Omaha daily bee., 1918-02-26
PALACE OF THE
SLAVE-BORN VIZIER
How Bou Ahmed Jollied the
Sultan Of Morocco, Rose to
Power and Reared a
Moorish Castle.

Ettulgence at MarakeSh modern
Moorish architecture reached its
zenith. No man before had attempted
such a work, and no man in Morocco
will Lever be rich enongh to surpass it.
Not only would the wealth required
be fabulous, but the very idea would
be so fantastic that its originator
could not escape being stamped as a
madman. Yet twenty-five years ago
it was scarcely begun, and seventeen
years ago its builder died, and the
work ceased. In those FIVE years this
extraordinary palace was originated
and completed-such as it stands
with its wealth of decoration, its great
courts, its fountains, and its colon
nades. And the builder was the son OF
a slave, for Bou Ahmed's father, 81
Moussa, the confidential servant OF the
Sultan Mulai Hassen, was palace
slave. By his integrity, or his cum
ning-probably the latter--hc had
risen to position of some importance
and at his death his son--only very
little less a negro than the father
was appointed chamberlain in his
place, position he held until the sui
tan's death in 1895.
II was then that his opportunity
came-and he seized it. The sultan's
death occurred while he was on milf
tary experition against the dissident
tribes OF Tadla. Bou Ahmed, who
with few confidential slaves alone
knew OF Mulai Hassen's death--for he
died in his tented enclosure in the i'm
perial camp, amongst his women
realized that the tragic event must be
kept secret. Otherwise the tribes
would fall upon the army, now lacking
a chief, and the soldiers themselves
would join in the pillage and murder
and loot. So orders were given Tor
the court and the army to continue
their march towards the coast, and at
dawn the day after the sultan's death
a start was made. Meanwhile Bou
Ahmed's messengers were hurrying TO
Rabat to proclaim the late sultan's
youngest son, Mulai Abdul Aziz. a
boy OF IL years of age. The critical
moment was past: the army was in a
safe region, the dissident tribes were
left far behind, and the accession was
a fait accompli. 1t was Bou Ahmed's $
first card and he played it well.
Pushing to the Front.
But other things remained to be
done. Bou Ahmed was only chamber
lain, and the more important posts of
grand vizier and minister OF war were
held by his rivals, two brothers OF the
powerful Jamai family, who, aristo-
Gratis, despised the slaves son and his
origin. The situation demanded that
the young sultan should proceed at
once to Fee, the northern capital, for.
until he had been accepted and re-
ceived as sultan there, his throne was
not consolidated, and Fee was no safe
place for Bou Ahmed.
He played his second card--an even
boider one than his first. While the
sultan was at Mckinez, only thirty
miles from Fee, Bou Ahmed obtained
his masters consent to the arrest of
the Jamai brothers. The pretext was
treason. One morning the grand
vizier, Hal Amaati, rodt into the pal-
ace square OF Mekinez and passed into
the young sultan's presence between
long rows of bowling officials. The
sentries saluted, but, disdainful, the
vizier noticed no one. Bou Ahmed was
with the sultan. He accused the vizier
of treachery, of treason, of innumer-
able crimes, and asked the pale boy
seated upon the throne to authorize
his arrest. The sultan nodded--and
Hal Amaaati was dragged by jeering
soldiers to prison, smitten with blows,
and the object of a hundred gibes. His
brother, the minister of war, Joined
him in goal only few moments later.
Bou Ahmed was now grand vizier.
So Bou Ahmed, freed from anxiety,
began the building OF the Bahia.
With stone and mortar and the money
and blood of men, by every exaction
and cruelty, by murder and sudden
death, he built it, raising court after
court-grandiose and fantastic--to
please his own pride or the fancies OF
some woman. Every favorite had her
courtyard and her apartments, and lit
tie it matttered to her, or to the man
who for a time cherished her, how
many might die, how many might
starve, that the ceilings of carved
cedarwood might be paid for, or the
marble foundation basins be brought
from Italy. The vizier's revenues were
prodigious, for every coin that came
to the Moorish government passed
through his hands, and few went
on to the imperial treasury, but only
a few. He was lone and omnipotent
A sort of superstitious romance Ell,
circled him and his wealth. His name
was whispered in the streets and in
the byways.
Acres of Household Razed.
He started largely. He took whole
quarter of the town and razed it to the
ground. 1t covered many, many acres
No householder could resist his on
slaught. Where necessity arose, he
compensated, according to his own
ideas, the owners of the houses he de.
stroyed. In other cases he found il
unnecessary to do so. Whole house.
holds were turned loose into the
world. Beyond were gardens, great
groves of olives and oranges. He be-
came possessed OF them, tearing down
the dividing walls and laying out the
whole as great park. He built a
raised irrigating tank as large as a
lake, and encircled the whole property
with immense walls. The energy OF
this small, dark. awkward, unsympa
thetie man was immense He governed
as he built, without thought of hu-
man life or of the suffering he oc-
easloned. He destroyed whole tribes
and conhscated their wealth. 1t all
served to build the Bahia"
On the ruins Of the demolished
quarter he raised his palace, encircled
with walls-and what walls.-great