Marrakesh

“ As Abu Abd es-Selam el-Magiri proved to be a learned man of deep reading, I profited much by this chance acquaintance and listened with rapt interest to his statement that Marrakesh possesses a soul that has come down through many lives, that she has collected here many diverse beliefs and creeds from far-away Senegal and northern Africa and that every stone, every rampart whispers infinite tales to those whose ears are attuned. ”

“ Marrakesh. one leading to the palace, the other to a mosque, are said to have been transported block by block from Spain.
The local industries have greatly fallen off. Whole streets, formerly inhabited by carriers, are now deserted, and the famous "Marocco" wares formerly prepared by the Moors exiled from Cordova are no longer produced in Marrakesh. The best leatherwork is now made in Fez, although the southern capital still does a large trade in skins with the southern districts of the Atlas. ”

“ Fez, Tetuan, Tangier, have Spanish blood in them: Marrakesh is African to the core. Arabs here are in a minority: the spare Saharowi type, the shaved lip and cheeks and pointed chin-tuft of the Berber race, men from the mysterious sandy steppes below Cape Bojador, Soudanese blacks, men from Wadnoon—one and all congregate in this city. Even the music and songs are, naturally enough, all African, with the strange interval, the rhythm which halts and races where no European music ever halted or raced ”

“ The Sultan's Garden.
Photo by A. Cavilla, Tangier.
Of all filthy quarters in the filthiest of cities, I think the Jewish Quarter in Marrakesh has a fair chance of ranking first,—outside it, rubbish, a manure-heap eighty feet high, which no one troubles to remove; inside the walls, black mud, feet deep, streets which are sewers, collections of dead dogs, rotting vegetables, refuse of all sorts; amongst it all, a dirty people, callous beyond belief as regards sanitation, with sore heads, sore eyes, matted rags. ”

“ I was told by many of the residents that no political propaganda is felt here in Marrakesh, where, perhaps more than in any other part of Morocco, the native life flows along in its own channel, not mingling with that of the French administration. Though I am not certain that this statement may be accepted literally, I very distinctly sensed the friendly attitude of the Berbers and Arabs toward the Europeans and did not remark those distrustful and hostile looks which one so frequently met in Tasa, Fez and even in Sali. ”

“ Morocco does not change save by compulsion, and there is no area of European influence below Tangier. Knowing one highway well you know something of all; consequently whether Fez, Mequinez, Wazzan, or Marrakesh be the objective, the travel story does not vary greatly. But to-day, Marrakusha-al-Hamra, Red Marrakesh, is the most African of all cities in Morocco, and seemed therefore best suited to the purpose of this book. Moreover, at the time when this journey was made, Bu Hamara was holding the approaches to Fez, and neither Mequinez nor Wazzan was in a mood to receive strangers. ”

“ Once a year the head of the state comes to Marrakesh to collect taxes and receive homage from the mountain tribes. With its great area the palace reminds one of the vast ruins of Mulay Ismail in Meknes, though there are no ruins here. In the large outer court the Sultan receives the chieftains of the mountain tribes and addresses them from a small balcony. Another court is given over to the palace slaves, who are for the most part black, owing to the long-established preference of the Alawite dynasty for Negroes and Arabs rather than for the more warlike, independent and unreliable Berbers. ”

“ It is consequently not strange that it should be the dream of rich men of Fez and Marrakesh to possess such women nor that these girls of the Sous, either captured or bought, often reach high honors in the harems of the Masters of the Mountains, of the pashas or even of the sultans. ”

“ Notwithstanding its imposing external aspect, Marrakesh presents inside the appearance of a decayed city. The ramparts, about 7 miles in circuit, not including the walls of the imperial park south of the city, are interrupted by wide breaches ; the thoroughfares leading to the seven gates are in many places lined move with ruins than with houses; more than half of the area comprised within the enclosures is occupied with waste spaces and gardens often lying fallow. The streets ”

“ Having come prepared to see the market disguised in native dress if necessary, we found that we were able to go there without much difficulty, and only escorted by one of the missionaries and a servant. Though slaves are bought and sold through the length and breadth of Morocco, it is not possible in any other city than Marrakesh for the European to see or know much about it. In the coast towns the sales are conducted privately. In Fez it is probable that they might be attended by others than Moors ”

