Dimensions
208 x 250 x 28mm
The Rise and Fall of The House of Glaoua 1893 - 1956
This classic story of Morocco and its history in the first half of the twentieth century tells the tale of the meteoric rise to power of an originally obscure warrior tribe, the Glaoua, and their equally sudden and spectacular downfall. Once the Glaoua were only one of a number of mountain tribes in the remote passes of the High Atlas constantly at war, but in 1893 the Sultan of Morocco presented Madani, chief of the Glaoua, with the choicest piece of his armoury, a Krupp cannon, and from that symbolic moment the whole political balance changed.
During the remaining few disordered years of the Sultanate, Madani and his younger brother T'hami came to power in Morocco. T'hami became a legendary figure and was used by the French to subjugate the turbulent tribes of the South and to keep the rest of the country in check. However, independence was stirring and despite his thousands of tribesmen and his masterly intrigues with the French commanders he was doomed, and in 1956, old, ill and humiliated he had to swear allegiance to the Sultan he had deposed.
Out of the intriguing and dramatic lives of Madani and T'hami, Gavin Maxwell has fashioned an epic story set against the superb background of the medieval city of Marrakesh and the pinnacled castles of the High Atlas, still magnificent as crumbling ruins. A dramatic history of intrigue and action, of remote and exotic places is related in all its glory and is superbly illustrated with contemporary photographs and illustrations, many taken by the author.
