Khadir Ghaïlan
17th-century Moroccan warlord
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Khadir Ghaïlan (Library of Congress, Ahmad al Khādir ibn 'Ali Ghaylān; generally known to English-speakers as Gayland or Guyland) was a powerful warlord in Morocco during the seventeenth century.[1] He controlled large swathes of the region until his death in September 1672 at the hands of Moulay Rashid.[2] During the 1660s, he was noted for his clashes with the Anglo-Irish garrison at Tangier. 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 truces with the Governors of Tangier.
Depictions
The play The Heir of Morocco, with the Death of Gayland written by Elkanah Settle in 1682 was a political attack on John Dryden, and is entirely fictional in respect of the characters used, with the exception of Gayland, who is loosely based on Ghaïlan.[3]
