In 1777, caid Tahar ben Abdelhak Fennish was sent by Mohammed ben Abdellah to negotiate a treaty with the French to free Moroccan captives. Years later he was asked by the Alaouite sultan to make the USA befriend the Kingdom.
For Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta, Maldivians were converted to Islam by a Berber merchant known as Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari. In the Islands the Muslim scholar is regarded as a medieval hero who saved the nation from a sea monster.