an empire of Africa, comprehending a considerable part of the ancient Mauritania, is bounded on the west by the Atlantic Ocean; on the east by the river Muluya, which separates it from Algiers; on the north by the Mediterranean; and on the south by mount Atlas, or rather by the river Sus, which divides it from the kingdom of Taflet. Its greatest length is from the north-east to the south-west, amounting to above 590 miles; its breadth is not above 260 where broadest, and in the most narrow places is not above half that breadth.

The ancient history of Morocco hath been already given under the article MAURITANIA. It continued under the dominion of the Romans upwards of 400 years. On the decline of that empire it fell under the Goths, who held it till about the year 600, when the Goths were driven out by the Vandals, the Vandals by the Greeks, and they in their turn by the Saracens, who conquered not only this empire, but we may say the whole continent of Africa; at least their religion, one way or other, is to be found in all parts of it. The Saracen empire did not continue long united under one head, and many princes set up for themselves in Africa as well as elsewhere, through whose dissensions the Almoravides were at length raised to the sovereignty, as related under the article ALGIERS, no 2. Yusuf, or Joseph, the second monarch of that line, built the city of Morocco, conquered the kingdom of Fez, and the Moorish dominions in Spain; all which were lost by his grandson Abu Hali, who was defeated and killed by the Spaniards. On this prince's death the crown passed to the Mohedians, or Almohedes, with whom it had not continued above three generations, when Mohammed the son of Al Manfur lost the famous battle of Sierra Morena, in which 200,000 Moors were slain, and in consequence of which Alphonso X. retook Morocco, a great many of the Moorish conquests immediately after.

Mohammed died soon after this disgrace, and left several sons, between whom a civil war ensued, during which the viceroys of Fez, Tunis, and Tremelen, found means to establish themselves as independent princes. At length one of the princes of the royal blood of Tremelen having defeated the Almohades, made himself master of the kingdoms of Morocco and Fez, and entailed them on his own family. In a short time, however, this family was expelled by the Merini, the Merini by the Oatazes, and these by the Sharifs of Hafcen, who have kept the government ever since.

This happened about the year 1516; and since that time the history of the empire affords nothing remarkable. What we have under that name is indeed nothing else than a catalogue of the enormous vices and excesses of the emperors and people. Nothing indeed can be conceived more unjust and despotic than the government of Morocco, and nothing more degenerate than the characters of the people. The emperor is allowed to have not only an uncontrollable power over the lives and fortunes of his subjects, but in a great measure over their consciences, such as they are; in as much as he is the only person who, as the successor of the prophet, hath a right to interpret the Koran; and appoints all the judges under him, of whom those of Morocco and Fez are the chief, whose business it is to explain and dispense all matters relating to their religion; and, being his creatures and dependents, dare not steer otherwise than as he directs. Whenever therefore the laws are enacted by him, and proclaimed by his governors in all the provinces, as is commonly done, that none may plead ignorance, they are everywhere received with an implicit and religious submission. On the other hand, the subjects are bred up with a notion, that those who die in the execution of his command are entitled to an immediate admittance into paradise, and those who have the honour to die by his hand to a still greater degree of happiness in it. After this we need not wonder at finding so much cruelty, oppression, and tyranny on the one side, and so much submission, passiveness, and misery on the other.

This latter, however, extends no farther than the Moors: for as to the Arabs, the subjection and tribute they pay to those tyrants was always involuntary, and altogether forced; and as for the negroes, their zeal and attachment is owing merely to the great sway and power which they have gained in the government, both on account of their being better soldiers than the Moors, and from a particular regard which Muley Ishmael a late emperor had for them on account of his mother being a negro; so that, being now grown in a manner too strong to be suppressed, their loyalty and affection to those monarchs, whom they strive to imitate in all their vices, must be supposed to rise and fall according to the favour and encouragement they receive from them. And they are now the only ones to whom those tyrants entrust their persons, their treasure, and their concubines; whom they raise to the highest posts of authority and trust; and whom they suffer, not to say encourage by their their own example, to tyrannize and oppress their native, as well as their most faithful and submissive subjects.

