Mawlāy al-Rashīd b. al-Sharīf b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī was the first ʿAlawī sultan (r. 1069–82/1659–72) of Morocco. As in the case of the Saʿdī dynasty (r. 916–1069/1510–1659), the ʿAlawī claim to the sultanate was founded on their sharīfian lineage, that is, as descendants of the prophet Muḥammad. In the inland trading town of Sijilmāsa, Mawlāy al-Rashīd’s ancestor, Ḥasanī Shurafāʾ (or al-Ḥasan al-Dākhil; d. 676/1277), had founded a Ṣūfī lodge (zāwiya) several generations before the ʿAlawī ascension to power. In the power vacuum left by the fractured Saʿdī stat…