Larache and the Guns of al-Mansur: Morocco's Fortress Defiance

In 1610, a Spanish fleet arrived off the coast of Morocco to seize the port of Larache. What they found was a fortress bristling with bronze cannons cast in Marrakech—guns that had been forged from the melted-down trophies of the Saadian sultan Ahmad al-Mansur's victory at Wadi al-Makhazin. This episode traces the secret story of that artillery: how al-Mansur hoarded European armaments, how his son Moulay Zaidan used them to bargain with the Spanish, and how the guns of Larache became a symbol of Moroccan sovereignty in an age of piracy and empire. We explore the Atlantic port's role in the Barbary corsair network, the Morisco engineers who maintained the cannon, and the failed Spanish siege that left the fortress intact until a later Alaouite sultan surrendered it in a treaty. Along the way, we meet the renegade Dutch captain Jan Janszoon, who raided the very coast al-Mansur's guns protected, and ponder what the guns say about power in the early modern Mediterranean. #Larache #Saadian #AhmadAlMansur #BarbaryCorsairs #MoulayZaidan #JanJanszoon #Morisco #Marrakech #BadiPalace #BronzeCannons #AtlanticFortress #SpanishSiege #MoroccanSovereignty #Alaouite #MediterraneanHistory #EarlyModern #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo