Ahmad al-Mansur

Abu al-Abbas Ahmad al-Mansur أبو العباس أحمد المنصور
Amir al-Muminin
Saadi Dynasty
Father	Mohammed al-Shaykh
Mother	Lalla Masuda al-Wizkitiya
Religion	Sunni Islam
Signature

Ahmad al-Mansur (

Al-Mansur began his reign by leveraging his dominant position with the vanquished Portuguese during prisoner ransom talks, the collection of which filled the Moroccan royal coffers. Shortly after, he commissioned the great architectural symbol of this new birth of Moroccan power, the El Badi Palace in Marrakesh, a huge and lavish riad-style palace which he used to receive ambassadors and to host celebrations.^[12][13] Construction began in December 1578 and was only finished in 1593 or 1594.^[12][14]

Eventually the coffers began to run dry due to the great expense of supporting the military, extensive spy services, the palace and other urban building projects, a royal lifestyle and a propaganda campaign aimed at building support for his controversial claim to the Caliphate.^{[15][page needed]}

Relations with Europe

Morocco's standing with the Christian states was still in flux. The Spaniards and the Portuguese were seen as the

Al-Mansur developed friendly relations with

Al-Mansur also wrote about reconquering al-Andalus for Islam back from the Christian Spanish.^[16] In a letter of 1 May 1601 he wrote that he also had ambitions to colonize the New World and settle it with Moroccans.^[16] He envisioned that Islam would prevail in the Americas and the Mahdi would be proclaimed from the two sides of the oceans.^[16]

Al-Mansur had French physicians at his court. Arnoult de Lisle was physician to the sultan from 1588 to 1598. He was then succeeded by Étienne Hubert d'Orléans from 1598 to 1600. Both in turn returned to France to become professors of Arabic at the Collège de France, and continued with their diplomatic endeavours.^[17]

Relations with Ottoman Empire

Al-Mansur had ambivalent relations with the Ottoman Empire. At the very start of his reign he formally recognized the suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan, as Abd al-Malik had done, while still remaining independent in practice.^[18]: 190 However he quickly alienated the Ottoman sultan when he favorably received the Spanish embassy in 1579, who brought him lavish gifts, and then reportedly trampled the symbol of Ottoman suzerainty before a Spanish embassy in 1581. He also suspected that the Ottomans were involved in the first rebellions against him in his early reign. As a result, he minted coins in his own name and had Friday prayers and the khutba delivered in his name instead of in the name of Murad III, the Ottoman sultan.^{[18]: 189 [19]: 63}

In response to the removal of his name from Friday prayers, Murad III began preparations for an attack on Morocco. After getting word of this, al-Mansur rushed to send an ambassador to Istanbul with sizeable gifts and the attack was cancelled. He paid a tribute of over 100,000 gold coins, agreed to show respect to the Ottoman sultan and in return he was left alone.^{[15][19]: 64} The embassy nearly failed to reach Istanbul due to the opposition of Uluç (later known as Kılıç Ali Paşa), the Ottoman Grand Admiral in Algiers who hoped to have Morocco invaded and incorporated into Ottoman Algeria's sphere of influence.^{[20][19]: 64}

In 1582, al-Mansur was also forced to agree to a special Ottoman “protection” over Morocco and to pay a certain tribute in order to stop the attacks from Algerian corsairs on the Moroccan coast and on Moroccan ships.^[21] In 1583, the Saadian and Ottoman sultans even tentatively discussed a joint military operation against the Spanish in Oran.^[20] Al-Mansur enjoyed peaceful relations with the Ottoman Empire afterwards and respected its sovereignty, but also played the Ottomans and European powers against each other^[22] and issued propaganda that undermined the Ottoman sultan's claim as leader of all Muslims.^[19]: 65 He continued to send a payment to Istanbul every year, which the Saadians interpreted as a "gift" to the Ottomans while the Ottomans considered it a "tribute".^{[23][24]: 102 [19]: 65}

In 1587 Uluç died and a change in the Ottoman administration in Algiers limited the power of its governors. After this, tensions between the two states further decreased, while the Saadian government further stabilized and its independence became more entrenched.^[25] Al-Mansur even felt confident enough after 1587 to drop his regular payments to Murad III.^[26]: 196 Despite the limits of his power, he officially proclaimed himself caliph in the later part of his reign, seeing himself as rival, rather than subordinate, of the Ottomans, and even as the rightful leader of the Muslim world.^{[25][18]: 189 [19]: 63}

Conquests

Annexation of Saharan oases

In 1583 after the dispatch of al-Mansur led by the commander Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Baraka and Abu Al-Abbas Ahmed Ibn Al-Haddad Al-Omari. The march of the army began from Marrakesh, and they arrived after 70 days, where they initially called for obedience and warning, after the tribal elders refused to comply, the war began.^{[27][28][29][30]} The annexed territories contained Tuat, Jouda, Tamantit, Tabelbala, Ourgla, Tsabit, Tekorareen, and others.^[31]

Annexation of Chinguetti

The Saadians repeatedly tried to control Chinguetti, and the most prominent attempts were made during the reign of Sultan Muhammad al-Shaykh, but control of it did not come until the reign of Ahmed al-Mansur, who stripped a campaign in 1584 led by Muhammad bin Salem^[32] in which he managed to seize control of Chinguetti, modern day Mauritania.^[32]

Songhai campaign

Ahmad al-Mansur died in 1603 and was succeeded by his son

Through astute diplomacy al-Mansur resisted the demands of the Ottoman sultan, to preserve Moroccan independence. By playing the Europeans and Ottomans against one another, al-Mansur excelled in the art of the balancing of power through diplomacy. Eventually he spent far more than he collected in revenue. He attempted to expand his holdings through conquest, and although initially successful in their military campaign against the Songhai Empire, the Moroccans found it increasingly difficult to maintain control over the conquered locals as time went on. Meanwhile, as the Moroccans continued to struggle in Songhai, their power and prestige on the world stage declined significantly.^[15]

Al-Mansur was one of the first authorities to take action on smoking in 1602 towards the end of his reign. The ruler of the

• He is featured as the playable leader of the Moroccan civilization in the 2013 computer strategy game Civilization V: Brave New World

References