1. Ahmad al-Mansur was an important figure in both Europe and Africa in the sixteenth century.
15 Facts About Ahmad al-Mansur
1. 2.
Ahmad al-Mansur was named his brother's successor and began his reign amid newly won prestige and wealth from the ransom of Portuguese captives.
3.
The Spaniards and the Portuguese were seen as the infidel, but Ahmad al-Mansur knew that the only way his sultanate would thrive was to continue to benefit from alliances with other Christian economies.
4.
Accordingly, Ahmad al-Mansur was drawn irresistibly to the trans-Saharan gold trade of the Songhai in hopes of solving Morocco's economic deficit with Europe.
5.
Ahmad al-Mansur envisioned that Islam would prevail in the Americas and the Mahdi would be proclaimed from the two sides of the oceans.
6.
Ahmad al-Mansur was then succeeded by Etienne Hubert d'Orleans from 1598 to 1600.
7.
Ahmad al-Mansur suspected that the Ottomans were involved in the first rebellions against him in his early reign.
8.
Ahmad al-Mansur paid a tribute of over 100,000 gold coins, agreed to show respect to the Ottoman sultan and in return he was left alone.
9.
Ahmad al-Mansur 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".
10.
In 1583 after the dispatch of Ahmad al-Mansur led by the commander Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Baraka and Abu Al-Abbas Ahmed Ibn Al-Haddad Al-Omari.
11.
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 Ahmad al-Mansur, who stripped a campaign in 1584 led by Muhammad bin Salem in which he managed to seize control of Chinguetti, modern day Mauritania.
12.
Ahmad al-Mansur advanced, sacking the Songhai cities of Timbuktu and Djenne, as well as the capital Gao.
13.
Ahmad al-Mansur died in 1603 and was succeeded by his son Zidan al-Nasir, who was based in Marrakech, and by Abou Fares Abdallah, who was based in Fez who had only local power.
14.
Ahmad al-Mansur was buried in the mausoleum of the Saadian Tombs in Marrakech.
15.
Ahmad al-Mansur 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.