From the philosopher Ibn Rushd to the theologian Ibn Arabi, the historical region of al-Andalus produced some of the Muslim world’s top luminaries during the Middle Ages. The territory, which comprised the portions of the Iberian Peninsula that fell under Muslim control from the eighth century to the 15th, served as a proving ground for the Islamic Golden Age’s greatest minds. As Christian forces retook the land that would become Portugal and Spain, al-Andalus also played a brief role in the life of Sayyida al-Hurra, a North African ruler who went on to a life of piracy.
Born in 1485 as Lalla Aicha bib Ali ibn Rashid al-Alami, the future ruler spent her early years in the Andalusian city of Granada. By 1492, however, Granada had fallen to the Christian armies of Spain, marking the end of al-Andalus and forcing al-Alami to flee across the Strait of Gibraltar to Chefchaouen. Part of a wealthy family, she studied several languages, mathematics, and theology during the remainder of her childhood on the North African coast.
In 1510, al-Alami married Abu Hassan al-Mandari, who governed the nearby city of Tétouan. She came to serve as co-regent of Tétouan, which European forces had flattened a century earlier in response to Muslim naval raids originating from the city. Andalusian refugees worked to rebuild Tétouan alongside its original inhabitants; al-Alami and al-Mandari, himself a refugee from Granada, symbolized Andalusians’ growing ties to Tétouan. Al-Alami’s education and intelligence soon enabled her to grow into a leader in her own right, a crucial attribute in the wake of her husband’s death in 1515.
Sayyida al-Hurra looked to piracy as a way to enrich her city and protect it from the Portuguese and Spanish colonists patrolling North Africa’s coast.
After al-Mandari’s passing, al-Alami began to govern Tétouan by herself and adopted her better-known name: Sayyida al-Hurra, an Arabic title that translates to “the free woman” and denoted the independence with which she exercised power. It took little time for the new ruler to surpass her late husband in prominence as she retaliated against the European kingdoms that had destroyed al-Andalus and Tétouan. Sayyida al-Hurra looked to piracy as a way to enrich her city and protect it from the Portuguese and Spanish colonists patrolling North Africa’s coast.
Artist’s rendering of Sayyida al Hurra. There are no surviving portraits that are definitive.
As governor of Tétouan, Sayyida al-Hurra forged an alliance with the Algiers-based Ottoman pirate Oruç Reis, better known to the Western world as “Barbarossa.” Organizing an informal navy that included Andalusian refugees in Tétouan and the North African city of Salé, Sayyida al-Hurra agreed that her pirates would target European ships around Iberia. Reis focused his efforts on the Eastern Mediterranean, freeing Sayyida al-Hurra to antagonize her adversaries in Portugal and Spain.
In addition to amassing wealth through the treasures that her pirates seized, Sayyida al-Hurra earned money for Tétouan by negotiating ransoms for Christian prisoners captured during her forces’ raids on Gibraltar and other locations. She also developed a fearsome reputation in Europe, where leaders were calling for her head. Sébastien de Vargas, a Portuguese diplomat based in Fez at the time, dubbed her “a very aggressive and bad-tempered woman about everything,” a reflection of Portugal’s substantial financial losses at her hands.
Sayyida al-Hurra’s Muslim contemporaries seemed to take a more positive view of her war against the European states colonizing North Africa. In 1541, Ahmed al-Wattasi—a sultan whose vassal states included Tétouan—sought to marry her. Sayyida al-Hurra accepted his proposal on the condition that al-Wattasi hold the wedding in Tétouan, not his capital in Fez, a significant departure from royal tradition. Al-Wattasi agreed to her terms, and the pair wed.
Just a year after Sayyida al-Hurra’s power peaked, she lost it all. Her son-in-law from her first marriage, Moulay Ahmed al-Hassan al-Mandari, mobilized an army of her rivals and unseated her in 1542. Having surrendered her wealth and influence, Sayyida al-Hurra retired to her earlier adopted home of Chefchaouen, where she remained until her death in 1561.
Today, history and popular culture celebrate Sayyida al-Hurra as a unique example of female empowerment. The website Jezebel heralds her as “the beloved, avenging Islamic pirate queen,” commenting, “Her transformation from refugee to Queen is a Cinderella story of unusual satisfaction.” The Moroccan academic and author Hasna Lebbady has painted Sayyida al-Hurra as an early leader in Morocco’s anti-colonial struggle, given that her pirates defended the North African coast from European colonists in the absence of a formal Moroccan navy.
Moroccan academic and author Hasna Lebbady has painted Sayyida al-Hurra as an early leader in Morocco’s anti-colonial struggle.
As tempting as these labels may seem, Sayyida al-Hurra’s life proves difficult to categorize. Though her expulsion from Granada and campaign against European forces lend themselves to an anti-colonial narrative, she showed few qualms about working with her European foes when it suited her. Under her rule as well as her first husband’s, Tétouan conducted trade with the Portuguese colony of Ceuta on a regular basis while her pirates continued their raids.
Even Sayyida al-Hurra’s status as governor of Tétouan, the basis of her most impressive achievements, appeared precarious. She excelled as a ruler, fielded a legion of pirates, and married a powerful sultan, yet Sayyida al-Hurra’s son-in-law seemed to have little difficulty engineering her overthrow. Moreover, the concurrent Portuguese decision to forbid commerce between Ceuta and Tétouan in retaliation for Sayyida al-Hurra’s raids—severing a vital source of revenue for her city—might have hastened the downfall of a ruler renowned in modern times as a “pirate queen.”
Still, the complexity of Sayyida al-Hurra’s legacy takes nothing away from the sheer magnitude of what she accomplished. Forced from her home in Granada as a child, she turned the city where she spent the most important years of her life, Tétouan, into a naval base for a feared, respected coalition of pirates. She also became the last Muslim ruler to bear the title “al-Hurra,” a term used to designate female leaders in the Arab world who held power in their own right.
It seems clear that, whether remembered as an anti-colonial heroine, a commander of pirates, or a multifaceted historical figure, Sayyida al-Hurra profoundly impacted Tétouan and North Africa as a whole during her time, leading a remarkable life that is still revered centuries later.
READ ALSO
Remembering Fatima Mernissi (1940-2015): A Pioneering Moroccan Feminist
International Women’s Day in Morocco: Fadoua Bakhadda Talks to Inside Arabia
