Exile To The Ottoman Empire (1557-75)
Abd al-Malik spent 17 years among the Ottomans with his brothers, most of the time in Algeria, benefiting from Ottoman training and contacts with Ottoman culture. Abdelmoumen was named governor of the city of Tlemcen by the ruler of the Regency of Algiers, Hasan Pasha, but he would die assassinated in 1571.
Abd al-Malik visited Constantinople on several occasions. He went to the Ottoman capital in July 1571, and then participated together with his brother al-Mansur to the Battle of Lepanto on the Ottoman side on 7 October 1571. He was captured, and brought to Spain to encounter the Spanish king Philip II. The Spanish king decided, upon the advice of Andrea Gasparo Corso, to hold him captive in the Spanish possession of Oran, in order to use him when the opportunity arose. Abd al-Malik however managed to escape from Oran in 1573 and rejoined the Ottoman Empire.
In January 1574, while in Constantinople, he was saved from an epidemic by French physician Guillaume Bérard. They later became friends due to this event. When Abd al-Malik became Sultan, he asked Henry III of France that Guillaume Bérard be appointed Consul of France in Morocco.
In 1574, Abd al-Malik participated to the Conquest of Tunis (1574) on the side of the Ottomans. Following this success, he again visited Constantinople, and obtained from the new Ottoman ruler Murad III an agreement to help him militarily to regain the Moroccan throne.
Read more about this topic: Abu Marwan Abd Al-Malik I Saadi
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