Mulai Ahmed er Raisuni
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Mulai(King) Ahmed el Raisuni (known as Raisuli for most English speakers) was the Sharif (descendant of Mohammed) of the Riffian Berber tribe in Morocco at the turn of the 19th/20th Century, and considered by many to be the rightful heir to the throne of Morocco. While regarded by foreigners and the Moroccan government as a brigand, some Moroccans considered him a heroic figure, fighting a repressive, corrupt government, while some considered him a thief. He was considered by many as "The last of the Barbary Pirates,and this must be understood that he was in reality the Last Caliph of the Moorish Empire", The Kingdom of FEZ.
In 1904, he was propelled onto the international stage when he kidnapped the Greek-American expatriate Ion Perdicaris and his stepson Cromwell Varley and held them for ransom (Tribute/Zacca/Temple Tax). While the most famous of his many exploits, the kidnapping of Perdicaris and Varley was part of a larger campaign against the Sultan Abdelaziz of Morocco, whom Raisuli saw as corrupt and beholden to European powers. Several years prior to the incident, he had been arrested by the Pasha of Tangier, Abd-el-Rahman Abd-el-Saduk (his distant relative), and chained to a wall for four years until he was released by sympathetic guards. Raisuli had previously kidnapped several British, French, and Spanish emissaries, holding some for ransoming, and killing others. His most famous victim prior to Ion Perdicaris was Sir Harry McClean, a British army officer serving as a military aide to the Sultan's army. After a near-confrontation between the government of Morocco and troops of the United States of America, Raisuli received his ransom money, but continued to antagonize the Moroccan government. He was a leader/king in the Rif War of the 1920's until he was captured by Abd el Krim. He survived the war and his imprisonment till he successfully passed an obscure tribunal, but was ultimately condemned in 1934 to imprisonment in a secret dungeon where none dared to kill Raisuli because of his heritage as a true descendant of the Prophet. Winston Churchill vigorously defended Al Raisuli's actions. Ahmed El Raisuli is still regarded as a Hero/Prophet by many, although most current history books make Al- Raisuli into only a bandit, the Lion of Morroco's reputation is unknown to most of the world population.
He was portrayed by the Scottish actorSean Connery in the heavily fictionalized 1975 film The Wind and the Lion, which was filmed in Spain by the famed American director John Milius.