“ His people were a vast concourse that covered the plain a furlong square, and included multitudes of women and children. Israel had come upon them at an evil moment. The people were murmuring against their leader. Six months ago they had abandoned their houses and followed him They had passed from Mequinez to Rabat, from Rabat to Mazagan, from Mazagan to Mogador, from Mogador to Marrakesh, and finally from Marrakesh through the treacherous Beni Magild to Fez. ”

“ But he was strong, my Lord el Hasan, and not easy to kill. In the time of a brief sickness that visited him the French took the oases of Tuat, which belongs to the country just so surely as does this our Marrakesh. They have been from times remote a place of resting for the camels, like Tindouf in the Sus. But our Master recovered his lordship with his health, and the French went back from our land. After that my Lord el Hasan went to Tafilalt over the Atlas, never sparing himself. ”

“ It boasts some large fandaks, notably that of Hadj Larbi, where the caravans from the desert send their merchandise and chief merchants, but no sane European will choose to seek shelter in a fandak in Morocco unless there is no better place available. There are clean fandaks in Sunset Land, but they are few and you must travel far to find them. I had letters to the chief civilian resident of Marrakesh, Sidi Boubikir, British Political Agent, millionaire, land-owner, financier, builder of palaces, politician, statesman, and friend of all Englishmen who are well recommended to his care. ”

“ The history of their decline differs from that of the Murabtis, whom they had displaced. They were not assailed by a great religious movement, but destroyed piecemeal by the revolt of tribes and districts. Their most effective enemies were the Beni Marin (``Merinides'') who founded the next Moroccan dynasty, the sixth. The last representative of the line, Idris IV., ``El Wathik''' was reduced to the possession of Marrakesh, where he was murdered by a slave in 1269.
The amirs of the Muwahhadi Dynasty were as follows:— 'Abd-el-Mumin (1145) ; Yusef II., ``Abu Ya`kub'' (1163) ”

“ He distributes the sovereign's doles to the poor on Maundy Thursday.
Almo′ra, a town and fortress of India, in the United Provinces, capital of Kumaon, 170 miles E.N.E. of Delhi, a thriving little place. Pop. about 10,560.
Almo′ravides (-vīdz) , a Moorish dynasty which arose in North-Western Africa in the eleventh century, and reigned from 1055-1147. The town of Marrakesh, built in 1062, became the capital of this dynasty. Having crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, the family gained possession of all Arabic Spain, but was overthrown by the Almohades in the following century. ”

“ When we drove up to his palace, one of the stateliest in Marrakech, the street was thronged with clansmen and clients. Dignified merchants in white muslin, whose grooms held white mules saddled with rose-coloured velvet, warriors from the Atlas wearing the corkscrew ringlets which are a sign of military prowess, Jewish traders in black gabardines, leather-gaitered peasant-women with chickens and cheese, and beggars rolling their blind eyes or exposing their fly-plastered sores, were gathered in Oriental promiscuity about the great man's door ”

“ The farther one travels from the Mediterranean and Europe the closer the curtains of the women's quarters are drawn. The only harem in which we were allowed an interpreter was that of the Sultan himself; in the private harems of Fez and Rabat a French-speaking relative transmitted (or professed to transmit) our remarks; in Marrakech, the great nobleman and dignitary who kindly invited me to visit his household was deaf to our hint that the presence of a lady from one of the French government schools might facilitate our intercourse. ”

“ But scarcely a century has elapsed since their union under one common Sultan, whilst the diverse population of the four States are solely kept together by the interests and feelings of a common religion.
The Maroquine Empire, with its present limits, is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean Sea and the Straits of Gibraltar, on the west by the Atlantic Ocean and the Canary and Madeira Islands, on the south by the deserts of Noun Draha and the Sahara, on the east by Algeria, the Atlas, and Tafilett, on the borders of Sahara beyond their eastern slopes. ”

