Ahmad I al-Mansur (also Ahmed el-Mansour and El-Mansour Eddahbi (the guilded)) (Arabic: أحمد المنصور السعدي) was Sultan of Saadi dynasty from 1578 to his death in 1603, the sixth and most famous of all rulers of the Saadis. He was the third son of Mohammed ash-Sheikh who became sultan of Morocco.

In 1578, Ahmad's brother, Sultan Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik I Saadi, died in battle against the Portuguese army at Ksar el Kebir. Ahmad was named his brother's successor and began his reign amid newly-won prestige and wealth from the ransom of Portuguese captives.

On October 16, 1590, Ahmad took advantage of recent civil strife in the Songhai Empire and dispatched an army of 4,000 men across the Sahara desert under the command of converted Spaniard Judar Pasha. Though the Songhai met them at the Battle of Tondibi with a force of 40,000, they lacked the maghrebian's gunpowder weapons and quickly fled. Ahmad advanced, sacking the Songhai cities of Timbuktu and Djenné, as well as the capital Gao. Despite these initial successes, the logistics of controlling a territory across the Sahara soon grew too difficult, and the Saadians lost control of the cities not long after Ahmad al-Mansur's death in 1603. He was buried in the mausoleum of the Saadian Tombs in Marrakech . In that city is also his El Badi Palace.

Ahmad al-Mansur was succeeded by Zidan Abu Maali who was based in Marrakech and by Abou Fares Abdallah who was based in Fes and had only local power.

References

• Davidson, Basil. Africa in History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
• Velton, Ross. Mali: The Bradt Travel Guide. Guilford, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press, 2000.

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