the most significant example in their later history. After the vizier, the most important officials were the public treasurer, in charge of taxes and expenditures, who reported to either the vizier or the sultan. Other important officials included the sultan's chamberlain, the secretaries of his chancery, and the sahib al-shurta or "chief of police", who also oversaw judiciary matters. On some occasions the chamberlain was more important and the vizier reported to him instead. Military The Marinid army was largely composed of tribes loyal to the Marinids or associated with the ruling dynasty. However, the number of men these tribes could field had its limits, which required the sultans to recruit from other tribes and from mercenaries. Additional troops were drawn from other Zenata tribes of the central Maghreb and from the Arab tribes such as the Banu Hilal and Banu Ma'qil, who had moved further west into the Maghreb during the Almohad period. The Marinids also continued to hire Christian mercenaries from Europe, as their Almohad predecessors had done, who consisted mainly of cavalry and served as the sultan's bodyguard. This heterogeneity of the army is one of the reasons that direct central government control was not possible across the entire Marinid realm. The army was sufficiently large, however, to allow the Marinid sultans to send military expeditions to the Iberian Peninsula in the 13th and 14th centuries. More details are known in particular about the army during the reign of Abu al-Hasan, which is described by some historical chroniclers such as Ibn Marzuk and al-Umari. His main attack force was composed of Zanata horsemen, around 40,000 strong, along with Arab tribal horsemen, around 1500 mounted archers of "Turkish" origin, and around 1000 Andalusi foot archers. The regular standing army, which also formed the sultan's personal guard, consisted of between 2000 and 5000 Christian mercenaries from Aragon, Castile, and Portugal, as well as Black Africans and Kurds. These mercenaries were paid a salary from the treasury, while the chieftains of tribal levies were given iqta' lands as compensation. The army's main weakness was its naval fleet, which could not keep up with the fleet of Aragon. The Marinids had shipyards and naval arsenals at Salé and Sebta (Ceuta), but on at least one occasion the Marinid sultan hired mercenary ships from Catalonia. Marinid military contingents, mostly Zenata horsemen (also known as jinetes in Spanish), were also hired by the