Ahmad ibn Qāsim Al-Hajarī () also known as Al-Hajari, Afoukay, Chihab, Afokai () or Afoqai () (c.1570,

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

–c.1640,

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

), was a Muslim

Morisco ''Moriscos'' (, ; ; "Moorish") were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Catholic Church and Habsburg Spain commanded to forcibly convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed Islam. Spain had a sizeable Mus ...

who worked as a translator in Morocco during the reigns of the Saadi sultans,

Ahmad al-Mansur Ahmad al-Mansur (; 1549 – 25 August 1603), also known by the nickname al-Dhahabī () was the Saadi Sultanate, Saadi Sultan of Morocco from 1578 to his death in 1603, the sixth and most famous of all rulers of the Saadis. Ahmad al-Mansur was an ...

Zidan Abu Maali Zidan Abu Maali () (died September 1627; or Muley Zidan) was the embattled Saadi Sultan of Morocco from 1603 to 1627. He was the son and heir of Ahmad al-Mansur by his wife Lalla Aisha bint Abu Bakkar, a lady of the Chebanate tribe. He ruled on ...

Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik II Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik II ibn Zidan (), also known as Abd el-Malik II (? – 10 March 1631) was the Sultan of Morocco from 1627 to 1631. Life After the expeditions of Isaac de Razilly to Morocco, he signed a Franco-Moroccan Treaty (1631), Fr ...

and Al Walid ibn Zidan. Abdulfattah Al-Hjamri
المغرب والغرب-Morocco and the West
Retrieved 2005-March-10 He was later sent as an envoy by Sultan

of Morocco who sent him to France and Netherlands to negotiate the release of some Moriscos who were captured by privateers and thrown on the shores of the mentioned countries.

Early life

Al-Hajari fled

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

for

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

in 1599, following the persecutions of the Moriscos.

France (1610–11)

In 1610-11, the ruler of Morocco Mulay Zidan sent Al-Hajari to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in order to obtain redress on the subject of the

Moriscos ''Moriscos'' (, ; ; " Moorish") were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Catholic Church and Habsburg Spain commanded to forcibly convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed Islam. Spain had a sizeable M ...

.''The mirror of Spain, 1500-1700: the formation of a myth'' by J. N. Hillgarth p.210''ff''
/ref> He was involved in arms smuggling while in southern France, and visited

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

. The reason for the visit to France seems to have been that some French corsairs, falsely offering a transit to Morocco to the Moriscos being expulsed from Spain after 1609, had instead captured them and their belongings.''Romania Arabica'' by Gerard Wiegers p.410
/ref> After sailing from Safi to

Le Havre Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...

, Al-Hajari met with the King, and obtained a safe-conduct to visit the country. In Bordeaux he obtained some financial compensation from the shipowners who had been involved in the Moriscos affair.

Oriental studies

Al-Hajari met with the Orientalist Thomas Erpenius in September 1611 in

, and taught him some Classical Arabic.Alastair Hamilton
An Egyptian Traveller in the Republic of Letters: Josephus Barbatus or Abudacnus the Copt
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 57. (1994), pp. 123-150. Through the introduction of Erpenius, Al-Hajari also met with the French Arabist Étienne Hubert d'Orléans, who had been a court physician for Moroccan ruler

Marrakech Marrakesh or Marrakech (; , ) is the fourth-largest city in Morocco. It is one of the four imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakesh–Safi Regions of Morocco, region. The city lies west of the foothills of the Atlas Mounta ...

from 1598 to 1601. Etienne Hubert offered to help him in his proceeding and to represent him "to all people of authority". Erpenius described Al-Hajari as: They also discussed about religious subjects:

Low-Countries (1613)

In 1613, Al-Hajari visited the Dutch Republic, which he could visit freely due to the existence of a Treaty of Friendship. He stayed from June to September. He met an old acquaintance, the former Dutch Consul in Morocco Pieter Marteen Coy.''In the lands of the Christians: Arabic travel writing in the seventeenth century'' by Nabil I. Matar p.44 Notes 38-39
/ref> He also discussed with the Dutch Prince

Maurice of Orange Maurice of Orange (; 14 November 1567 – 23 April 1625) was ''stadtholder'' of all the provinces of the Dutch Republic except for Friesland from 1585 at the earliest until his death on 23 April 1625. Before he became Prince of Orange upon ...

the possibility of an alliance between the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

, the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

and the Moriscos, against the common enemy

. His book mentions the discussion for a combined offensive on Spain, as well as the religious reasons for the good relations between Islam and Protestantism at the time: Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt - Maurits prins van Oranje-edit 1

Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt - Maurits prins van Oranje-edit 1

He then met with

Erpenius Thomas van Erpe, also known as Thomas Erpenius (September 11, 1584November 13, 1624), Netherlands, Dutch Orientalist, was born at Gorinchem, in Holland. He was the first European to publish an accurate book of Arabic grammar. After completing hi ...

there, as well as with the future explorer Peter Nuyts.''Europe through Arab eyes, 1578-1727'' by Nabil I. Matar p.75
/ref> In the series of Moroccan envoys to the Dutch Crown, Al-Hajari was preceded by Muhammad Alguazir, and succeeded by Yusuf Biscaino.

Later life

The later part of his life was devoted to translating religious texts from Arabic to Spanish for the benefit of the Moriscos diaspora. His importance lies in his chronicling of his journey which also contains a part on his fleeing the Inquisition with his family. His chronicles are titled: ''The supporter of religion against disbelievers and the unsheathed sword on heathens'' (, ', also shortened to ''Kitāb Nāṣir al-dīn''), which he authored in 1037 AH/1637 CE at the request of a Tunisian Cheikh. Husam Tammam
تصحيح تاريخ العلاقات الإسلامية الهولندية-Revising the History of Islamic-Dutch Relations
, Retrieved 2005-March-10''Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614'' by L. P. Harvey, p.324
/ref> He seems to have died in

in the 1640s.

References

External links

Nabil I. Matar, ''In the Land of the Christians'

(retrieved, August 5, 2010) {{DEFAULTSORT:HAJARIAHMAD Moroccan translators Year of death unknown 1570s births 1640s deaths Moroccan diplomats 17th-century Moroccan people 16th-century Moroccan writers Ambassadors of Morocco to France Ambassadors of Morocco to the Netherlands