Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/215

Rh Maghreb Empire had not previously known, one must give him the credit for having been a keen psychologist and the first ruler to understand thoroughly the soul of the people over whom he was set to reign.

The Berbers in their various tribes have become a conglomerate of the characteristics of all the nations which have in turn conquered and exploited them. Several authorities, in summing up their traits, point out that continued subjugation and calamities have operated to form an ethnic and moral type that is far from ideal. In general they are an anarchistic, quarrelsome people, unable to govern themselves, vindictive and traitorous. Musa, the Saracenic viceroy of Egypt who conquered Spain in 711 to 713, thus characterized the Berbers to the caliph on his return to Stamboul:

"They are the most treacherous men in the whole world. There is nothing sacred for them in their promises or their given word."

When Mulay Ismail, having formed the intention of uniting and organizing the empire, sought some means which would serve to nullify or diminish the anarchism of the Berbers, he found Ben Aïssa ready at hand as a tool to work upon and shape the sentiments of the most turbulent layers of the proletariat. It seems clear to me that a silent but definite understanding existed between the prophet and the tyrant. Finding Meknes a great book, filled with a mixture of true and false tales about the bloody sultan and his prophet, I made a careful historical and psychological analysis of these two totally different personalities, as I wanted to know with whom I had to deal in this Berber capital.