عبد الملك المعتصم بالله السعدي

عبد الملك المعتصم بالله السعدي

4 اگست 1578 عیسوی · 30 جمادی الثانی 986 ھ

The Sa'di sultan who had fled to the Porte; the Ottomans armed him with five thousand well-equipped fighters to take Fez from his nephew al-Mutawakkil, then sent trainers, weapons and a corps against the Portuguese invasion. His reforms: renewed shipbuilding, maritime trade, a modern army on the Ottoman model of arms and ranks, strengthened diwans and a consultative body versed in home and foreign affairs — his brother Ahmad al-Mansur his right hand. He won the awe of his age even among Europeans; the contemporary French poet Agrippa d'Aubigné called him his people's fairest, sharp of mind, versed in Spanish, Italian, Armenian and Russian, an excellent Arabic poet. At Wadi al-Makhazin he cut the enemy from his fleet, blew the bridge, and repelled the first charge sword drawn though ill — 'since when does sickness bar Muslims from jihad?' — then died in his tent, finger to his lips: conceal it until victory ¹.