Mohammedia (; ), known until 1960 as Fedala, is a port city on the west coast of Morocco between Casablanca and Rabat in the region of Casablanca-Settat. It hosts the most important oil refinery of Morocco, the Samir refinery, which makes it the center of the Moroccan petroleum industry. It has a population of 208,612 according to the 2014 Moroccan census. History Early history The harbor, at what is now Mohammédia, was originally named Fédala (). This name comes from the Arabic words Fadl Allah () which means "favor of God". Traces still exist of its business role under the Almoravid dynasty. It was frequented in the 14th and 15th centuries by merchant ships from Europe seeking cereals and dried fruits. In 1773, the Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah made of Fédala a grains warehouse of Tamasna province and built the Kasbah to protect the shops for traders. He built the white masjid Al Atik as well. French Protectorate During the precolonial period, competition between the Western powers to ensure the economical exploitation of Africa was behind the merger of Europeans interests in the ports of Morocco. In the region of Fédala, the German family Mannesmann acquired a large area of land. The Treaty of November 4, 1911 between France and Germany on the partition of Africa forced the Mannesmann family to abandon the lands they held for Georges and Jacques Hersent, two French industrialists, who noticed the existence of a natural bay, valuable for the creation of a large port at low cost. The group Hersent created the Franco-Moroccan company in 1912 and founded the port company in 1914 that took a leading part in the development of Fédala. The rapid growth of the city started around the port, which allowed the development of various industries such as canning fishery products, agro-industry plants, tannery, textile, etc.. The seaside town took shape in 1925 and the Esplanade was built in 1938. The construction of the sea line in 1951 made of Fédala the first and most modern oil port in North Africa. The church of Saint James (Saint Jacques), which overlooks the main square, was erected in 1934 by Jean and Georges Hersent, in memory of their son and nephew Jacques (3 February 1893 - 26 July 1917), who died at the Marne during the First World War. The town also has a school "Jacques Hersent", founded in 1929 by