Ahmed ben Mohammed el-Raisuli

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Ahmed ben Mohammed el-Raisuli in front of the guest tent in Tazrout

Ahmed ben Mohammed el-Raisuli (also Sherif Mulay Ahmed el Raisuli , El Raisuli or El Raisouni for short , * 1871 in the village of Zinat near Tétouan , † 1925 in Ajdir ) was a rebel in Morocco . He led a small army of rebellious Rif tribes in the Rif War and was at times an avowed opponent of Spain , but depending on the situation, he had an ambivalent relationship to whose troops, which sometimes bordered on collaboration . El Raisuli had several residences in northern Morocco - one of them was the Palais Raisouli in the coastal town of Asilah .

War Episodes

On June 16, 1903, Raisuli took the British Walter Burton Harris hostage in Zinat . He caused a further sensation with the kidnapping of Ion Perdicaris and Cromwell Varley on May 18, 1904 and his demands on Sultan Abd al-Aziz to end the suppression of the Rif, to release all captured tribesmen, to give him 70,000 dollars in gold and to sell him as Pasha of two districts to recognize Tangier. The kidnapping caused a stir in the United States as it was believed at the time that Perdicaris was a US citizen. Together with Great Britain and France , the United States put pressure on the Sultan to comply with the demands, which he finally did on June 21. Shortly afterwards, the hostages were released. He was appointed governor of Tangier in 1905 and deposed in December 1906.

General Sir Harry Aubrey de Maclean, a hostage to Raisuli, was a Scottish military adviser to the Moroccan Army

In June 1907 he took the British military advisor and negotiator to Sultan Kaid Sir Harry Aubrey de MacLean, KC MG (1848-1920), hostage. As part of the takeover of power from Abd al-Aziz (Morocco) to Mulai Abd al-Hafiz in February 1908 the British government paid a ransom of £ 20,000 for MacLean , and Raisuli was assured that he would become the “protected subject” of Great Britain and exclusively the British jurisdiction. Raisuli was appointed governor of the north-west provinces by Mulai Abd al-Hafiz.

Raisuli resented the Spanish authorities for not making him a Jalifa . In 1909 they made him Pasha of Asilah and Jebala (western part of the later Spanish Protectorate ), but General Miguel Fernández Silvestre, the commander of Larache , undermined his authority. In January 1913, Silvestre was so appalled by the conditions in Raisuli's prison that he stormed in in the presence of Raisuli and ordered the prisoners to be released. El Raisuli refused, stating:

“Spain has more serious problems than interfering with our judiciary. The Sharia allowed my actions, do not attack them! My authority is to be upheld, do not weaken it, as has long been your intention! Spain has sworn to support our religion and our laws. They misunderstand their task. You have no more right to interfere with our traditions and customs than I have the right to tell you that your food is unclean. Every country according to its laws! "

- El Raisuli, 1913

During the First World War , Raisuli had contacts with Walter Zechlin (1879–1962), the consul of the German Empire. At the end of September 1915, the commander in chief of Melilla Francisco Gómez Jordana and Raisuli agreed that he would have the same rights as the Caliph of Tetuan.

At the beginning of 1919, Dámaso Berenguer Fusté was appointed High Commissioner of the Protectorate of Spanish Morocco with the mandate to depose Raisuli as Governor of Tangier . On March 21, 1919, Berenguer had the town of Ksar es-Seghir ( Alcazar Seguir ) occupied 40 kilometers west of Ceuta , whereupon Raisuli broke off contact with the Spaniards and a guerrilla war made all regional roads a no-go area for the Protectorate troops . Between July 11 and July 13, 1919, Rasulis let the Spanish protectorate troops attack in Oued Rás (Oued Mharhar), about 30 kilometers southeast of Tangier. Raisuli's troops had Spanish uniforms and wiped out a peloton of 170 soldiers. The Protectorate Army had equipped them with grenades and bombs that contained asphyxiating gases. Raisuli had got the impression that Spain had been on the side of the German Reich during the First World War. On July 14, 1919, in a letter to Walter Burton Harris , Rasulis described the killing of Spaniards as his contribution to the Peace of Versailles. Harris believes that around 300 Spaniards were killed and 1,000 wounded in the Battle of Oued Rás. With the battle, a governor of Tangier, armed by the Spanish protectorate power, had become an opponent of Spanish protectorate politics. Rasuli's troops blocked the Route Nationale 2 -road connection between Tangier and Tetuan, which, however, left the Protectorate troops free to move by air and sea. On September 27, 1919, around 12,000 soldiers from the Protectorate troops encircled El Fendek (Fondak). The protection troops also bombed villages inhabited by civilians indiscriminately with aircraft and artillery. The bombings could be observed by the Diplomatic Corps from Tangier. Raisuli retired to Tazrout.

death

Under Abd el-Krim , Raisuli was captured in January 1925 in the village of Tazrout near Jbel el Alam or - depending on the source - in Asilah; he died in captivity in April 1925.

literature

  • Rosita Torr Forbes : El Raisuni: the sultan of the mountains. His life story as told to Rosita Forbes. Thornton Butterworth Ltd, London 1924. German translation: Otfrid von Hanstein: Raisuli, Sultan of the Mountains - memoirs of the Moroccan Arab sheik Mohammed Abdullah Ibn el Raisuli el Hasali el Alani, told by himself. KF Koehler, Leipzig 1924

Movie

In 1975 the film The Wind and the Lion was directed by John Milius and was inspired by the events surrounding the capture of the British and Americans. Raisuli was portrayed by Sean Connery .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rudibert Kunz, Rolf-Dieter Müller : Poison gas against Abd el Krim: Germany, Spain and the gas war in Spanish-Morocco 1922–1927. Rombach, 1990, p. 117
  2. ↑ Palais Raisouli in Asilah
  3. ↑ RAISULI CAPTURES SIR HARRY MACLEAN. Means to Hold the Kaid Prisoner Until the Sultan Grants Demands. MACLEAN WAS HOODWINKED Was Bearing Presents from Sultan to Bandit - Latter Wants to Head International Police. New York Times , July 4, 1907
  4. ↑ Morocco That Was. William Blackwood 1921, Paperback: Redwood Burn Ltd. Trowbridge, Wiltshire, 1983 p. 241
  5. ↑ Rosita Forbes: El Raisuni: the Sultan of the Mountain. Thornton Butterworth Ltd, London, 1924 p. 153 (translated into German); quoted from CR Pennell: Morocco Since 1830: A History. P. 170
  6. ^ David S. Woolman: Rebels in the Rif: Abd El Krim and the Rif Rebellion. Stanford University Press, Stanford 1969
  7. ^ Walter Burton Harris: Morocco That Was . William Blackwood 1921, Paperback: Redwood Burn Ltd. Trowbridge, Wiltshire, 1983 pp. 285 ff.
  8. ↑ Steven Thomas: 1893-1927: Campaigns in the Rif . ( Memento from December 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME el-Raisuli, Ahmed ben Mohammed
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mohammed Abdullah Ibn el Raisuli el Hasali el Alani
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Moroccan rebel
DATE OF BIRTH 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Tetouan
DATE OF DEATH 1925
Place of death Ajdir