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The Idrisids (Arabic, الأدارسة )were the first Sayyid Shia dynasty in the western Maghreb ruling from 788 to 985.^[1] The dynasty is named after its first sultan, Idris I.

Idrisid Empire at its Greatest Extent

The founder of the dynasty was Idris ibn Abdallah (788-791), who traced his ancestry back to Ali ibn Abi Talib and his wife Fatima, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad. As a Sayyid Shiite he was persecuted by the Abbasids and fled to the Maghreb in 786, where he was taken in by the Berbers. Since the Maysara uprising against Arab rule (739-742), the authority of the Caliphate in North Africa had been compromised; the new kingdom of Idris I represented the first autonomous Islamic state in Morocco.

His son Idris II (791-828) developed the area of Fez, already colonised by his father, as a royal residence and capital. Through the settlement of refugees from Kairouan and Andalusia the city quickly became the focus for the Islamification and Arabisation of North Africa: compare the rise of Islam in Algeria. At about the same time, an alternate summer capital Basra was constructed and named after the famous Shiite city in southern Iraq.

The realm was also extended through campaigns into the high Atlas Mountains and against Tlemcen, with the result that the Idrisid state became the most significant power in Morocco, ahead of the principalites of the Bargawata, the Salihids, the Miknasa and the Maghrawa of Sijilmasa.

Under Muhammad (828-836) the kingdom was divided amongst eight brothers, whereby several Idrisid statelets formed in northern Morocco. This led to intensified power struggles and the weakening of the Idrisids. Even when the realm was reunified under Yahya IV (904-917), it still lost significance through internal strife and attacks from the Fatimid dynasty aided by their local Miknasa allies.

After defeats by the Fatimids in 917-920 the Idrisids were driven from Fez and control given to the Miknasa. Hassan I al-Hajam managed to wrest control of Fez for a couple of years but he was the last of the dynasty to hold power there.

Only with the support of the Caliphate of Cordoba could the dynasty subsequently hold out against the Fatimids and their allies. After 926 the Idrisids abandoned Fez for good and withdrew to the valleys of the Rif mountains, where they had a stronghold in the fortress of Hajar an-Nasar. They were also protected to some extent by the reluctance of tribal elders to wipe out entirely the local descendents of the Prophet Muhammad's family.

The last Idrisid made the mistake of switching allegiances back to the Fatimids, and was deposed and executed in 985 by the Caliphate of Cordoba. The dynasty was succeeded in Morocco by the principality of the Maghrawa.

• Idris I - (788-791)
• Idris II - (791-828)
• Muhammad ibn Idris - (828-836)
• Ali ibn Idris, known as "Ali I" - (836-848)
• Yahya ibn Muhammad, known as "Yahya I" - (848-864)
• Yahya ibn Yahya, known as "Yahya II" - (864-874)
• Ali ibn Umar, known as "Ali II" - (874-883)
• Yahya ibn Al-Qassim, known as "Yahya III" - (883-904)
• Yahya ibn Idris ibn Umar, known as "Yahya IV" - (904-917)
• Fatimid dynasty overlordship - (922-925)
• Hassan I al-Hajjam - (925-927)
• Fatimid overlordship - (927-937)
• Al Qasim Gannum - (937-948)
• Abu l-Aish Ahmad - (948-954)
• Al-Hasan ben Kannun, known as "Hassan II" - (954-974) (not to be confused with Hassan II, born in 1929)

Ibn Abi Zar, Rawd al-Qirtas contains a chronicle of the dynasty.

• History of Algeria
• History of Morocco
• History of Spain