Ahmad al-Mansur
Ahmad al - Mansur (Arabic: أبو العباس أحمد المنصور, Abū al - ʿ Abbās DMG Aḥmad al - Mansur, † 1603) was the fifth sultan of the Saadi in Morocco ( 1578-1603 ).
By Abu Marwan Abd al -Malik Ahmad al - Mansur had to flee in 1557 to the Ottomans to Istanbul, as they were inferior in the power struggles Abdallah al - Galib. Ahmad al - Mansur came into Ottoman service and was able to return to Morocco with the help of 1576. First, his brother Abu Marwan Abd al -Malik ruled (1576-1578) but began this Ahmad al- Mansur as governor in Fes. As the fallen Abu Abdallah in 1578 with the help of the Portuguese again wanted to seize power, the Portuguese army was routed on August 4, 1578 at Qasr al - Kabir under the command of Ahmad al - Mansur in northern Morocco. Since Abu Abdallah Abu Marwan fell and Abd al- Malik died of an illness, Ahmad al - Mansur became the new rulers.
Ahmad al - Mansur first recognized the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire to stop the attacks of Turkish corsairs of the Moroccan coast. He started to build up a strong army of Turks, Kabyles and Moors, reorganized the administration and reorganized the government finances. To promote the economy he built from the trade relations with Europe, where England was preferred.
In order to derive the profits derived from the trans-Saharan trade, the salt mines of Taghaza in the Sahara were brought under control Morocco already 1584. Later, even a campaign was undertaken by the Sahara to smash the Songhai calibration and the cities of Timbuktu and Gao on the Niger River to conquer ( 1590-1591 ). Although passed through the successful campaign big booty to Morocco, but it was through the destruction of the Songhai eich of trade in the Western Sahara rather disturbed. By shifting the trans-Saharan trade to Tunis and Tripoli, the trade between Morocco and the Sudan was significantly impaired.
In addition to the promotion of science and culture, there was a strong construction activity under Ahmad al - Mansur. For example, the fortress Taza were built and extended the fortifications of Fes. The Qasr al - Badi, Marrakech should have built architect from Florence. Among the most important scholars at the court of Ahmad al- Mansur among the biographer and panegyrists Shihab ad -Din Ibn al -Qadi (d. 1616), the writer Abd al - Azeez al - Fīschtālī (d. 1631-2 ), who is also the head of administration and court historian acted, and the religious scholars Muhammad ibn al - Qāsim Qassar (d. 1604), who worked as a Mufti and Khatib at the Qaraouyin Mosque in Fes. All three of them celebrated Ahmad al- Mansur in their writings as caliph and Mudschaddid.
Ahmad al - Mansur died in 1603 during a plague epidemic. Lack succession plan now broke out serious infighting among the Saadiern, which led to a split in the lines of the dynasty of Fes and Marrakech. This weakening of the dynasty led to anarchy in the country, which paved the rise of Dila brotherhood and the Alawites the way.