Portuguese Asilah

Portuguese Asilah refers to the period of Portuguese rule over the Moroccan port of Asilah, which lasted, with interruptions, from 1471 to 1589. In August 1471 King Afonso V captured the town after the fall of nearby Tangier, and the Count of Viana, Dom Henrique de Meneses, became its first captain. The Portuguese reduced the town's defences, converted its mosque into a church, and used the port as a base for raids and trade along the Atlantic coast of Morocco. Asilah was repeatedly attacked by the sultans of Fez and by local qaids; a major siege in 1508 was relieved by a Portuguese fleet, and the town's garrison faced constant pressure from its hinterland. It received Jewish families expelled from Spain after 1492, some of whom converted under duress. Portugal abandoned Asilah in 1550 and briefly reoccupied it from 1577 until 1589, when the Saadian ruler Ahmad al-Mansur took the town. Its churches, walls and Portuguese-built citadel remain part of the town's heritage.