Oudaya

The Oudaya (Arabic: الاوداية, romanized: Ūdāya) also written as Udaya, Oudaia and sometimes referred to as Wadaya (Arabic: الودايا, romanized: Wadāyā) is an Arab tribe in Morocco of Maqil origin. They are situated around Fez and Meknes, Marrakesh and in Rabat. They were recruited by Ismail Ibn Sharif as one of the guich tribes that formed an integral component of the pre-colonial Moroccan military. The Mghafra (Arabic: المغافرة, romanized: Maghāfira) or the Banu Maghar, a sub-tribe of the Oudaya, founded several emirates in Mauritania, for example the Emirate of Trarza, as a result of the Char Bouba War.

The name Oudaya is the plural of the Arabic word oued (Arabic: واد, romanized: wād) which means river as well as the words awdāʾ (اوداء), awdiya (أودية) and awdāh (أوداه; in the dialect of Tayy). This was corrupted into awādiya (أوادية). Ibn Sidah said the correct form is awdāya (الاوداية) and said:

أما تريني رجلا دعكاية
اقطع الابحر والاوداية

According to historical authors Leo Africanus and Marmol Carvajal, the Oudaya came from the Banu Hassan branch of the Ma'qil. Leo Africanus estimates the Oudaya to number more than 60,000 and situates them between Ouadane and Oualata.

According to the 19th century historian an-Nasiri, Moulay Ismail encountered the Oudaya through a poor shepherd Bou-Chefra. He learned that his people were fleeing famine, and decided to recruit them. He told Bou-Chefra:

You are my maternal aunts and you have heard of me and you have not come to me. Now, you are my companion. Go take your sheep back to your tent and come back to see me in Marrakesh!

The guich tribes were tribes typically of Arab origin that served as a part of the pre-colonial Moroccan military under the 'Alawi dynasty. The Oudaya were one of the major guich tribes that served under the 'Alawis. They rose to prominence under Moulay Ismail who aimed to reorganize the army by institutionalizing the guich system and create a new strong central government as a result of a set of military setbacks he suffered like the disastrous campaign against the Ottoman Regency of Algeria. This culminated in the creation of the 'Abid al-Bukhari, an elite guard made up of black slaves from Morocco and Sub-Saharan Africa as well as the creation of the Oudaya Guich. In 1678, he married Khanatha bint Bakkar who was the daughter of Shaykh Bakkar, an important leader and tribal shaykh of the Oudaya. This marriage confirmed an alliance between the Makhzen and the Oudaya and by the terms of this alliance the Oudaya provided the sultan with a large and powerful guich. He stations these troops from the Oudaya outside the walls of the city of Fez.

Ismail called the Oudaya the tribe of his maternal uncles in order to form a fictive or real kinship between him and the tribe as his mother Mubarka bint Yark al-Maghfiri was born either as a member or a black slave of the Mghafra (a division of the Oudaya).