persecution against Oran's Jews.
1238 1509 Presence of the Zianides of Tlemcen and then the Marinid dynasty of Fes. The protection by the Emir, the customs system (tariffs), trade with Marseilles, and the Italian Maritime Republics of Genoa and Venice, with whom, in 1250, Oran signed a commercial treaty of forty year's duration, made the Oranians rich. So much so, that toward the end of the 14th century, celebrated Arab historian Ibn Khaldoun wrote the following, "Oran is superior to all other cities by its trade. It's a paradise for the unhappy one. Those who arrive poor in its walls, will leave it again rich." The city excelled in the exportation of lead, wool, skins, fine burnous, carpets, haïks, cumin, nuts, and galls, without forgetting the draft of black slaves.
Spanish period
The Santa Cruz Fort, Oran. Santa Cruz is Spanish for "holy cross"
Before the Spaniards, the Portuguese launched a failed expedition to capture the city in July 1501. Four years later, the Spanish took Mers-el-Kébir, located just four miles to the west of the Oran. Thus began the first organized incursions against the city which, at the time, numbered 25,000 inhabitants and counted 6,000 fueros. Count Pedro Navarro, on the orders of Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, captured the city on May 17, 1509.
By 1554, the Turks had reached Algiers, and then governor of Oran, Count Alcaudete, allied himself with Moroccan SultanMohammed ash-Sheikh against them. Nine years later, in 1563, Álvaro de Bazán, Marquis de Santa Cruz, built the fort of Santa-Cruz, strategically placed at the top of a mountain, l'Aïdour, more than 1,000 ft (300 m) above the sea, directly to the west of the city. Pedro Garcerán de Borja, Grand Master of the Order of Montesa, was captain of Oran when, on July 14, 1568, John of Austria (the illegitimate son of Charles I and thus the paternal half-brother of King Philip II), led a
