Abd al-Aziz al-Fishtali, an historian and diplomat at the court of Sultan al-Mansur of Morocco, wrote the following account of how an envoy from the great ruler Idris Alobma of Bornu made a blunder in 1612-1613 that nearly led to war:

Towards the end of the year 990 [according to the Muslim calendar] the envoy of the ruler of Borno—one of the kings of the Sudan—arrived at the court of the amir almu'minin (may God assist him) and brought, among the presents they were accustomed to bring on such occasions, over two-hundred young slaves, male and female. He found the sultan, amir al-mu'minin Mawlai Ahmad al- Mansur, at his military camp of Ra's al-ma' in the outskirts of Fez.

The purpose of the message with which his master had sent him was to request aid from the amir...