Unknown
-
Portrait of Abd el-Ouahed ben Messaoud ben Mohammed Anoun, Unknown
Oil on oak panel
This portrait is the earliest surviving picture of a Muslim painted from life in England. It depicts Abd el-Ouahed ben Mas’oud ben Muhammad Anun, leader of a delegation sent to England in 1600 by the Sultan of Morocco, Ahmad al-Mansur. Their official business was to strengthen Anglo-Moroccan trade, but al-Mansur also hoped to secretly convince Queen Elizabeth to support a reconquest of Iberia (al-Andalus), a medieval Muslim territory in modern-day Spain, by his country, followed by a joint invasion of the Spanish colonies in the New World, which would be split under English and Moroccan control. While this never came to pass, the Moroccan delegation attracted much attention from court observers at the time. Imagine how history would have changed if this venture had succeeded.
The ambassador’s envoy remained in England for six months. Their departure highlighted English anxiety over friendly relations with a Muslim nation: “The Moroccans take their leave sometime this week to go homeward, for our merchants now marries will not carry them into Turkey, because they think it a matter odious and scandalous to the world to be so friendly or familiar with infidels; but yet it is no small honour to us that nations so far remote and every way different should meet here to admire the glory and magnificence of our Queen Elizabeth.” — John Chamberlain to Dudley Carleton, October 15, 1600
