ABSTRACT
This essay offers a portrait of the captivity narrative by Antonio de Saldanha, Cronica de Almançor Sultão de Marrocos (1578–1603), the most important European primary account of the reign of sultan Ahmed Al-Mansur. Saldanha’s own social status gave him a privileged position, even as a captive. Because of Saldanha’s close relationship to the Moroccan emperor, his report offers insight into the economic mechanisms of free versus unfree labor in the early modern Mediterranean.
