Cazaza

Cazaza was a Spanish enclave on the western coast of Cape Three Forks, in what is today Morocco, around 18 km from Melilla. It was here that the exiled Boabdil, last Emir of Granada, landed when he left the Iberian Peninsula in 1492.[1]

Tomb of Sidi Mesaud and the hill of Cazaza.

In 1505 Spanish forces based in Melilla led by Juan Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán, 3rd Duke of Medina Sidonia took Cazaza from the Wattasid Kingdom of Fez.[2] King Ferdinand granted him the title 'Marquess of Cazaza', which survives to this day.[3] Although the noble title has endured, the Spanish lost control of Cazaza in 1533[4] because of the treachery of five of its garrison who betrayed it.[5]

It was never rebuilt after the destruction when it was conquered. Its ruins are visible today.[6]

References

1. Vidal, Rafael (29 July 2011). "España y el Mediterráneo: Prolegómenos de la conquista de África en tiempos de los Reyes Católicos". Protecturi, Asociación para la Protección del Patrimonio Histórico. Protecturi. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
2. Mark A. Lamport (31 August 2017). Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. pp. 190–. ISBN 978-1-4422-7159-3.
3. Ferreiro, Miguel Angel (26 August 2016). "Medina Sidonia y la conquista de las tierras áridas". El Rete Historico. El Rete Historico. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
4. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/spain/vol4/no2/pp607-624
5. Gutierrez Cruz, Rafael (2013), "EL SOCORRO DE MELILLA DE 1535: DOCUMENTOS PARA SU ESTUDIO" (PDF), Baetica: Estudios de Arte, Geografia e Historia, 35: 218
6. Gozalbes Cravioto, Enrique (2008). "Notas sobre Cazaza, puerto de Fez y fortaleza española (1506-1533)". Al-Andalus Magreb: Estudios árabes e islámicos. 15. Cádiz: Universidad de Cádiz: Servicio de Publicaciones. pp. 135–155. ISSN 1133-8571.