Summary

Abu Abbas Ahmed al-Mansur (أبو العباس أحمد المنصور), nicknamed Ad-Dhahbî ("the golden one" in Arabic), was the sixth sultan of the Saadian dynasty in Morocco from 1578 until his death in 1603.

Born in 1549 in Fez, he was removed at the age of 8 because of the power struggle between his father Mohammed ech-Sheikh and his uncle Ahmed al-Araj, he took refuge in Sijilmassa, then in the regency of Algiers, until his return to his brother Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik in 1574.

In 1578, he took power following the death of his brother Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik in the battle of Wadi Makhazin (known as the Battle of the Three Kings) against the Portuguese and it was after this victory that he was nicknamed al-Mansur ("the Victorious").

His fortune was such that he had the El Badi Palace built, in which the most precious materials from Europe, Asia and Africa were used. In this palace of sumptuous receptions, which followed the classical plan of the royal residences of Muslim Andalusia, the Sultan received embassies from Spain, England, France and the Ottoman Empire.

His reign corresponds to a cultural and artistic renaissance for Morocco, especially Marrakech.

On the military level, Al-Mansour is also known for having modernized the Moroccan army and for having introduced the innovations of the Ottoman military art, after his youthful exile in the regency of Algiers and then in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

Economically, large sugar cane plantations were developed in the Haouz plain. Moroccan sugar was exported mainly to the England of the last Tudors who established a trading company to trade with Morocco, the Barbary Company. This company disappeared very quickly because of the competition from the colonial plantations of Portuguese Brazil and the Caribbean.

In terms of political organization, the Saadian Sultanate did not institute a grand-vizier like the Ottoman Sublime Porte, but the "Wazir al Qalam" (Minister of the Pen), in charge of managing the state's correspondence, had an equivalent function. As for the hajib, the chamberlain, his role increased within the palace with the introduction of a sophisticated protocol of Turkish origin inspired by Topkapi.

On the administrative level, the Saadian makhzen appointed pashas and beys to head the provinces. In Fez, the country's second largest city, the Sultan was represented by a viceroy to whom he delegated important powers, the khalifa. The garrisons, made up of foreign (mostly renegades and Andalusians) and Moroccan elements, had the dual mission of enforcing order and helping the governors collect taxes.

Faced with the expansion of Spain and its new wealth (gold and silver from America flowed into Spain), the Sultan looked for another source of gold and turned to the western Nigerian Sudan, famous for its riches, which were known thanks to the pilgrimage to Mecca by the Emperor of Mali Mansa Kanga Moussa in the 13th century and that of the Emperor of Gao at the beginning of the 16th century. Al-Mansour carefully prepared the conquest and in October 1590, under the command of Djouder, a converted Spanish eunuch, he launched 10,000 men, accompanied by horses, camels and especially cannons, to attack the empire of Gao.

By organizing this expedition against the Songhaï, the Sultan of Marrakech hoped to control the Teghazza salt mines, take possession of the Sudan's gold reserves, and perhaps remove from his capital the overly influential leaders of his mercenary army, composed of Andalusians and European renegades. The Andalusians or Moriscos are the descendants of Arabs and Berbers who participated in the conquest of Spain in the eighth century, or of Hispanics who were Islamized at that time, and who left the Iberian Peninsula after the fall of the Nasrid Granada Sultanate in 1492. The renegades, of various origins (Italians, Greeks, Armenians, French, English, Spaniards), were captives sold to the sultan by the barbarian pirates or adventurers attracted by the prospect of making a fortune; all of them were converted to Islam.

The Songhai Empire was at its peak and extended from Senegal to the Aïr (the Tuaregs paid tribute) under the Askias dynasty (from the Songhai A si ki ya: literally "He will not be that one").

After two months of crossing the Sahara, the Moroccan army reached the Niger River near Timbuktu in April 1591. The Moroccans and the Songhaï met on the banks of the river between Timbuktu and Gao in the battle of Tondibi. The victorious Djouder received a peace proposal which was immediately refused by the Sultan who demanded gold. The Moroccan army looted everything it could find and sent it to Morocco (there was talk of one to ¹⁄₂ tons of gold). Countless governors rule over what has become the pashalik of Moroccan Sudan and occupy the entire middle Niger valley (with several assassinations) in the name of Marrakech for 80 years. The religious authority of the Saadian caliphate was then recognized as far as Chad by the kingdom of Kanem-Bornou through its sovereign, Mai Idrīs Alaoma. The Songhai civilization gradually declined and West Africa was severely penalized. In Morocco, some ulemas were outraged to see Al-Mansour organize an expedition against an already Islamicized region, while others saw in it the rebirth of the universal caliphate.

Several of Askia's sons took up the torch, but only one, Askia Nouhou, resisted by choosing to go into exile in Dendi, further south. His descendants maintained the resistance and a semblance of statehood for half a century.

Moroccan control over the Niger loop became increasingly loose or even non-existent until the fall of the Saadian dynasty and its replacement by the Alawite dynasty (see Nabil Mouline's book on the "imaginary caliphate" of Sultan Ahmed "the Victorious" ("El-Mansour") and "the Golden" ("Ed-Dahabi"): Contrary to what is believed, Al-Mansour already had the nickname of Ad-Dahabi (the Golden One) because of the ransoms he received for the liberation of Portuguese nobles captured during the Battle of the Three Kings and not because of the gold he received from this expedition.

He gave his name to the lake of the dam El Mansour Eddahbi built in 1960 near Ouarzazate.

The famous Moroccan nursery rhyme A Jrada Malha is actually inspired by the pregnancy conditions of Ahmed el-Mansour's mother (Lalla Mesaouda) while she was pregnant with him.

In video games, Sultan Ahmed al-Mansour is one of the playable leaders in the strategy game Civilization V: Brave New World.

Sources

1. Ahmad al-Mansur
2. Ahmed al-Mansour
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