Art. X.—Account of an Embassy from Marocco to Spain in 1690 and 1691

Extract

The following notes are taken from an account of his journey to Spain, written by an Ambassador of Muley Ismail, a copy of which is preserved in a library at Lisbon: the MS. ends abruptly, and does not contain the author's name. From the narrative it appears that the Ambassador came to treat of the exchange of prisoners, and to ask for some of the Arabic works preserved at the Escurial: he appears, however, to have imagined that these were remnants of the libraries of Cordoba, whereas they proceeded from the library of a former Emperor of Marocco, which was captured at sea whilst being transported from one port to another. The Ambassador was told that the books had been destroyed by the fire which took place about twenty years before in the Escurial, where, in fact, the greater part of the Sultan's library was burned; but about two thousand were saved, of which nothing was said to the Ambassador, and these form the actual collection of Arabic works preserved in the Escurial. M. Chenier, in his Histoire du Maroc (Paris, 1787), states that Muley Ismail took L'Arrash from the Spaniards in 1689, and that the Spanish garrison of that place was exchanged at the rate of ten Moors for each Christian: he also states that, in 1681, Hajy Themim, Governor of Tetuan, and Cassem Menino, brother of the Governor of Sallee, went to Paris in the end of December as Ambassadors, so that it is possible one of these was also employed in this Embassy ten years later.