Government Corsair Republic Disestablished 1668 Founded 1627 Capital Kasbah of the Udayas | Established c. 1624 est. 20,000 Area 91 ha Date dissolved 1668 | |
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Languages Spanish, Arabic, Spanish based lingua franca c. 1624 – c. 1635 Jan Janszoon (Murat Reis the Younger) | ||
The Republic of Salé was a short-lived city state at Salé (modern Morocco), during the 17th Century. Located at the mouth of the Bou Regreg river, it was founded by Moriscos from the town of Hornachos, in Western Spain. Moriscos were the descendants of Muslims who were nominally converted to Christianity, and were subject to mass deportation during the Spanish Inquisition. The Republic's main commercial activities were the Barbary slave trade and piracy during its brief existence in the 17th century. The city is now part of the Kingdom of Morocco.
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Arrival of the Moriscos
The republic traces its origins back to the beginning of the 17th century, with the arrival of approximately 3,000 wealthy Moriscos from Hornachos in western Spain, who anticipated the 1609 expulsion edicts ordered by Philip III of Spain. After 1609, approximately 10,000 down-and-out expelled Moriscos arrived from Spain. Cultural and language differences between the native Saletin people and the Morisco refugees led the newcomers to settle in the old Medina of Rabat, on the opposite bank of the Bou Regreg.
Pirates based on the western bank thrived and expanded their operations throughout the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. In 1624, the Dutchman Jan Janszoon (also known as Murad Reis) became the "Grand Admiral" and President of the Corsair Republic of Salé.
Independence
After Janszoon left Salé in 1627, the Moriscos ceased to recognize the authority of the Sultan Zidan al-Nasir, and refused to pay his tithe on their incomes. They proclaimed a Republic, ruled by a council or Diwan, a sort of government cabinet formed by 12 to 14 notable people whose members annually elected a Governor and a Captain General of the Fortalesa during the month of May. In the early years of the republic (between 1627 and 1630), the Diwan was controlled only by Hornacheros, whose grip on power was resented by the growing population of non-Hornachero Moriscos, called Andalusians. After bloody clashes in 1630, an agreement was reached: the election of a Qaid by Andalusians and a new Diwan of 16 members of whom 8 Andalusians and 8 Hornacheros.
In 1641 the zaouia of Dila, which controlled much of Morocco, imposed a religious hegemony over Salé and its parent republic. By the early 1660s the republic was embroiled in civil war with the zawiya, and eventually Sultan Al-Rashid of Morocco of the Alaouite dynasty, which still rules Morocco into the 21st century, seized Rabat and Salé, ending its independence. It ended up under the control of the Sultan of Morocco after 1668, when Moulay al Rashid finally vanquished the Dilaites.
In popular culture
The character Robinson Crusoe, in Daniel Defoe's novel of the same name, spends time in captivity of the local pirates and at last sails off to liberty from the mouth of the Salé river.