al-Araj moved Al-Jazuli's body here around 1524
The Bab Doukkala Mosque, built between 1557 and 1571 with the sponsorship of Lalla Mas'uda, during the reign of Moulay Abdallah al-Ghalib
Portuguese depiction of the corpse of King Sebastian I before Ahmad al-Mansur, Caetano Moreira de Costa Lima, 1886
