Rembrandt and workshop · Public domain

Descended from a family expelled during the Spanish Reconquista, Pallache became a Moroccan diplomat, merchant and, by his own admission, occasional pirate, sent by Sultan Zidan Abu Maali to negotiate what became Morocco's 1608 treaty with the Dutch Republic against their shared enemy, Spain. He operated between Amsterdam's nascent Jewish community and the Muslim court he served, a dual role few of his era could have sustained. Arrested by the Spanish late in life, he was freed through the intervention of his ally Maurice of Nassau, and died in the Netherlands in 1616.