...the fascinating Jemaa el-Fna Square,
between souks and Koutoubia
In Morocco, borders of Africa, gateway to Europe, the "imperial cities" are those which, over the successive Moroccan dynasties, have been the capital of the country : Rabat, Meknes, Fez, ....
Our visits where on November 2010, in a circuit completed at a run, at the pace of a fantasia, almost in apnea.
Marrakesh, almost a millennium of existence, a little less than Fez its historical competitor.
On the trade routes between Maghreb of the west and north Sahara, it is founded in 1071 by the Almoravids, at the confluence of two wadis on the very vast plateau of Haouz, 450 m. It originated with Berber Sultan Youssef bin Tafchine (also known as Ben Youssouf) and his wife the queen ("malika") Zaynab Nefzaouia, whose previous husband was the founder of the dynasty.
But, like Las Vegas would'nt exist without Lake Mead, Marrakesh would never have existed without the High Atlas massif, 25 km to the south (summit : the Djebel Toubkal 4167m) whose snow sparkles in winter, and especially that feeds its watershed.
Marrakesh is the capital of the Almoravid Emirate which extends from the Iberian center to the Senegal River and from Atlantic Ocean to Algiers.
Art and architecture, at the crossroads between Arab-Andalusian Umayyad heritage (already at its peak in Cordoba for more than a century) and West African and Saharan influences are typical.
The son of Ben Youssouf built the high (8 to 10 meters) and 19 km long adobe wall between 1122 and 1123.
Then in 1147 came other Berbers of the Anti-Atlas, south of the High Atlas, the Almohads. They hunt and exterminate the Almoravids, destroy their monuments in Marrakesh, replace them with other severe and majestic buildings.
The Koutoubia mosque is one of them.
Marrakesh is confirmed in its role as the capital of the Almohad Empire, which extends from Andalusia to Libya.
1125: the Berber tribal confederation of Hintata (southwest of Marrakesh) supports the Almohads, then the Marinids from the middle of the 14th century. It administered Marrakesh from 1269, which however then declined when Fez was preferred by the Marinids.
It becomes capital again at the beginning of the 16th with the Saadians. It is enriched by its conquests in Mali (gold mines), of Timbuktu, and finds its splendour with sumptuous palaces ; but in the 17th century, with the Alaouites and Moulay Ismaïl, Fez then Meknès are preferred to it.
The souks
Its thousands of stalls remind the Medina of Fez, here without slope.
But above all, less authentic : the malignant attitude of craftsmen-merchants towards the countless visitors, is striking .... of empathy.
Also organized by corporations, the very picturesque stalls stand along rather wide covered and winding streets opened with dark impasses, other mazes, punctuated here and there by decorated doors built in the 19th century.
Women, even on high heels, are much more veiled and masked than in our first visit in 2006 : veiled women, women’s secrets, women beauties?
Perhaps also modern women who will be the future of the local macho, or fortune teller, on El Fna Square, Pythi women?
Or chatting in the slender shadow of a plane tree, gossips, bold eyes.
Beautiful Kohl made-up eyes, hidden ugliness or beauties going to pray at the mosque?
Storks and rustic transport in Marrakesh
Marrakesh is also home for storks, most of them sedentary, which nest on top of the old pisé ramparts. And they’re cackling like castanets in their love parade.
Others keep the instinct of migration and fly off to other skies, an evening, above the minaret of the Koutoubia.
The traffic in the streets of Marrakesh is dense and noisy, petarizing, smoking, motley ; crossing an avenue is almost a sport.
All types of transport coexist.
We never get tired of the most modest, rustic, thrifty, authentically picturesque. Because they are the oldest which have been used by man : on foot, with an animal (the donkey very often), and of course... the wheel ; even if sometimes an engine is added. And no matter that the burdens are heterogeneous, implausible, original.
Even if in the flow of cars of all kinds are noticed flashy 4x4 (not yet SUV), driven by an easy youth, laughing, quite arrogant.
The Koutoubia mosque
The evening splendour exalts the ochre sandstone of the minaret of the Koutoubia, which lights up gently.
Its name comes the "Booksellers"; some 200 bookshops stood around it after its construction by the Almohads in 1158. Yacoub el Mansour completed his minaret in 1197, particularly with the lantern at the top.
It was inspired by the Great Mosque of Cordoba (8th century), then became the model for the 2nd version of the Mosque of Seville, the Giralda in the 12th century (converted into a cathedral after the reconquest), and for the unfinished Hassan Mosque in Rabat.
The square tower architecture of the minaret stands out from the luxury of Andalusian art, impressive by its harmonious proportions, the great symmetry of its facades, and the lantern surmounted by an arrow carrying four golden spheres.
It culminates at 77 m, which is as high as the posthumous arrow of Notre-Dame de Paris for example.
On the plateau of the region, it makes a landmark visible from afar, especially from the gardens of the peaceful Menara, in the perspective of the avenue of Prince Moulay Rachid, lined with a few false palms, real pylons relay for mobile phone.
