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Shihab al-Din Ahmad al-Hajari, who served as a translator, traveller and scholar was one of the first Muslim Moriscos to write a book about his journey in the Netherlands. The distinguished man who became the sultan’s envoy, was first born in Spain circa 1570. Like other Muslims, he escaped Spain following the persecutions of the Moriscos circa 1598. Once in Morocco, al-Hajari became close to the Sultan Moulay Zaydan who appointed him as a secretary, and as he spoke Spanish and Portuguese fluently alongside Arabic, he served also a translator.
According to an article written by Mohamad Ballan, a PhD student in Islamic and medieval history at the University of Chicago and published on his blog called Ballandalus, the Morisco scholar worked for the Saadian sultan for approximately 24 years during which he was sent as an envoy to Europe. From 1609 to 1611, Shihab al-Din Ahmad al-Hajari, travelled to the Netherlands and France in an enlightening journey. He was tasked by the Sultan with negotiating the release of some Moriscos who were captured by privateers and thrown on the shores of the mentioned countries.
The diplomatic trip
The diplomatic trip on the behalf of Sultan Zaydan Abu Maali of Morocco was to secure the wealth confiscated from the Moriscos when deported from Spain. During his visit which lasted 2 years, Al-Hajari was exposed to a number of historical events, he met distinguished thinkers and scholars and had a close look at the Christian way of living back in the time.
His journey was narrated in his book entitled «Nasir al-Din ala al-Qawm al-Kafirin», a travelogue that gives valuable information about the West in the 16th century and most precisely the Netherlands. Once in the Dutch country, Al-Hajari was astonished to see the beauty of the capital, the architecture and European urban life. «When we reached the city of Amsterdam (Mustarḍām), I was impressed by how well-built, well-organized and how heavily populated it was. It was nearly as large as the city of Paris in France», states the traveller in his book which was translated to English by Mohamad Ballan.
The Netherlands in the 16th century
He kept on describing the Netherlands’ capital as «the city with the largest number of ships in the world. It is said that its ships, large and small, number about 6,000 vessels». Al-Hajari wrote in his book that the town had seventeen provinces that were mostly under the sovereignty of the King of Spain stating that «in these parts emerged the great scholar whom they call Lutri (Martin Luther), and another called Qalbin» referring to John Calvin.
Fascinated by the nation, Al-Hajari paid close attention to every detail about the country he described his trip to several cities such as the Hague and Leiden and memorized the conversations about religions, Arabic and Spain he had with Christian scholars. Al-Hajari even offered to translate books they had in Arabic to Spanish as he was fluent in the language. The Morisco envoy even met with Maurice of Orange, who was stadtholder of all the provinces of the Dutch Republic and conversed with him.
Back to Morocco, Shihab al-Din Ahmad al-Hajari served as an envoy and translator during the reigns of the Saadi sultans, Ahmad al-Mansur, Zaydan Abu Maali, Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik II and Al Walid Ibn Zaydan. In 1636 he went to the Hajj to perform pilgrimage and then lived in Egypt for an undisclosed amount of time before departing going to Tunis. Little information is available about his death, some sources suggest that he died in 1640.
