Connery's character is loosely based on Raisuli, Ahmed ibn-Muhammed (1875?-1925), a Moroccan brigand. As chief of a band in the mountains of Morocco he warred against the country's ineffective government. In 1904 Raisuli kidnaped from Tangier Ion Perdicaris, supposedly an American citizen, and his stepson, a British subject. Raisuli then made heavy demands on the Moroccan government.President Theodore Roosevelt sent units of the American fleet to Tangier and telegraphed, The Government wants Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead. Too late to withdraw the demand, the American government discovered that Perdicaris had given up his citizenship more than 40 years earlier. Raisuli obtained a large ransom and the governorship of Tangier, and returned his two prisoners. In 1906 he was deposed, and returned to the mountains. Show less «