Taroudant

In the 16th century the cane of the Sous became Taroudant's fortune. The Saadians, sharifs settled at Tidsi near the town, led the tribes of the valley against the Portuguese who had seized Agadir in 1505, and Muhammad al-Shaykh, given charge of the Sous in 1517, made sugar its chief export. Archaeologists have traced ten sugar mills within 45 kilometres of Taroudant, worked by water from long aqueducts, with the walled town at their centre as the Saadian capital of the south. The industry lasted only as long as the dynasty: after Ahmad al-Mansur died in 1603, the rivals for his throne let it lapse and the local people wrecked the mills. Taroudant remained strong enough for its chieftain Sidi Yahya to help the sultan Moulay Zaydan against the rebel who had seized Marrakesh, but when Agadir was closed to commerce in 1760 the town lost its outlet to the sea and declined.