¼ Dirham - Abu'l-'Abbas Ahmad

The Wattasids ruled an increasingly constrained Morocco through the first half of the sixteenth century, caught between Portuguese coastal fortifications to the west and the rising Sa'adian dynasty pressing from the south. Abu'l-'Abbas Ahmad, the last effective Wattasid sultan, spent much of his reign negotiating rather than governing — the Portuguese held Ceuta, Tangier, and Arzila simultaneously during this period. Fractional silver of this weight was essential for small market transactions in a monetarily fragmented region where full dirhams rarely trickled into everyday trade.