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Uluj Ali's bid to annex Morocco (989/1581)

مسعى قلج علي لضم المغرب (٩٨٩هـ/١٥٨١م)

Algiers

With the Ottoman state settled in Tunis, kapudan Uluj Ali set his sights on annexing Morocco; ordered to march on it, he reached Algiers in Jumada II 989/June 1581 while Ahmad al-Mansur stood camped at the Tensift with his kingdom's passes sealed and shores fortified, an embassy bound for Istanbul and a near-agreement with Spain struck in exchange for Larache. Facing the fait accompli the sultan ordered Uluj Ali and his deputy Jafar Pasha to abandon the Morocco operation and head east, where the Hejaz had grown troubled 1.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Gunpowder Empires
Region
Maghreb
Review
Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it

In time

157015801590
The Gunpowder Empires

In space

Algiers

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Summary

An Ottoman bid to annex Morocco, thwarted by al-Mansur's readiness and diplomacy 1.

Background

With the Ottoman state settled in Tunis, kapudan Uluj Ali turned toward Morocco; orders went out for him to annex it 1.

The thwarted confrontation

He reached Algiers in Jumada II 989/June 1581 while al-Mansur stood camped at the Tensift — troops ready, kingdom's passes sealed, shores fortified, an embassy bound for Istanbul, and a near-agreement with Spain struck in exchange for Larache and other concessions 2.

The retreat

Facing events, the Ottoman sultan accepted the fait accompli and abandoned the invasion, ordering Uluj Ali and his deputy Jafar Pasha to leave Morocco and head east, where the Hejaz had grown troubled 2.

Connections

Explore the connections

Had participant
Ahmad al-Mansur al-Dhahabi al-Sa'di· Kılıç Ali Pasha· مراد الثالث
Occurred at
Algiers

People and things also explored

End of the beylerbey system in Algiers (995/1587)· Hasan Veneziano· Ahmad al-Mansur al-Dhahabi al-Sa'di· Kılıç Ali Pasha· Charles V's Algiers expedition (1541)· Algiers enters Ottoman sovereignty (1519)· Battle of Wadi al-Makhazin (986/1578)· Aruj Barbarossa enters Algiers (1516)

Sources

  1. al-Dawla al-Uthmaniyya — Ali Muhammad al-Salabi (2001) , p. 270-271
  2. al-Dawla al-Uthmaniyya — Ali Muhammad al-Salabi (2001) , p. 271
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Uluj Ali's bid to annex Morocco (989/1581)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/uluj-ali-morocco-1581/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.

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Time

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End of the beylerbey system in Algiers (995/1587)

With Uluj Ali's death in 995/1587 the beylerbey system ended in Algiers — the arrangement that had made her governors near-sovereigns — replaced by the pasha system as in Tunis and Tripoli: a salaried pasha sent from Istanbul for three years with no local base. Al-Salabi explains the change as the sultan's fear that strong beylerbeys, with the navy weakened, would drift toward independence. So after Lepanto (978/1571) Ottoman North Africa split from a single beylerbey at Algiers into three ordinary wilayas: Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers.