Battle of the Three Kings, also called Battle of the Wadi al-Makhāzin, (Aug. 4, 1578), defeat dealt the invading Portuguese armies of King Sebastian by the Saʿdī sultan of Morocco, ʿAbd al-Malik.

Sebastian wished to subject Muslim Morocco to Christian rule. Allied with the deposed Moroccan sultan, al-Mutawakkil, he landed at Tangier weighed down by much artillery and an army of 20,000 men. At the Wadi al-Makhāzin near Ksar el-Kebir (Alcazarquivir), between the Loukkos River and one of its tributaries, Sebastian struck at ʿAbd al-Malik and his brother Aḥmad. The Muslim forces, though not as well equipped as the Portuguese, numbered 50,000 men—infantry and cavalry. They forced the Christians to retreat to Larache on the coast, but, in crossing the Wadi al-Makhāzin, which was then at high tide, many drowned or surrendered. Both Sebastian and al-Mutawakkil were drowned, and ʿAbd al-Malik, seriously ill from the beginning of the encounter, died the next morning—hence the European name of the battle.

The victory provided the Muslim soldiery with a rich booty and the country with a new sultan, Aḥmad, now known as Aḥmad al-Manṣūr (Aḥmad the Victorious); it gave Morocco a new prestige in Europe, furthering its diplomatic and commercial status. The death of the young Sebastian without heir, on the other hand, brought the Portuguese empire under Spanish control for the next 60 years.

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No, or the Vain Glory of Command (Portuguese: Non, ou a Vã Gloria de Mandar) is a 1990 Portuguese film directed by Manoel de Oliveira. The film, starring Luís Miguel Cintra and Miguel Guilherme, depicts a series of defeats from the entire military history of Portugal – the assassination of Viriathus, the Battle of Toro, the failed attempt of Iberian Union under Afonso of Portugal and Isabella of Spain and the Battle of Alcácer Quibir – and the Lusiads episode of the Island of love, which are told through flashbacks as a professorish Portuguese lieutenant recounts them while marching through a Portuguese African overseas territory in 1974, during the Portuguese Colonial War (1961–74). He easily draws his comrades into philosophical musings, while the little contingent suffers surprise attacks by groups of independentist guerrillas. It was screened out of competition at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival.

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