Who were the main Moroccan dynasties?

When clients ask me to untangle the dynasties, I draw a quick spine, because the monuments they're about to see line up perfectly with it. It starts with the Idrisids in 788, descendants of the Prophet who founded Fes and gave Morocco its first dynasty and its spiritual capital. Then the Almoravids — desert Berbers from the south who swept up in the 11th century, founded Marrakech, and stretched their empire into Spain. They were austere reformers, and Marrakech as a city exists because of them.

The Almohads followed in the 12th century and were arguably the high-water mark — at their peak they ruled from the Atlas to Andalusia and Tunisia. They're the builders you see most: the Koutoubia minaret in Marrakech, the Giralda's sister in Seville, and the unfinished Hassan Tower in Rabat are all Almohad. Then came the Marinids from the 13th century, who shifted the centre back to Fes and gave Morocco its most exquisite architecture — the Bou Inania and Attarine madrasas, with their carved cedar, stucco, and zellige, are Marinid masterpieces I never skip on a Fes tour.

The Saadians arrived in the 16th century, a sharif dynasty that pushed back the Portuguese and Ottomans and grew rich on Saharan gold and sugar. Their legacy in Marrakech is dazzling: the Saadian Tombs, rediscovered only in 1917 and gorgeous with Italian marble and gilded honeycomb ceilings, and the ruined El Badi Palace, once so lavish it was called 'the incomparable.' Then, from the mid-17th century, the Alaouites — the current dynasty, also sharifs claiming descent from the Prophet. Moulay Ismail, their fearsome early sultan, built monumental Meknes.

What makes this more than a list is that the Alaouite line never broke — King Mohammed VI today is the same dynasty as Moulay Ismail, which gives Morocco a continuity few countries can claim. I tell travellers to hold just those six names lightly: Idrisid, Almoravid, Almohad, Marinid, Saadian, Alaouite. With them in your pocket, a confusing wall of ruins suddenly sorts itself into a clear, walkable timeline, and you start recognising a Marinid madrasa or an Almohad minaret on sight — which is one of the quiet pleasures of traveling here.