Sayyida al Hurra (), real name Lalla Aicha bint Ali ibn Rashid al-Alami () (1485 – 14 July 1561), was Hakimat Titwan (Governor of Tétouan) between 1515–1542 and a Moroccan privateer leader during the early 16th century. She became the wife of the Wattasid Sultan Ahmad ibn Muhammad. She is considered to be "one of the most important female figures of the Islamic West in the modern age". The life of Sayyida al-Hurra can be understood within geopolitical and religious contexts, particularly the struggle between Muslim and Christian empires during her lifetime. The Muslim Ottomans had captured Constantinople in 1453, marking the end of the Roman Empire. Al-Hurra was two years old when the Portuguese started their colonial conquest by capturing some ports at the western coast of Morocco, starting the year 1487. A few years later, Granada fell into the hands of the Catholic Monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon and forced conversions of Muslims in Spain followed. Allied with the Ottoman corsair Barbarossa of Algiers, al-Hurra controlled the western Mediterranean Sea while Barbarossa controlled the east. She was also prefect of Tétouan. In 1515, she became the last person in Islamic history to legitimately hold the title of al Hurra (Queen) following the death of her husband, who ruled Tétouan. She later married the Berber King of Morocco, Ahmed al-Wattasi, but refused to leave Tétouan to do so. This marriage marks the only time in Moroccan history a king married away from the capital, Fez. Etymology The title Sayyida al Hurra means "noble lady who is free and independent; the woman sovereign who bows to no superior authority". Hakimat Tatwan means governor of Tétouan. Early life Sayyida al Hurra was born around 1485 and 1495 (Hijri around 890) or precisely in 1491, to a prominent Muslim family of Andalusian nobles, who fled to Morocco with her family when Ferdinand and Isabella conquered the Muslim kingdom of Granada in 1492, at the end of the Reconquista and settled in Chefchaouen. She was a descendant of the Moroccan sufi saint Abd al-Salam ibn Mashish al-Alami, and through him of Hasan ibn Ali. Sayyida's childhood was happy and secure, yet clouded by constant reminders of the forced exile from Granada. During her childhood, she was given a first-class education. She was fluent in several languages which included Castilian Spanish and Portuguese. The famous Moroccan scholar Abdallah al-Ghazwani