Cheikh el-Arab
Cheikh el-Arab, born Ahmed ben Mohamed Faouzi (also known as Ahmed Agouliz), was a Moroccan nationalist and veteran of the Moroccan Army of Liberation. He was born around 1924 in Agouliz, a village in southern Morocco, and he was Berber from the Shilha Ait Issafen sub-tribe of the Ahl Tata. His father Mohamed ben Brahim was a religious teacher and trader. Ahmed grew up studying the Quran and Arabic in madrassas and later moved to Rabat with his father. He worked in his father’s corner store, at the Mohammed V school in Rabat, and as a cook at the M’hammed Guessous school while he studied. He joined the Moroccan Army of Liberation and became known as Cheikh el-Arab, meaning “chief of the Arabs.”
In March 1964, after four months of trial, he was sentenced to death in absentia for conspiracy and attempted assassination against King Hassan II, along with Mehdi Ben Barka and others. Some defendants received different sentences; Abderrahmane Youssoufi got a suspended sentence. Some supporters later said the plot was invented by Hassan II’s circle to remove opponents.
A long police hunt led by General Mohamed Oufkir ended on 7 August 1964 when Cheikh el-Arab was found in Casablanca and shot, dying from a gunshot wound to the rib cage. He is buried in Sbata Cemetery, Casablanca. Another defendant, Ahmed Aznag of Sidi Othmane, died from a gunshot to the skull during the events.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 07:51 (CET).