These negroes, ever since their adhering so closely to Muley Ishmael, have been in high request with his successors, and make the main branch of the foldery both of horse and foot. They are brought so young out of Guinea, that they quickly lose the memory of it; and having no relations or friends, nor dependence but on the emperor's favour, are the more ready to obey his orders in all things. They are at first brought up to be foot-folderies; and after so many years service in it, or sooner if their behaviour deserve it, are advanced to the cavalry, which is a great honour in that country. They are taught little else except the exercise of arms, and to obey the emperor's orders; and, by the readiest compliance with his views, politics, and inclination, advance themselves to the highest posts under him.

But we shall perhaps find less reason to wonder at this connivance, if we consider, that, sooner or later, all the extortions of those blood-suckers come into their own treasury, either by the heavy fines they impose upon them upon any complaint preferred against them, or upon any other, whether real or pretended, mal-administrations, or by seizing on all their ill-gotten wealth at their deaths. For the emperors here have found means to establish another branch of despotism, which renders them still more powerful and formidable to their subjects; viz. their making themselves their sole heirs, and, in virtue of that, seizing upon all their effects, and making only such provision for their families as they think proper; and often, on some frivolous pretence, leaving them destitute of any, according to the liking or dislike they bear to the deceased: so that, upon the whole, they are the only makers, judges, and interpreters, and in many instances likewise the executioners, of their own laws, which have no other limits than their own arbitrary will. To preserve, however, some specious show or shadow of justice, they allow their mufti a kind of superiority in spirituals, and a sort of liberty to the meanest subject to summon them before his tribunal. But the danger which such an attempt would bring upon a plaintiff, perhaps no less than death and destruction, is of itself sufficient to deter any man from it; especially considering the little probability there is that the judges of it would run the risk of declaring themselves against a monarch whose creatures they are, and on whom their lives and fortunes so absolutely depend.

The titles which the emperors of Morocco assume, are those of "Most glorious, mighty, and noble emperor of Africa, king of Fez and Morocco, Taphilet, Suz, Darba, and all the Algarbes, and its territories in Africa; grand Sharif (or, as others write it, Xarif; that is, "successor, or vicegerent") of the great prophet Mohammed," &c.

The judges or magistrates that act immediately under him, are either spiritual or temporal, or rather ecclesiastic and military. The mufti and the kadis are judges of all religious and civil affairs; and the bashas, governors, alcaldes, and other military officers, of those that concern the state or the army. All of them the most obsequious creatures and slaves of their prince, and no less the rapacious tyrants of his subjects, and from whom neither justice nor favour can be obtained but by mere dint of money, and extortionate bribery, from the highest to the lowest. Neither can it indeed be otherwise in such an arbitrary government, where the highest posts must not only be bought of the prince at a most extravagant price, and kept only by an exorbitant tribute, which is yearly paid to him, but where no one is sure to continue longer than he can bribe some of the courtiers to infirmate to the monarch that he pays to the utmost of his power, and much beyond what was expected from him. Add to this, that those bashas, governors, &c. are obliged to keep their agents and spies in constant pay at court, to prevent their being supplanted by higher bidders, flatterers, or other artful underminers.

