The Circulation of Foreign News and the Construction of Imperial Ideals: The Spanish Translators of Aḥmad al-Manṣūr

• Main Author: Claire Gilbert
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidad de Navarra 2015-12-01
• Series: Memoria y Civilización
• Subjects: morocco; spain, england; aḥmad al-manṣūr; philip ii; elizabeth i; early modern diplomacy; empire; translation; news; ‘abd al-azīz al-fashtālī; aḥmad ibn qāsim al-ḥajarī; diego marín; alonso del castillo
• Online Access: https://www.unav.edu/publicaciones/revistas/index.php/myc/article/view/3016

During the reign of Aḥmad al-Manṣūr (1578-1603), a good deal of news and information about European political and religious affairs circulated in Morocco and was used in official discourses generated in the Moroccan court. This information was transmitted in part by a range of European agents from Spain, Portugal, England, France, and the Netherlands, but the key figure in its reception and use in the Moroccan court was the Spanish translator, who worked alongside al-Manṣūr’s secretaries and other chancellery officials. Foreign news, as relayed by the Spanish translator, was adapted into different royal discourses and was used along with other strategies of representation to reinforce al-Manṣūr’s claims to sovereign and imperial legitimacy before Muslim and Christian audiences