<P> The current Berber name of Melilla is Mřič or Mlilt, which means the "white one". Melilla was an ancient Berber village and a Phoenician and later Punic trade establishment under the name of Rusadir (Rusaddir for the Romans and Russadeiron (Ancient Greek: Ῥυσσάδειρον) for the Greeks). Later it became a part of the Roman province of Mauretania Tingitana . Rusaddir is mentioned by Ptolemy (IV, 1) and Pliny (V, 18) who call it "oppidum et portus", also cited by Mela (I, 33) as Rusicada, and by the Itinerarium Antonini . Rusaddir was supposed to have once been the seat of a bishop, but there is no record of any bishop of the supposed see, which is not included in the Catholic Church's list of titular sees . As centuries passed, it went through Vandal, Byzantine and Hispano - Visigothic hands . The political history is similar to that of towns in the region of the Moroccan Rif and southern Spain . Local rule passed through Amazigh, Phoenician, Punic, Roman, Umayyad, Idrisid, Almoravid, Almohad, Marinid, and then Wattasid rulers . During the Middle Ages, it was the Berber city of Mlila . It was part of the Kingdom of Fez when the Catholic Monarchs, Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon requested Juan Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán, 3rd Duke of Medina Sidonia, to take the city . </P> <P> In the Conquest of Melilla, the duke sent Pedro Estopiñán, who conquered the city virtually without a fight in 1497, a few years after Castile had taken control of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, the last remnant of Al - Andalus, in 1492 . Melilla was immediately threatened with reconquest and was besieged during 1694--1696 and 1774--1775 . One Spanish officer reflected, "an hour in Melilla, from the point of view of merit, was worth more than thirty years of service to Spain ." </P> <P> The current limits of the Spanish territory around the fortress were fixed by treaties with Morocco in 1859, 1860, 1861, and 1894 . In the late 19th century, as Spanish influence expanded, Melilla became the only authorized centre of trade on the Rif coast between Tetuan and the Algerian frontier . The value of trade increased, goat skins, eggs and beeswax being the principal exports, and cotton goods, tea, sugar and candles being the chief imports . </P> <P> In 1893, the Rif Berbers launched the First Melillan campaign and 25,000 Spanish soldiers had to be dispatched against them . The conflict was also known as the Margallo War, after the Governor of Melilla and Spanish General Juan García y Margallo, who was killed in the battle . </P>

Two spanish cities on the north coast of africa