Ahmad al-Mansur

Ahmad al-Mansur, fictional portrait (17th century)

Ahmad al-Mansūr ( Arabic أبو العباس أحمد المنصور, DMG Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad al-Manṣūr ; † 1603 ) was the fifth sultan of the Saadian dynasty in Morocco from 1578 until his death .

Life

As they were defeated in the power and throne struggles against Abdallah al-Galib (r. 1557-1574), Ahmad al-Mansur had to flee to the Ottomans in Istanbul in 1557 together with his brother Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik . He entered the Ottoman service and was able to return to Morocco with their help in 1576. There ruled the weak Abu Abdallah (ruled 1574–1576), who however could be defeated by Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik (ruled 1576–1578); this set Ahmad al-Mansur as governor in Fez . When the overthrown Abu Abdallah wanted to regain power with the help of the Portuguese in 1578 , the Portuguese army under the young King Sebastian was defeated on August 4, 1578 in the " Battle of the Three Kings " at Ksar el Kebir under the command of Ahmad al -Mansur defeated in northern Morocco. When Abu Abdallah fell and Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik succumbed to illness, Ahmad al-Mansur became the new ruler.

Ahmad al-Mansur first recognized the suzerainty of the Ottomans in order to end the attacks by Turkish corsairs on the Moroccan coast. He began building a strong army of Turks , Kabyle and Moriscus , reorganized the administration and restructured the state finances. To promote the economy, he developed trade relations with Europe , with England being preferred.

In order to be able to draw profits from the trans-Saharan trade , the Taghaza salt mines in the Sahara were brought under Moroccan control as early as 1584 . Later, even a campaign was undertaken through the Sahara to the Songhai Empire to smash, and the cities of Timbuktu and Gao on the Niger to conquer (1590-1591). Although the successful campaign brought large booty to Morocco, trade in the western Sahara was rather disrupted by the smashing of the Songha Empire. With the relocation of the Trans-Saharan trade to Tunis and Tripoli , trade between Morocco and Sudan was severely affected.

Buildings and culture

The central courtyard and the buildings of the El Badi Palace in Marrakech, built under Ahmad al-Mansur, were later cannibalized by Mulai Ismail to build his new royal city of Meknes .

In addition to the promotion of science and culture, there was a lot of construction activity under Ahmad al-Mansur - for example, the Taza fortress was expanded and the European-looking fortresses Borj Nord and Borj Sud von Fès were expanded. The Qasr al-Badi in Marrakech architects are from Florence have built.

Among the most important scholars at the court of Ahmad al-Mansūrs were the biographer and panegyric Shihāb ad-Dīn Ibn al-Qādī († 1616), the writer Abd al-Azīz al-Fīschtālī († 1631/32), who was also head of the chancellery and court historiographer acted, and the religious scholar Muhammad ibn Qāsim al-Qassār († 1604), who worked as Mufti and Chatib at the Qarawiyīn Mosque in Fez . All three celebrated Ahmad al-Mansur in their writings as caliph and mujaddid .

Death and succession

Ahmad al-Mansur died in 1603 during a plague epidemic . In the absence of a succession plan, severe power struggles broke out among the Saadians, which led to a split in the dynasty into the lines of Fez and Marrakech. This weakening of the dynasty led to anarchy in the country that paved the way for the rise of the Dila Brotherhood and the Alawids .

literature

Arabic sources

• Aḥmad Ibn-Muḥammad al-Maqqarī: Rauḍat al-ās al-ʿāṭirat al-anfās fī ḏikr man laqītuhū min aʿlām al-ḥaḍratain Marrākuš wa-Fās . Ed. Muḥammad Sālim Hāšim. Beirut 2012.

Studies

• Mercedes García-Arenal: Ahmad al-Mansur: the beginnings of modern Morocco . Oxford 2009.
• E. Lévi-Provençal : Art. "Aḥmad al-Manṣūr" in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition Vol. I, pp. 288b-289a.
• Nabil Mouline : "L'idéologie califale du sultan Aḥmad al-Manṣûr al-Dhahabî (1578-1603)" in Studia Islamica 102/103 (2006) 91-156.
• Nabil Mouline: Le califat imaginaire d'Ahmad al-Mansûr: pouvoir et diplomatie au Maroc au XVIe siècle . Paris 2009.
• Stephan Ronart, Nandy Ronart: Lexicon of the Arab World. A historical-political reference work. Artemis Verlag, Zurich et al. 1972, ISBN 3-7608-0138-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cf. Mouline 2006, 148f and ʿAbdallāh ibn Muḥammad al-Fāsī: al-Iʿlām bi-man ġabara min ahl al-qarn al-ḥādī ʿašar. Ed. Fāṭima Nāfiʿ. Beirut 2008. pp. 43, 49.