Word: glaoui
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...late El Glaoui, Pasha of Marrakech, was everything Morocco's modem nationalists despised. He was France's chief collaborator. For decades his Berber warriors had helped impose French wishes on the restive Arabs of the cities, and engineered the exile of Sultan Mohammed V. His power was feudal; his revenues, ranging from levies on Marrakech's prostitutes to commissions on every commercial transaction in his domain, had made him rich beyond any man's dreams...
Fortnight ago, five Glaoui sons gathered at Marrakech to divvy up the sprawling wealth El Glaoui had left. Reportedly there was $17 million in cash lying around the old mud-red palace. There were palaces and houses in virtually every major Moroccan city, stock in lead, cobalt and manganese mines, bank accounts in Paris, London and Geneva. The rumor spread that El Glaoui's sons were maneuvering to block a plan sponsored by Morocco's new government to redistribute the huge land holdings El Glaoui had amassed in southern Morocco...
...came in a welter of blood in Morocco and political chaos in Paris. The Berbers rebelled against El Glaoui and his stooge Sultan, went on a major uprising in the Atlas Mountains. The last straw for the French came when El Glaoui himself drove into Rabat in his black Bentley and blandly declared: "I identify myself with the wish of the Moroccan nation for a prompt restoration of Sidi Mohammed ben Youssef...
...spring of 1953, old El Glaoui got into his Cadillac, began rounding up signatures demanding the Sultan's abdication. The Glaoui was armed with a photograph of the Sultan's lissome daughter Aisha in a one-piece bathing suit. How could Mohammed be Imam to his people when he allowed his daughter to expose herself in public, offending every right-thinking Moslem? Urged on by the French, back-country chiefs signed up, until El Glaoui had the signatures of 311 of Morocco's 323 caids. In a matter of days a crestfallen Sidi Mohammed was bundled onto...
Mohammed V was brought back from Madagascar to France. The throne council which was supposed to replace him flew to Paris to pledge their allegiance. So did scores of Moroccan chiefs and notables. Sycophant El Glaoui humbly prostrated himself before Mohammed, kissed his monarch's feet and begged forgiveness. Suddenly anxious to please. Foreign Minister Antoine Pinay agreed not only that Mohammed should return to the throne, but that France would help Morocco to "achieve the status of an independent state, united to France by the permanent ties of an interdependence freely accepted and defined." Pinay even agreed that...