Morocco's Cannon Foundry: The Guns of Marrakech

In the 16th century, as the Saadian sultan Ahmad al-Mansur dreamed of an empire that could rival the Ottomans, he turned to an unlikely source of military technology: European renegades and captured brass cannons. This episode dives into the brass foundry of Marrakech, where Portuguese prisoners and Andalusian refugees cast the artillery that would shatter the Songhai Empire at Tondibi. We explore the foundry's location near the Koutoubia mosque, the blend of European and Islamic metallurgy, and the guns that made Morocco a brief gunpowder superpower. Along the way, we meet the mysterious figure of Ahmad al-Inglizi, the English renegade who may have overseen the foundry, and trace the journey of the cannons from the foundry to the Saadian tombs. It's a story of technology, empire, and the global arms trade that shaped early modern North Africa.

#Morocco #Saadian #AhmadalMansur #Marrakech #CannonFoundry #GunpowderEmpire #Tondibi #SonghaiEmpire #AhmadalInglizi #PortugueseRenegades #Metallurgy #Koutoubia #Artillery #SixteenthCentury #NorthAfrica #History #FexingoHistory #MilitaryHistory

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