ruler of the Saadian realm, Muhammad al-Shaykh turned his attention to the Wattasids. In 1545 he defeated and captured Ahmad al-Wattasi near Wadi Derna. Ahmad al-Wattasi was released two years later, in 1547, and ceded Meknes to the Saadians. Al-Shaykh nonetheless laid siege to Fes, the Wattasid capital, that same year. The siege lasted until January 28, 1549, when the Saadians finally took the city, leaving Al-Shaykh as sole ruler of Morocco. Further north, the Portuguese evacuated Ksar al-Seghir and Asilah in 1550. This set up a confrontation between the Saadians and the Ottomans, whose empire now extended to Algeria. The latter had already provided some aid to the Wattasids in an attempt to stem the growing power of the Saadians. Both sides saw Tlemcen as their next objective. The Saadian army, led by Muhammad al-Harran, son of Muhammad al-Shaykh, conquered the city in June 1550, but the army was partly diverted to the Tafilalt soon after in order to suppress a rebellion there by the exiled Ahmad al-Araj. Al-Shaykh was in turn preoccupied by other rebellions and was unable to send more reinforcements to his son. Al-Harran died of sickness in Tlemcen shortly before an army of Ottoman Janissaries and tribal allies sent by the Ottoman Pasha of Algiers, Hasan Pasha, expelled the Saadian forces from the city and from western Algeria in February 1551. The Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, sent a diplomatic embassy to Muhammad al-Shaykh in 1552 in an attempt to persuade the latter to accept Ottoman suzerainty, even if just nominally, but this was refused. The Ottomans sent an army, including Janissaries again, led by Salah Ra'is to attack Fes, where they defeated the Saadians in January 1554. They installed 'Ali Abu Hassun, an uncle of Ahmad al-Wattasi who had taken refuge in Spain, as ruler and Ottoman vassal in what was the final attempt by the Wattasids to regain power. Meanwhile, Ahmad al-Araj and his son Zaydan had made themselves lords of the Tafilalt, and allied themselves with Abu Hassun. However, Muhammad al-Shaykh intercepted Abu Hassun's message to his potential allies in the Tafilalt that would have informed them of his victory in Fes. As a result, Al-Araj and his son, believing that their side had lost, surrendered to Al-Shaykh. The latter went on to defeat Abu Hassun at the Battle of Tadla and to retake Fes in September 1554. Abu Hassun died in