Asfi

The Christian ships were soon followed by Christian rule. Portugal took control of Asfi in 1488 and garrisoned it from 1508, leaving behind the Sea Castle and the Kechla fortress, but in 1541 John III, pressed by the rising Saadian sharifs and short of money and men, abandoned it. Back in Moroccan hands, Asfi mattered more than ever as the port of Marrakesh: one of the safest harbours on the coast, it was where European envoys and traders bound for the sultan's court usually came ashore, and in 1751 the Danes were granted a monopoly of its trade. Its fortune was ended by the sultan's decree. In 1765 Muhammad ibn Abdallah founded Mogador further south and ordered the European consuls to move there, and Asfi fell from the ranks of Morocco's great Atlantic ports.