After its break from the Almohads in the 13th Century, the history of the Zayyanids has been a several century spitroast, as the neighbouring Hafsids and Marinids took turns subjugating the strategic city of Tlemcen, only interrupted by Iberian meddling in dynastic feuds. By 1500, though Abu Abdallah IV is a popular and capable ruler of an independent realm, this story is one of decadence and decline. Undermined at every turn by autonomous emirs along the coast and upstart nomadic warlords in the interior, the Zayyanid state possesses few tools with which to reinforce its position.

To survive, the Sultan will have to play a masterful diplomatic game, playing the new Mediterranean powers off of one another as their ambitions become too large for the small sea they inhabit. Failure means death by a thousand cuts as the Sultanate is taken apart piecemeal by the Spanish and the Ottomans.

However, its not all hopeless (I think). There are riches to be obtained across the vast Sahara, if one is brave enough to seek them out.