While recent studies have done much to advance our understanding of the intricacies of diplomatic negotiations and activities in eighteenth century Morocco, these studies still tend to frame the teleology of successful diplomacy within the context of the European enlightenment. Unsurprisingly, this entrenched analytical framework overlooks many of the important local contributions to the development of diplomatic norms, practices, and policy in eighteenth century Morocco. This is particularly clear in the field of intellectual history. As such, this paper attempts to shed light on the many Moroccan voices that participated in the intellectual debate regarding the appropriate setting(s) for diplomacy and the ideal characteristics of a diplomat. To do so, I propose an examination of several 18th century Moroccan diplomats as a burgeoning and connected group of bureaucratic elite. Connecting the intellectual interventions of these actors helps to reconstruct a more robust understanding of how a newly emerging class of Moroccan state actors attempted to formulate theories of diplomatic practice and policy. I first will focus on Ahmed al-Ghazzal’s (d. 1777) discussion of jihad that he details in his eighteenth century rihla Natijat al-Ijtihad fi al-muhadannah wa al-jihad. More than just a rihla, al-Ghazzal’s exposition of the role of diplomacy in Moroccan foreign policy offers a distinctly eighteenth century reinterpretation of this concept, while specifying the role that the diplomat should play. Building off of these broader characteristics, I will then examine Abu al-Qasim al-Zayyani’s (d. 1833) conception of hasad (jealousy) as a key characteristic of the exemplary diplomat as demonstrated in a lengthy anecdote from his al-Tarjumanah al-kubra. Like al-Ghazzal, al-Zayyani draws on a long line of Islamic tradition to substantiate and define this particularly important characteristic of a Moroccan diplomat. Finally, I will examine Ibn Uthman al-Miknasi’s (d. 1798) pedagogical prescriptions for diplomats as drawn from his three rihlat. In the form of rhymed prose and drawing again from a local, Islamic intellectual tradition, al-Miknasi develops a particular image of proper diplomacy and the ideal diplomat. In combining these various authors and their texts, I seek to build a more connected and nuanced understanding of the intellectual history of Moroccan diplomacy in the eighteenth century. Grounding the intellectual aspects of these developments in more specific local and Islamic contexts helps to better elucidate the particularly Moroccan aspects of these conversations, lending more legitimacy to the success of intellectual developments outside of a strictly enlightenment-based framework.