Ahmad al-Mansur

Timeline

1. 1581–1585Marrakesh · MarrakeshAfter the great victory at Alcácer Quibir, al-Mansur used ransom and trade revenues to build extensively, expanding the Marrakesh palaces and irrigation systems, and strengthened control over the southern Sus and Tafilalt oases, making Morocco the strongest power in the late-16th-century Maghreb.
2. 1586–1590Marrakesh · MarrakeshIn the late 1580s, exploiting the Songhai Empire's internal strife, al-Mansur planned an expedition on salt-and-gold trade and religious pretexts. In 1590 he formally dispatched Judar with a gunpowder force across the Sahara, aiming at Timbuktu and Gao, intending to bring West African gold into Morocco's fiscal system.