The Marinid dynasty planned to reunify the Maghreb, taking Tilimsen in 1337,[1] and the fleet of Alfonso XI of Castile was in the Straits of Gibraltar from the spring of 1338[2] and requested help from Peter the Ceremonious to complete the Straits fleet, signing the pact of Madrid,[3] by which the two kingdoms pledged to help each other to wage war in Morocco and Granada while the Marinids did the same with the Hafsids.

[2] On September 6 of 1339 in the Alboran Sea,[4] in front of Ceuta a flock of eight gallers Catalans commanded by Jofre Gilabert de Cruïlles and Galceran Marquet defeats a naval force of thirteen Moroccan galleys and a Genoese.

[5] In 1340 Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman north of the strait and the kings Alfonso XI of Castile and Afonso IV of Portugal left Seville in aid of Tarifa, defeating the Muslims.

Then the Marinids, with morale high, crossed the strait under the direction of the sultan of Fes, Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman and tried to recover Tarifa in 1340.

In Tarifa the Castilians with the help of the forces of the Crown of Aragon (who unblocked the city by sea) and Portuguese (the king Afonso IV of Portugal was brother-in-law of Alfonso XI of Castile), they faced the Battle of Río Salado October 30 which was a serious defeat for the Maghreb.