T'hami El Glaoui
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1879-1956. Head of the Glaoua tribe of Southern Morocco, based at the Kasbah of Telouet in the High Atlas and at Marrakech. Ally of the French in Morocco. Declared Pasha of Marrakech in 1912 after delivering European hostages taken by a pretender to the Moroccan Sultanate. At the death of his elder brother Si el Madani El Glaoui, chief of the House of Glaoua, Ruled the south of Morocco with a mixture of flamboyance and terror and finally conspired with Abd el Hay Kittani and the French Protectorate to depose Sultan Mohammed V in 1953. The ensuing bloodshed and unrest led directly to the independence of Morocco from France and the restoration of Mohammed V in 1955. Yet, it should be noted that the Pasha's declaration at the Council of The Guardians of the Throne favouring the return of the Sultan ensured the return of peace. It is also not impossible that the Pasha, aged and ill was manipulated by the French authorities which succeeded in breaking his lifelong friendship with Mohammed V. The Pasha was indeed persuaded that the Sultan favoured communists and that the later would eventually end the monarchy. Eventually, events at the wake of Morocco's independence will show the Istiqlal's (independence party) agenda to seize power (an outcome which was to be witnessed a few years later in Algeria with the dictatorial domination of the local independence party, the FLN.
A personal friend of Winston Churchill the Pasha attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II but his lavish gifts of a jewelled crown and an ornate dagger were refused, as it was customary for gifts received by individuals not representing a government (despite his belonging to the "Makhzen", i.e. the central administration of Morocco, the Pasha attended the ceremony as a private person)
References
Lords of the Atlas by Gavin Maxwell (ISBN 0907871143) "Marrakech ou les Seigneurs de l'Atlas" by J.&J. Tharaud
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