Khadir Ghaïlan (Library of Congress, Ahmad al Khādir ibn 'Ali Ghaylān; generally known to English-speakers as Gayland or Guyland) was a powerful

warlord Warlords are individuals who exercise military, Economy, economic, and Politics, political control over a region, often one State collapse, without a strong central or national government, typically through informal control over Militia, local ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

during the seventeenth century. He controlled large swathes of the region until his death in September 1672 at the hands of Moulay Rashid. During the 1660s, he was noted for his clashes with the Anglo-Irish garrison at

Tangier Tangier ( ; , , ) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The city is the capital city, capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Tangier-Assilah Prefecture of Moroc ...

. Despite gaining a success over the garrison at the Battle of Tangier (1664) he was never able to seriously threaten the port. He agreed a number of

truce A ceasefire (also known as a truce), also spelled cease-fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions often due to mediation by a third party. Ceasefires may b ...

s with the Governors of Tangier.

Depictions

The play "The Heir of Morocco, with the Death of Gayland" written by

Elkanah Settle Elkanah Settle (1 February 1648 – 12 February 1724) was an English poet and playwright. Biography He was born at Dunstable, and entered Trinity College, Oxford, in 1666, but left without taking a degree. His first tragedy, '' Cambyses, King ...

in 1682 was a political attack on

John Dryden John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration (En ...

, and is entirely fictional in respect of the characters used.

References

Bibliography

* Childs, John. ''The Army of Charles II''. Routledge, 1976. Year of birth unknown 1672 deaths 17th-century Moroccan people Warlords {{Morocco-bio-stub