While collecting data for my travel report about Morocco, I found several books, including the Rough guide to Morocco, mentioning the fact, that walls of Essaouira were constructed by the captive French architect Theodore Cornut. However, none of the articles gave any details regarding how and where he got captured, for how long stayed captive, what was his deal with the sultan for constructing the walls, etc.

I started searching the web, but found only two articles giving alittle more details than just the word "captive"

One (http://www.moroccotravelandtours.com/teaandtheatlanticbyAnouarMajid.htm) says that the architect was "captured during a failed assault on Larache", and another (http://uk.travel.yahoo.com/020816/8/18fwu.html) states that he was never captured at all, but simply hired by the sultan for a good pay, all story about captivity being a romantic legend.

I would highly appreciate if you could guide me to some sources of information on this subject. If the story is, indeed, a legend, there must be some reason for such a legend to appear…