From what hath been said under this head, it may be reasonably concluded that this branch of the imperial revenue must be very considerable, though there is no possibility to make any other conjecture of its real amount, than that it must be an immense one. Another considerable branch is the piratical trade, which brings the greater income into his treasury, as he is not at any expense either for fitting of corsair vessels out, or maintaining their men: and yet hath the tenth of all the cargo, and of all the captives; besides which, he appropriates to himself all the rest of them, by paying the captors 50 crowns per head; by which means he engrosses all the slaves to his own service and advantage. This article is indeed a very considerable addition to his revenue, not only as he sells their ransom at a very high rate, but likewise as he hath the profit of all their labour, without allowing them any other maintenance than a little bread and oil, nor any other assistance when sick than what medicines a Spanish convent, which he tolerates there, gives them gratis; and which, nevertheless, is forced to pay him an annual present for that toleration, besides furnishing the court with medicines, and the slaves with lodging and diet when they are not able to work. Another branch of his revenue consists in the tenth part of all cattle, corn, fruits, honey, wax, hides, rice, and other products of the earth, which is exacted of the Arabs and Berbers, as well as of the natives; and these are levied, or rather farmed, by the bashas, governors, alcaldes, &c. with all possible severity. The Jews and Christians likewise pay an income or capitation, the former of six crowns per head on all males from 15 years and upwards, besides other arbitrary imposts, fines, &c. That on the Christians, for the liberty of trading in his dominions, rises and falls according to their number, and the commerce they drive; but which, whatever it may bring yearly into his coffers, is yet detrimental to trade in general, seeing it discourages great numbers from settling there, notwithstanding the artful invitations which the emperors and their ministers make use of to invite them to it; for, besides those arbitrary exactions, there is still another great hardship attending them, viz. that they cannot leave the country without forfeiting all their debts and effects to the crown. The duties on all imports and exports is another branch of his income, the amount of which, communibus annis, no author hath yet given us any account of; only consul Hathfield hath computed the whole yearly re- venue, including ordinaries and extraordinaries, to amount to 500 quintals of silver, each quintal, or 100 lb. weight, valued at somewhat above 330l. Sterling; so that the whole amounts to no more, according to him, than 165,000l.; a small revenue indeed for so large an empire, if the calculation may be depended upon. But St Olan, though he doth not pretend so much as to guess at the yearly amount of it, doth in general represent it as so considerable, that Muley Ishmael was reckoned to have amassed out of it a treasure in gold and silver of about 50 effective millions; but whether of crowns or livres he doth not tell us, nor how he came by his knowledge of it; because that politic prince, even by his own confession, not only caused all his riches to be buried in sundry places under-ground, his gold and silver to be melted into great lumps, and laid in the same privacy under-ground, but likewise all those whom he entrusted with the secret to be as privately murdered. However that be, we shall, upon the whole, have the less cause to wonder at these exorbitant exactions which he extorts from Christian princes and states, whenever they are obliged either to seek his alliance, or to obtain some redress in favour of their trading subjects; much less at the shameful delays, insults, extortions, indignities, and injustice, which their ambassadors must be content to put up with, to obtain the least favour from their rapacious ministers.

The air of this country, though hot and dry, is pleasant and healthy; the winds from the sea and mount Atlas refreshing the inhabitants in the hottest season.

As to the soil, it is neither so mountainous, sandy, or barren, as many other parts of Africa; but produces, or would produce if duly cultivated, vast quantities of corn, wine, and oil. No country affords better wheat, barley, or rice: both the French and Spaniards fetch these from the Barbary coast, when they have a scarcity at home; and our garrisons of Gibraltar and Port-Mahon are often supplied with provisions from thence. The plains of Fez and Morocco are well planted with olives; and there are no better grapes for making wine in the world, as the Jews at Tetuan experience; though the cultivation of vines is not encouraged among the Mahommedans, in consequence of the precept in the Koran, forbidding the drinking of wine. Here are also other fruits, as dates, figs, raisins, almonds, apples, pears, cherries, plums, citrons, lemons, oranges, pomegranates, with plenty of roots and herbs, hemp, flax, sugar, honey, and wax: but they have not many forest-trees, and scarce any good timber; possibly their soil is not proper for timber, or they take no care to preserve it, having little occasion for any.

The animals of this part of Africa, whether wild or tame, are much the same we meet with to the southward; except the elk, the elephant, and the rhinoceros, which no travellers pretend to meet with in the empire of Morocco: and as they want these, so they have some others not to be found in the south of Africa, particularly camels, dromedaries, and that fine breed of horses called barbs, which for their beauty and swiftness can scarce be paralleled in the world. Nor are their horses to be admired only for their beauty and speed, but their use in war, being extremely ready to obey their riders upon the least sign, in charging, wheeling, or retiring; so that the trooper has his hands very much at liberty, and can make the best use of his arms.

As to mountains, the chief are that chain which goes under the name of Mount Atlas, and runs the whole length of Barbary from east to west, passing through Morocco, and abutting upon that ocean which separates the eastern from the western continent, and is from this mountain called the Atlantic Ocean. This mountain, as the poets feigned, sustained the universe; hence we see Atlas represented with the world upon his shoulders, and descriptions of the globe or sets of maps dignified with the name of Atlas. Dr Shaw, however, affirms us, that this chain cannot stand in competition either with the Alps or Appennines for height. Near the Straits stands the mountain anciently called Abyla, and now, if we are not mistaken, by our countrymen styled the Apes hill.

