The Moroccan Ambassador

[JesusA (imported)]

Beginning with the fears of Queen Elizabeth I that the husband of her half-sister Mary, King Philip II of Spain, had designs on England and with the concerns of the Sultan of Morocco, Ahmad al-Mansur, over the Spanish encroachments into his territory, the two monarchs began a series of trade missions and exchange of ambassadors.

In addition to various luxury goods that were traded, the English were anxious to obtain Moroccan saltpeter to manufacture gunpowder and the Moroccans sought stout English oak timbers to construct warships. For example, Elizabeth gave permission in 1581 for the felling of 600 tons of first-class timber in Sussex and Hampshire for export to Morocco. English shipwrights were also dispatched to Morocco to oversee the construction of the warships.

In 1637, Jawdhar ibn ‘Abd Allah arrived in London as Moroccan ambassador to the court of King Charles I. His arrival attracted enormous attention, leading even to the publication of a booklet celebrating the event: The arrivall and intertainments of the Embassador Alkaid Jaurar ben Abdalla. Included was an engraved portrait of the ambassador, who was from the Coimbra region of Portugal. Captured and castrated when he was eight years old, he rose to become a trusted advisor of Moulay Muhammad, the first sultan of the ‘Alawi Dynasty that still rules Morocco. Fluent in Arabic, English and Spanish, as well as his native Portuguese, he was an able diplomat.

He entered London with great ceremony, traveling by barge from Greenwich to the Tower of London, “where they were attended by thousands and tens of thousands of spectators.” Riding in the king’s own coach, he was attended by “at least 100 coaches more, and the chiefest of the citizens and Barbary merchants bravely mounted on horseback all richly appareled, every man having a chain of gold about him: with the Sheriffs and Aldermen of London in their scarlet gownes with such abundance of torches and links, that though it were night, yet the streetes were almost as light as day.”

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The full title of the booklet is:

The arrivall and intertainements of the embassador, Alkaid Jaurar Ben Abdella, with his associate, Mr. Robert Blake : From the High and Mighty Prince, Mulley Mahamed Sheque, Emperor of Morocco, King of Fesse, and Suss. With the ambassadors good and applauded commendations of his royall and noble entertainments in the court and the city. Also a discription of some rites, customes, and lawes of those Affrican nations. Likewise Gods exceeding mercy, and our Kings especiall grace and favour manifested in the happy redemption of three hundred and two of his Majesties poore subjects, who had beene long in miserable slavery at Salley in Barbary. London : Printed by I. Okes dwelling in little Saint Bartholmewes, 1637.