Mascara campaign (1699–1701)

Mascara campaign
Part of the Maghrebi war (1699–1702)
Date 1699–1701 Location Beylik of Mascara Result Algerian victory
Belligerents
Sultanate of Morocco	Regency of Algiers Beylik of Mascara
Commanders and leaders
Ismail Ibn Sharif Moulay Zidan	Hadj Mustapha Dey Mustapha Bouchelaghem

The Mascara campaign of 1699–1701 was launched by Moulay Zidan, son of the Moroccan Sultan Moulay Ismail, to capture the Beylik of Mascara, situated in the west of the Regency of Algiers. This episode, which ended in 1701 with the Moroccan's defeat at the Battle of Chelif, reopened the hostilities between the Sherifian Empire and the Regency of Algiers.

Campaign

Sometime between 1699 and 1700, Sultan Moulay Ismail ibn Sharif instructed his son Moulay Zidan, to whom he entrusted the command of the province of Taza, to launch an offensive against the Algerians, in coordination with an offensive by the Bey of Tunis Murad III on the Beylik of Constantine, which triggered a two front war against the Deylik of Algiers.

The Moroccan army, mainly composed of the Black Guard, commanded by Moulay Zidan, managed to chase the Turks from Tlemcen. The Moroccan army besieged the city defended by armed Kouloughlis and even pushed as far as Mascara, the capital of the Western Beylik, whose Bey Othman was absent due to an expedition. The Moroccans ravaged the whole region, ransacked the city, even looting the Bey's palace. However, perhaps to save his loot, Moulay Zidan returned to Morocco after agreeing to a peace negotiation with the Turks, which angered Moulay Ismail because it allowed the Dey of Algiers to concentrate on its eastern front against the army of the Bey of Tunis, which he crushed between Setif and Constantine.

After dismissing his son, Moulay Ismail resumed the campaign and led in person another offensive against the Algerians in 1701. After crossing the Algerian border, he was defeated at the Battle of Chelif.