ABSTRACT
In 1603, Aḥmad al-Manṣūr, sultan of Morocco from 1578 until that year, wrote to Elizabeth I of England (r. 1558-1603) outlining preparations for a joint AngloMoroccan attack on the Spanish possessions in the New World. His plan was a response to an initial English suggestion that such an attack would be more effective than a direct attack on Spain itself, which had been the subject of previous discussions with the Moroccans. Al-Manṣūr af rmed that he was willing to fund the expedition – something well within his capacity as the recent conqueror of the Songhay Empire in West Africa, which brought such wealth to the sultan that he is known to history as al-Dhahabī, ‘the golden’ – but he had requested a suitably well-armed English ship in which to transport the treasure.1