“ They were ambitious and luxury-loving princes, who invaded the wealthy kingdom of the Soudan, conquered the Sultan of Timbuctoo, and came back laden with slaves and gold to embellish Marrakech and spend their treasure in the usual demoralizing orgies. Their exquisite tombs at Marrakech commemorate in courtly language the superhuman virtues of a series of rulers whose debaucheries and vices were usually cut short by assassination. ”

“ It is usual for the rulers of Morocco to change their residence from year to year, spending the winters in one of the larger cities, either Fez, Meknas, or Marakesh, and during the summer and autumn to make the long marches from the north to the south of the empire, or vice versa. The enormous retinue accompanying the Sultan, the quantity of baggage to be transported, to say nothing of the insufficiency of all commissariat arrangements and the entire absence of roads, renders these royal progresses matters often of several months’ duration. ”

“ Not only have the wives and concubines brought from beyond the great sand sea darkened the skin of the present generation of the Marrakshis, but they have given to most if not to all a suggestion of relationship to the negro races that is not to be seen in any other Moorish city I have visited. ”

“ One feels at once that something more than the thought of bargaining—dear as this is to the African heart—animates these incessantly moving throngs. The Souks of Marrakech seem, more than any others, the central organ of a native life that extends far beyond the city walls into secret clefts of the mountains and far-off oases where plots are hatched and holy wars fomented—farther still, to yellow deserts whence negroes are secretly brought across the Atlas to that inmost recess of the bazaar where the ancient traffic in flesh and blood still surreptitiously goes on. ”

“ It is true that until late years the Marocco Jew was exposed to some vexatious regulations. He was required to put off his sandals on passing the outside of a mosque, to wear a peculiar dress, and is still confined to a separate quarter in each town. But in ordinary intercourse between man and man the Jews of the coast towns seemed to us to have attained a footing of almost complete equality, due as well to their superior intelligence and commercial instinct, as to the tolerance which affinity of race and creed has developed among the people of Arab stock. ”

“ The Almohad conquerors who built the Koutoubya and embellished Marrakech dreamed a dream of beauty that extended from the Guadalquivir to the Sahara; and at its two extremes they placed their watch-towers. The Giralda watched over civilized enemies in a land of ancient Roman culture, the Koutoubya stood at the edge of the world, facing the hordes of the desert.
The Almoravid princes who founded Marrakech came from the black desert of Senegal, themselves were leaders of wild hordes. In the history of North Africa the same cycle has perpetually repeated itself. ”

“ This was more especially the case with Marrakech, a city of Berbers and blacks, and the last outpost against the fierce black world beyond the Atlas from which its founders came. When one looks at its site, and considers its history, one can only marvel at the height of civilization it attained. ”

“ The merchants and inhabitants generally of the city are very different in type [31] and character to those of Fez. Whereas the latter are fair, and generally most fanatical, the native of Marakesh is a good fellow, smiling and cheery, with far more of the traits of the negro than of the Moor of the north. In colour, too, he is much darker than the Fezzi, and many show more or less remote signs of negro blood, owing, no doubt, to their proximity to the darker tribes, and the fact that the slave-trade of entire Morocco filters through this city. ”

“ The religion of the Emperor of Marocco’s dominions is Islaemism, or Mohammedism, [132] which was first planted in West Barbary by the renowned Muley Dris Zerone, on the spot where the town and sanctuary of that name is built, being east of Mequinas, at the western declivity of the Atlas, near an ancient and magnificent ruin, called by the Arabs (Kasser Farawan) [133] the [147] Ruins of Pharoah; from hence assuming the name of (Deene-el-Wasah) the unconfined law, it quickly spread itself to the shores of the Atlantic ocean, to Bled-el-jerrêde, Sigin-Messa, Suse, and Sahara. ”

“ It is scarcely possible that either France or Spain can contemplate the conquest of the entire Empire of Morocco, as the result of the present impending crisis, the superficial extent of the territory being 219,420 square miles, and the population nearly 8,000,000, [1] of which a large proportion live in a state of perpetual warfare, occupying inaccessible mountain fastnesses, from whence they only descend to the plains for the sake of plunder. The inhabitants may be classified as follows: 4,000,000 Moors and Arabs; 2,000,000 Berbers; 500,000 Jews, and the remainder are of the Negro race. ”