CHAPTER  THE NINTH
THE REIGNING SHAREEFS

(FIlali Period—continued)
1727-1894

NO  sooner was the strong, hard hand of the tyrant
Ismail at rest, than anarchy, and horrors worse even
Outburst of         than he had committed, again prevailed.    The

Anarchy.             y^j-y 'forces   which   uuder   his   iron   rule   had

served to control the country now disseminated discord,
and the troops which had enforced his will, maintaining
order, now produced dissension and promoted strife. For
twenty years his black guards nominated, overthrew and
set up as sultan whom they would, using as their puppets
no fewer than seven of Ismail's sons.

Three days before the tyrant's death, he had summoned
from Tadla one i of his sons,  named Ahmad VII., sur¬
named like the last of that name to rule the Maghrib,
Ahmad VII           Ed-Dhahebi—"The    Golden"—who    on    his

{Ed-Dhdhebi II.) father's decease was at once proclaimed. But
^'^^'^' the burst of relief which greeted this news was
too strong for the novice—who was, moreover, a drunkard^
—and on every hand the Berbers commenced depredations,
while the Udai'a—one of the hereditary soldier tribes—
pillaged Fez; and in Tetuan the Kaid of the Rif com-,
mericed a treasonable correspondence with the Tunisian
Hafsis.2    In the expressive language of a native writer,^

1 Mairault, p. 79.           2 En-NAsiri, vol. iv., p.55.           3 Ez ZaiAni, p. 56.

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