Mohammed ben Abdallah

Sultan Moulay Muhammad III or Sultan Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdallah (Arabic محمد الثالث بن عبد الله الخطيب, DMG Muḥammad at- ʿ Abd Allāh b Talit al - Khatib, . * 1710, † 1790) was a Moroccan ruler from 1757 / 1759 to 1790 of the dynasty of Alawites.

Moulay Muhammad was determined as far back as his father Moulay Abdallah of pressure from the population of Marrakech heir to the throne and appointed governor of Marrakech. He succeeded to end the ongoing power struggles since 1727 and to consolidate the sherif dynasty of Alawites again.

With the restoration of the state was his attention above all to the tax system, the reorganization of the army and the stabilization of the religious authority of his rule over the sheikhs of the brotherhoods and marabouts. For that he needed additional funds and a tax system that would embrace trade. He led the taxation of the markets again, and continued this also possibly with military force.

An army reform was carried out and Arab mercenaries from the group of the Banu Hassan were under the command of the Alawites from now on. He also organized powerful naval forces, which were able to fend off European attacks.

In 1765 he left the city of Essaouira on the Atlantic coast to expand and entrusted the French prisoners Théodore Cornus with plans for the expansion of individual city fortifications.

He succeeded in the trade relations of Morocco through friendship and trade treaties with Denmark (1751-1765), England (1760 ), Sweden (1773 ), France (1767 ) and Portugal ( 1773) expand. In 1767 he signed a peace treaty with Spain. Following the recognition of the United States as a sovereign state (1777 ), it came in 1787 to conclude a peace and friendship treaty with that country.

After his death in 1790 blazed under his son and successor Yazid ( 1790-1792 ) and Hisham ( 1792-1798 ), the long-standing disputes back to before Mulai Sulaiman ( 1798-1822 ) was able to take control.