Ahmad I al-Mansur (Arabic: أحمد المنصور السعدي‎, also El-Mansour Eddahbi [the Golden], Arabic: أحمد المنصور الذهبي‎; and Ahmed el-Mansour) (1549 in Fes^[1] - 25 August 1603, outskirts of Fes^[2][3]) was Sultan of the Saadi dynasty from 1578 to his death in 1603, the sixth and most famous of all rulers of the Saadis. He was the third son of Mohammed ash-Sheikh who became sultan of Morocco.

In 1578, Ahmad's brother, Sultan Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik I Saadi, died in battle against the Portuguese army at the Ksar el Kebir. Ahmad was named his brother's successor and began his reign amid newly-won prestige and wealth from the ransom of Portuguese captives.

In 1600 Ahmad al-Mansur sent his Secretary Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud (here depicted) as ambassador of the Barbary States to the Court of Queen Elizabeth I of England to negotiate an alliance against Spain.

On October 16, 1590, Ahmad took advantage of recent civil strife in the Songhai Empire and dispatched an army of 4,000 men across the Sahara desert under the command of converted Spaniard Judar Pasha. Though the Songhai met them at the Battle of Tondibi with a force of 40,000, they lacked the maghrebian's gunpowder weapons and quickly fled. Ahmad advanced, sacking the Songhai cities of Timbuktu and Djenné, as well as the capital Gao. Despite these initial successes, the logistics of controlling a territory across the Sahara soon grew too difficult, and the Saadians lost control of the cities not long after 1603.

Ahmad al-Mansur developed friendly relations with England in view of an Anglo-Moroccan alliance. In 1600 he sent his Secretary Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud (here depicted) as ambassador of the Barbary States to the Court of Queen Elizabeth I of England to negotiate an alliance against Spain.

Ahmad al-Mansur died of the plague in 1603 and was succeeded by Zidan Abu Maali, who was based in Marrakech, and by Abou Fares Abdallah, who was based in Fes and had only local power. He was buried in the mausoleum of the Saadian Tombs in Marrakech. In that city is also his El Badi Palace. Well known writers at his court were Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari, Abd al-Aziz al-Fishtali, Ahmad Ibn al-Qadi and Al-Masfiwi.

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Davidson, Basil (1995). Africa in History. Simon & Schuster. 
• Mouline, Nabil (2009). Le califat imaginaire d'Ahmad al-Mansûr. Presses Universitaires de France. 
• Smith, Richard L. (2006). Ahmad al-Mansur: Islamic Visionary. Prentice Hall. 
• Velton, Ross (2000). Mali: The Bradt Travel Guide. Globe Pequot Press.