Abstract
This study examines a dispute between the Waṭṭāsid dynasty and Kingdom of Portugal over the north area of al-Maghrib al-Aqṣā, as well as the relationships between the sultan and his vassals in the Northern Frontier, which bordered the Portuguese occupied territory in the late 15th century.
Muḥammad al-Shaykh al-Waṭṭāsī, the first sultan of the dynasty, concluded a peace treaty with Afonso V of Portugal in 1471, one year before the dynasty was established, in which he recognized Portuguese possessions in North Africa. Despite the temporal suspension of this treaty between the death of Afonso V (1481) and the disaster of the Graciosa expedition (1489) by his successor João II, it established a semblance of peace in the area until its final expiration around 1500.
During this period, the sultan organized defense structures against Portuguese raids by appointing influential persons as the local governors in important towns of the frontier and providing for them financial and military aid. Although they enjoyed a high degree of autonomy, there existed vertical relationships between them and the sultan, and when ‘Alīb. Rāshid, a frontier governor preached Jihād and revolted in Shafshāwun, the sultan succeeded in subjugating him. This success demonstrates that the royal authority of the dynasty was recognized to be legitimate in the country.
