Reign 1748, 1757 – 1790 Successor Yazid Role Sultan of Morocco Parents Abdallah of Morocco Children Slimane of Morocco | Predecessor Abdallah IV Name Mohammed Abdallah Died 1790 House Alaouite dynasty Grandparents Ismail Ibn Sharif | |
Consort (first) Lalla Fatima bint Sulaiman of Morocco
(second) Lalla Sargetta, an English or Irish lady
(third) a daughter of 'Abdu'llah Rahamani
(fourth) Lalla Zahra
a Howariyya lady from Sais
a lady of the Ahlaf tribe
another lady of the Ahlaf tribe
a lady from Rabat
a third lady of the Ahlaf tribe
a Beni Husain lady
Helen Gloag Similar People Slimane of Morocco, Sharif ibn Ali, Sir John Acton - 6th Baronet, Alejandro O'Reilly | ||
Mohammed Ben Abdellah al-Khatib (c. 1710 – 9 April 1790) (Arabic: محمد الثالث بن عبد الله الخطيب) was Sultan of Morocco from 1757 to 1790 under the Alaouite dynasty. He was the governor of Marrakech around 1750. He was also sultan briefly during 1748.
Rule
He was the son of Sultan Abdallah IV who reigned 1745–1757. A more open-minded ruler than many of his forebears, he signed numerous peace treaties with the European powers, and curtailed the power of the Barbary corsairs. He revived the city of Essaouira and invited Jews and English to trade there. He also built the old medina of Casablanca (Derb Tazi) and renovated the kasbah of Marrakesh. Mohammed III used numerous European technicians and architects for his projects, such as Theodore Cornut and the Englishman Ahmed el Inglizi.
Mohammed ben Abdallah also took steps to remove the foreign presence on Moroccan coasts. He repulsed the French in the 1765 Larache expedition. He conquered Mazagan from the Portuguese in 1769. However, the Siege of Melilla (1774) against the Spanish ended in defeat in 1775 when British aid failed to materialize.
In 1786 Morocco became the first Arab state, the first African state, and the first Muslim state to sign a treaty with the United States. A false myth persists to the effect that Morocco recognized the United States in 1777.