Ahmad al-Mansur

Ahmad al-Mansur (1549-1603) was Sultan of Morocco from 1578 to 1603, ruler of the Saadi dynasty at the height of its power. He came to the throne in the aftermath of the Battle of Alcazarquivir in 1578, a major victory over an invading Portuguese army in which the Portuguese king was killed, a triumph that secured Moroccan independence from European conquest for centuries. In 1591 he sent an army equipped with firearms across the Sahara to invade the Songhai Empire, defeating it despite the vast distance and effectively ending Songhai as a major regional power, though Moroccan control over the conquered territory proved difficult to sustain. His reign brought Morocco substantial wealth from control of trans-Saharan trade routes, particularly in gold, earning him the epithet al-Dhahabi, 'the Golden.'