Tangier the years leading up to the First World War, Tangier had a population of about 40,000, about half Muslim, a quarter Jewish, and a quarter European Christians. Of the Europeans, about three-quarters were Spanish artisans and labourers. In 1912, Morocco was effectively partitioned between France and Spain; Spanish Morocco covered the country's far north and far south while the French protectorate covered the central remainder. The last Sultan of independent Morocco, Moulay Hafid, was exiled to the Sultanate Palace in the Tangier kasbah after his forced abdication in favour of his brother Moulay Yusef. Tangier was made an international zone
Tangier or slaves for tax purposes, even after their wholesale conversion to Islam. In the area around Tangier, these hateful taxes were mostly paid in female slaves or in tender lambskins obtained by beating the ewes to induce premature birth. Governor Yazid was murdered by Berber guards whom he had tattooed as slaves in , and in the 730s similar treatment from Governor Ubayd Allah and al-Muradi, his deputy at Tangier, provoked the Berber Revolt. Inspired by the egalitarian Kharijite heresy, Barghawata and others under Maysara al-Matghari seized Tangier in the summer of 740. In the Battle of the Nobles on