This paper will explore the ways in which Moroccan nationalist writers used the history of al-Andalus (medieval Muslim Iberia) as a framework for understanding Spanish colonialism in Morocco. During the colonial period, Spanish writers and intellectuals revived the historical memory of al-Andalus in order to legitimize Spain’s historical connection to North Africa and to justify Spain’s colonial projects in Morocco. Toward the end of the Protectorate period, Moroccan nationalists, such as Muhammad Dawud and al-Tuhami al-Wazzani, appropriated the Spanish celebration of al-Andalus and re-purposed it as a tool for anti-colonial resistance. Thus, I will be arguing that, during the colonial period, recourse to the historical memory of al-Andalus served simultaneously as a tool for Spanish colonial self-justification and as the banner cry for Moroccan nationalism and anti-colonial resistance. My paper will explore the origins of Moroccan nationalist discourse through two related Mediterranean lenses. It will address the complex interplay between Spanish colonial discourse and Moroccan nationalist discourse, but it will also show how modern Moroccan representations of al-Andalus were in implicit dialogue with modern Mashriqi representations of al-Andalus – and, in particular, with Shakib Arslan’s writings about al-Andalus.