The principal rivers, besides the Malva or Mulvia above-mentioned, which rises in the deserts, and running from south to north divides Morocco from the kingdom of Algiers, are the Suz, Ommirabili, Rabbatta, Larache, Darodt, Sebon, Gueron, and Tensift, which rise in Mount Atlas, and fall into the Atlantic Ocean.

The chief capes are Cape Threecorfs on the Mediterranean, Cape Spartel at the entrance of the straits, Cape Cantin, Cape None, and Cape Rajador, on the Atlantic Ocean.

Of the bays the most considerable are, the bay of Tetuan in the Mediterranean, and the bay of Tangier in the straits of Gibraltar.

There are some mines of very fine copper in this empire; but if there are any of gold and silver, as some writers tell us, they have never been opened, as far as we can find.

The traffic of the empire by land is either with Arabia or Negroland: to Mecca they send caravans, consisting of several thousand camels, horses, and mules, twice every year, partly for traffic, and partly upon a religious account; for numbers of pilgrims take that opportunity of paying their devotions to their great prophet. The goods they carry to the east are woollen manufactures, very fine Morocco skins, indigo, cochineal, and ostrich feathers; and they bring back from thence, silk, muslins, and drugs. By their caravans to Negroland, they send salt, silk, and woollen manufactures, and bring back gold and ivory in return, but chiefly negroes: for from hence it is that their emperor chiefly recruits his black cavalry, though there are also great numbers born in the country; for they bring those of both sexes very young from Negroland, the females for breeders, and the males for soldiers. As they grow up, they first carry a musket, and serve on foot, and after some time are preferred to be cavaliers: and as they have no other hopes or dependence but the favour of the emperor, they prove much the most dutiful and obsequious of all his subjects, and indeed support his tyranny over the rest. The caravans always go strong enough to defend themselves against the wild Arabs in the deserts of Africa and Asia; though, notwithstanding all their vigilance, some of the stragglers and baggage often fall fall into their hands: they are also forced to load one half of their camels with water, to prevent their perishing with drought and thirst in those inhospitable deserts. And there is still a more dangerous enemy, and that is the sand itself: when the winds rise, the caravan is perfectly blinded with dust; and there have been instances both in Africa and Asia, where whole caravans, and even armies, have been buried alive in the sands. There is no doubt also, but both men and cattle are sometimes surprised by wild beasts, as well as robbers, in those vast deserts; the hot winds also, blowing over a long tract of burning sand, are equal almost to the heat of an oven, and destroy abundance of merchants and pilgrims. If it was not for devotion, and in expectation of very great gains, no man would undertake a journey in these deserts; great are the hazards and fatigues they must of necessity undergo; but those that go to Mecca assure themselves of paradise if they die, and have uncommon honours paid them at home if they survive. People crowd to be taken into the eastern caravans; and the gold that is found in the south, make them no less eager to undertake that journey.

The natives have hardly any trading vessels, but are seldom without some corsairs. These, and European merchant-ships, bring them whatever they want from abroad; as linen and woollen cloth, stuffs, iron wrought and unwrought, arms, gunpowder, lead, and the like: for which they take in return, copper, wax, hides, Morocco leather, wool, (which is very fine) gums, soap, dates, almonds, and other fruits.

The coins of this empire are a fluce, a blanquil, and ducat. The fluce is a small copper coin, twenty whereof make a blanquil, of the value of two-pence Sterling. The blanquil is of silver, and the ducat of gold, not unlike that of Hungary, and worth about nine shillings. Both these pieces are so liable to be clipped and filed by the Jews, that the Moors always carry scales in their pockets to weigh them; and when they are found to be much diminished in their weight, they are recoined by the Jews, who are masters of the mint, by which they gain a considerable profit; as they do also by exchanging the light pieces for those that are full weight. Merchants accounts are kept in ducats, ten of which make a ducat; but in payments to the government, it is said they will reckon seventeen one-half for a ducat.

With respect to religion, the inhabitants of Morocco are Mohammedans, of the sect of Ali; and have a mufti, or high-priest, who is also the supreme civil magistrate, and the last resort in all causes ecclesiastical and civil. They have a great veneration for their hermits, and for idiots and madmen; as well as for those who by their tricks have got the reputation of wizards: all whom they look upon as inspired persons, and not only honour as saints while they live, but build tombs and chapels over them when dead; which places are not only devoutly visited by their devotees far and near, but are esteemed inviolable sanctuaries for all sorts of criminals, except in cases of treason.

