another year in exile between 1612 and 1613 after being expelled from Marrakesh by a local religious leader, Abu Mahalli, who rebelled against him. Abu Mahalli managed to occupy Marrakesh and declared himself the Mahdi, granting his rebellion a distinctive religious character. Moulay Zaydan fled to Safi. He was about to leave Morocco for Spain but was spared from doing so when he received the support of Yahya ibn Abdullah al-Hahi, a chieftain from the High Atlas Mountains, who helped him regain Marrakesh in 1613 with a coalition of Arab and Berber tribes. When Abdallah al-Ghalib II died in 1623 his realm in Fes passed on to his brother Abd al-Malik al-Mu'tasim, another son of Al-Ma'mun. After the scandal of Al-Ma'mun's collusion with Spain, however, Moulay Zaydan was the only Saadian ruler left with any credibility in the country and he was recognized as Sultan of Morocco by multiple foreign powers. When both Moulay Zaydan and Abd al-Malik al-Mu'tasim died in 1627, the two Saadian splinter states in Marrakesh and Fes were finally reunified and inherited by Moulay Zaydan's son, Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik II, who ruled the country until 1631. Reunification and final years Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik II was in turn succeeded by his brother Muhammad al-Walid (r. 1631–1636), followed by his other brother Muhammad al-Shaykh al-Saghir (r. 1636–1655). By this time Saadian authority had greatly suffered. Moulay Zaydan had already relinquished direct control over the Sudan territories in 1618 when its governors ceased to be appointed from Marrakesh and were instead chosen by the local troops themselves. Thereafter the local Saadian regime became the Pashalik of Timbuktu, ruled by the Arma people, the mixed descendants of Moroccan soldiers and local inhabitants, who were nominally subject to Morocco until the early 19th century. The fragmentation and decline of strong central rule in the region also contributed to the decline of Timbuktu and the trans-Saharan trade routes, while European merchants increasingly diverted trade in the region through their own operations and networks. At the same time, the important sugar mills in the south of Morocco also declined and many of the mills outside the immediate vicinity of Taroudant stopped working. Several centers of political opposition and dissent to the Saadians also became clear in this period. On the western coast, recent Morisco (Andalusian) exiles had arrived in Salé and Rabat in 1609 and eventually founded the Republic of Bou