A little historical trivia I wanted to share.
In order to drive a wedge between the population of the colonies of Great Britain and France and their rulers Mussolini sought to appease the Islamic world as early as 1937.
During that year, in a lavish ceremony held in Tripoli, the Duce was bestowed the title of Protector of Islam by a local Ulema since, despite being a devout Catholic, Mussolini viewed himself as an heir of the previous Lybian caliph.
At the end of the celebrations a magnificent sword was gifted to him, after that the following picture was taken, the saddle of the horse was held by the halter by a groom but this image was not deemed martial enough hence the “photoshop”.
The Sword of Islam was then sadly lost during WWII.
Local Ulema Yusef Kerbisc carrying the sword
Original photo
“Photoshopped” version