Editing Ismail Ibn Sharif (section)

===Appearance, personality, and contemporary assessments===
[[File:Mouley Ismaïl.jpg|thumb|Engraving of Moulay Ismail]]
The main character traits of Moulay Ismail, according to the chronicles and legends of his period, were his "tendency to order and authority, as well as his iron will." He put his strength and power at the service of this unyielding will, "If God gave me the kingship, man cannot take it from me," he is reported to have said. This will was always apparent in his actions and decisions.<ref>Mustapha Sehimi, ''La Grande Encyclopédie du Maroc'', volume 8, {{p.|121}}.</ref> According to [[Dominique Busnot]], the colour of his clothes was linked to his mood, {{blockquote|Green is the sweetest colour; white is a good sign for those appealing to him; but when he is dressed in yellow, all the world trembles and flees his presence because it is the colour that he chooses on the days of his bloodiest executions.|Dominique Busnot ''Histoire du regne de Mouley Ismael roy de Moroc, Fez, Tafilet, Soutz etc'' (1704) p.38.}}
According to contemporary Europeans, Moulay Ismail was considered cruel, greedy, merciless, and duplicitous. It was his cruelty and viciousness that particularly attracted their attention. Legends of the ease with which Ismail could behead or torture laborers or servants he thought to be lazy are numerous. According to a Christian slave, Moulay Ismail had more than 36,000 people killed over a 26-year period of his reign.<ref group="C1903" name="Castries 1903 17">{{harvnb|Castries|1903|p=17}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Lawrence|first=Paul R. |author-link= Paul R. Lawrence|title=Driven to Lead: Good, Bad, and Misguided Leadership  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nNotNKHSLPQC&q=Moulay+Isma%C3%AFl+bloodthirsty&pg=PA261|year=2010|publisher=John Wiley and Sons|isbn=978-0-470-62384-8}}</ref> According to [[François Pidou de Saint Olon]], Moulay Ismail had 20,000 people assassinated over a twenty-year period of his reign.<ref group="C1903" name="Castries 1903 18">{{harvnb|Castries|1903|p=18}}</ref> He was described by many authors, including Dominique Busnot, as a "bloodthirsty monster".<ref group="C1903" name="Castries 1903 24">{{harvsp|Castries|1903|p=24}}.</ref><ref name="GBR">{{Cite web |date=3 March 2008 |title=Some magical Moroccan records |url=http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2008/03/080303.aspx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100313155522/http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2008/03/080303.aspx |archive-date=13 March 2010 |access-date=20 March 2010 |website=Guinness World Records |publisher=Guinness World Records Limited}}.</ref> However, researcher such as [[Richard Bordeaux Parker]] opined that frequently-told stories about the ten of thousands of Christian slaves' forced labours and the large dungeons where they were kept were exaggerated from the accounts of European ambassadors who visited Isma'il's court.{{sfn|Parker|1981|p=106}}{{sfn|Bloom|2020|p=263–267}} Bordeaux Parker and [[Jonathan M. Bloom]] found the number of Christian slaves was likely closer to a few thousand at most and the chambers which suspected as slave prisons were actually storage rooms for grain and food supplies.{{sfn|Parker|1981|p=106}} The urban legends about [[Qara Prison]] holding thousands of them are disputed by Marianne Barrucand as she opined it is largely for food silos.<ref name='"Les relations entre ville et ensemble palatial dans les " villes impériales " marocaines : Marrakech et Meknès"'>{{cite book |last=Barrucand|first=Marianne|quote=Les relations entre ville et ensemble palatial dans les " villes impériales " marocaines : Marrakech et Meknès|date=2019-11-18|url=http://books.openedition.org/pul/19372|title=Les Palais dans la ville : Espaces urbains et lieux de la puissance publique dans la Méditerranée médiévale|pages=325–341|editor-last=Boucheron|editor-first=Patrick|series=Collection d’histoire et d’archéologie médiévales|publisher=Presses universitaires de Lyon|isbn=978-2-7297-1086-6|access-date=2020-06-07|editor2-last=Chiffoleau|editor2-first=Jacques}}</ref>

Moulay Ismail was also a very good horseman, with great physical strength, agility, and extraordinary cleverness, which he maintained even in his old age.<ref group="L" name="Audiffret 379" /><ref group="C1903" name="Castries 1903 18" /> "One of his normal entertainments was to draw his sword as he mounted his horse and decapitate the slave who held the stirrup."

His physical appearance is almost always described in the same way by the Europeans. He had "a long face, more black than white, i.e. very mulatto," according to Saint-Amans, ambassador of [[Louis XIV]], who added that "he is the strongest and most vigorous man of his State." He was of average height and he inherited the colour of his face from his mother, who had been a black slave.<ref group="L" name="Audiffret 379" /><ref group="L" name="Audiffret 376" />

According to [[Germain Moüette]], a French captive who lived in Morocco until 1682:
{{blockquote|He is a vigorous man, well-built, quite tall but rather slender... his face is a clear brown colour, rather long, and its features are all quite well-formed. He has a long beard that is slightly forked. His expression, which seems quite soft, is not a sign of his humanity – on the contrary, he is very cruel...<ref group="L" name="Moüette 150">{{harvnb|Moüette|p=150}}.</ref>|Germain Moüette ''Relation de la captivité du Sr. Mouette dans les royaumes de Fez et de Maroc,'' p.150}}