Messaoud El Médioni (Saoud l'Oranais)

Messaoud El Médioni, known as Saoud l'Oranais, was the uncle of Maurice El Médioni and the undisputed maestro of Jewish-Arab musical nightlife in early 20th-century Oran. His cafe in the Jewish quarter of Derb was a legendary meeting place where Muslim and Jewish masters gathered to sing Andalusian Hawzi and Melhoun.

Saoud took the young blind girl Sultana Daoud under his wing, training her into the legendary 'Reinette l'Oranaise'. Fleeing to France during World War II, Saoud was arrested by the Gestapo in Marseille in January 1943, deported to Poland, and murdered in the Sobibor extermination camp on March 23, 1943, a tragic martyr of artistic brotherhood.