Oujda

Oujda lies on the Angad plain between the Moroccan interior and Tlemcen. Founded around 994 by Ziri ibn Atiyya, a chief of the Maghrawa, it became a fortified town on a route across the Maghreb. Its position also placed it in the path of armies contesting the lands between Fez and Tlemcen. The Marinids and Zayyanids fought over Oujda, and the town was repeatedly damaged and rebuilt. From the sixteenth century it lay between the Moroccan dynasties and Ottoman Algeria. Sultan Moulay Ismail fortified the town and maintained a garrison there; after renewed struggles, the Alaouites recovered it in 1795.