Notwithstanding the natives are zealous Mohammedans, they allow foreigners the free and open profession of their religion, and their very slaves have their priests and chapels in the capital city, though it must be owned that the Christian slaves are here treated with the utmost cruelty. Here, as in all other Mohammedan countries, the alcoran and their comments upon it are their only written laws; and though in some instances their cadis, and other civil magistrates, are controlled by the arbitrary determinations of their princes, bashaws, generals, and military officers, yet the latter have generally a very great deference and regard for their laws. Murder, theft, and adultery, are commonly punished with death; and their punishments for other crimes, particularly those against the state, are very cruel; as impaling, dragging the prisoner through the streets at a mule's heels, till all his flesh is torn off; throwing him from a high tower upon iron hooks; hanging him upon hooks till he die; crucifying him against a wall; and, indeed, the punishment and condemnation of criminals is in a manner arbitrary. The emperor, or his bashaws, frequently turn executioners; shoot the offender, or cut him to pieces with their own hands, or command others to do it in their presence.

In regard to the character of the Moors, they are said to be a covetous inhospitable people, intent upon nothing but heaping up riches, to obtain which they will be guilty of the meanest things, and stick at no manner of fraud. The Arabs also, who are almost as numerous as the Moors, have always had the character of a pilfering generation. The people who inhabit the hills, and who have the least to do with the court and with traffic, are much the honestest people among them, and still retain a good share of liberty, the government using them rather as allies than subjects, lest they should entirely disown their authority. The Moors, however, with all their bad qualities, are observed to be very dutiful to their parents, their princes, and superiors. A plurality of wives is allowed here, as in other Mohammedan countries; nor do they confine themselves to women, but keep boys, as they do in Turkey. The woman who commits adultery is punished with death; but it is not difficult for them to obtain a divorce, if ill used.

The dead are carried to the grave in their usual dress, the priests singing before them, La illa All illa, Mahomet Rasoul Allah, i.e. God is a great God, and Mahomet his prophet.

The Moors, or natives of the country, are of much the same complexion as the Spaniards on the opposite shore; but such multitudes of negroes have been brought from Guinea, that you see almost as many black as white people, especially about Mequinez, where the court resides. The habit of a Moor is a linen frock or shirt next his skin, a vest of silk or cloth tied with a sash, a pair of drawers, a loose coat, his arms bare to the elbow, as well as his legs, sandals or slippers on his feet, and sometimes people of condition wear buckles: they shave their heads, and wear a turban, which is never pulled off before their superiors, or in their temples; they express their reverence both to God and man by pulling off their slippers, which they leave at the door of the mosque or palace; and, when they attend their prince in the city, they run bare-foot after him, if the streets are ever so dirty. Their turbans are of fine silk, or fine linen. The habit of the women is not very different from... Morocco from that of the men, except that they wear a fine linen cloth or caul on their heads, instead of a turban, and their drawers are much larger and longer than the mens. The women also, when they go abroad, have a linen cloth over their faces, with holes in it for their eyes, like a mask.

capital city of the kingdom of Morocco, in Barbary; seated in a very large plain, 250 miles south by west of Fez, 125 north-west of Suez, and 15 from Mount Atlas. It was surrounded by a strong wall, fortified with towers and some bulwarks, and encompassed with deep ditches. The number of houses were reckoned formerly to be 100,000, all with flat roofs; but they are now greatly diminished, inasmuch that the greatest part of the city is unpeopled. The irruptions and robberies of the Arabs hinder them from cultivating the lands about it, inasmuch that there is nothing but vines, date-trees, and some other fruits. There were three temples or mosques in this place, of a prodigious size; and the emperor's palace was so large, and took up so much ground, that it resembled a small city. A late traveller affirms, that the inhabitants now are not above 25,000, and that the houses go to ruin every day, without being rebuilt. This may happen partly from the removal of the court, which is now at Mequinez. W. Long. 6. 45. N. Lat. 30. 32.

Turkey-leather. See Leather.