2 km off the city and its agitations is indeed this haven of peace, a very harmonious pavilion at the edge of a large basin fed by pipes capturing the water from the High Atlas, in the centre of an olive grove whose the ground is beaten by the shoes of battalions of tourists.
A legend tells it was a rendezvous place for the sultan, who got rid of his one-night stand by drowning her body in the pool. So renewing the harem?
Did Queen Margot from the top of the Tower of Nesles in Paris draw inspiration for her lovers?
The Place of Jemaa el-Fna
Between the Koutoubia and the entrance to the souks of the Medina, when the sunset stretches shadows, a magical space is standing, a vast place of restaurants and typical attractions, the Jemaa el-Fna square (which may have meant "place of the dead" or of "the destroyed mosque"...).
It's the entertainment center of the whole city since the afternoon until the early morning, for the natives as well as for tourists.
The best way to enjoy this fascinating spectacle is to find a table on a terrace of one of the restaurant or café that overlooks the place.
Vast open-air theatre scene, colorful, joyful and lively, street show (halqa), here are the fortune tellers, monkey showers, snake charmers, local musicians and dancers...
... but also a series of stalls in small, mobile restaurants where you sit down and eat, sitting on benches that are enveloped in the evening by the smoke from the cooking, giving off multiple and appetizing smells.
The berber water carriers in their red robes are there only for decorum, under their huge conical hat, and whose only income would be the obol of the tourist who selfies at their side.
Should we pay for the picturesque? Those who embody it here seem authentic and very humble.
But so accustomed to begging and negotiating that their request becomes cumbersome, sticky.
Open your purse good people!!!
The demands are heavy and insistent, peremptory, especially on the part of snake charmers.
For all these street actors, however, there is their only income.
So what’s the price of the picturesque?
Don't try to "steal" a photo over the shoulder of a passerby ; you will be quickly spotted and almost invectived.
Snakes, thrown to the ground, placid and curious, with their heads erected, remain nestled on themselves, without seeking to escape. Others remain confined in a low container covered with a simple white rag.
The monkey showmen are also here ; this one seems disappointed with the handful of euros given by a tourist,... that even his animal claims.
Another offers, with a stretched finger, a photo to a visitor, or perhaps claims her due, for a "stolen" photo.
A group of black musicians and dancers (gnawas?) descendants of slaves, deafen the neighborhood with their tambourines and their chants, turning with a circular movement of the head the tassel of their chechia.
With the sun falling, the crowd moves towards the square in a clear halo that envelops the places with a light golden veil, when the shadows of passers-by, walkers, busy inhabitants stretch out, and the shadow of the minaret of the Koutoubia looms massive.
A place of legend, where, for a long time and still today, renowned storytellers gather, whose stories fascinate the audience.
But Marrakesh, it's also many other captivating places.
Like the dreamlike, quiet, harmonious and very elitist garden Majorelle, or the sumptuous palace of "La Belle" the Bahia Palace, etc...
...and a memorable "tourista" in the Ourika Valley (first visit this time in September 2006)...
... which, at the end of high laces leads to the ski resort of Oukaïmeden (2620 meters), "the ski resort above the palm trees", skiable for 4 months.
Thanks to the small WC of Juju, occasional refuge for tired spasmodic colon.
and then going to Casablanca, Rabat, Meknès, Fez, Volubilis...
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A pithy summary of Morocco's history
North-south geographical crossroads at the African continental limit towards the Ocean : Morocco.
Historically, the Maghreb has been inhabited by Berbers (also called the Moors). Nothing to do with the Arabs, future invaders from the East and Arabia.
Permanent but nomadic, they rub shoulders with several waves of invaders over time, often adopting their religion, but retaining a fierce autonomy in the mosaic of still bellicose tribes. A link in the entire history of the Maghreb.
Who are the invaders?
In antiquity,
12th century BC: the Phoenicians, merchant sailors go at least to the port of Essaouira (formerly Mogador).
5th century BC: the Carthaginians are there, strong power in North Africa.
End of the 4th century BC: creation in the north of Morocco of the kingdom of Mauretania (and not "Mauritania") by the Berbers.
From the 2nd BC to the 4th AD: the Romans consolidate Mauretania Tingitane (Tangier).
The dromedaries then introduced (only the horse was used until then) increased the autonomy of the Berber tribes.
Remarkable cultural, architectural and economic development during the reign of Juba II (husband of the daughter of Cleopatra and Mark Antony).
And foundation of the Roman city of Volubilis.
Around 439, capture of Carthage in Tunisia by the Vandals, who, by driving the Romans from the West make it the capital of their kingdom, far from mauretania Tingitan.
533-534: with a powerful army under the command of his already famous general Belisarius (left), the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian 1st the Byzantine (right) defeats the Vandals and pushes them out of North Africa.
However, the Berbers, accustomed to a certain autonomy, resisted, rebelled.
Arrival of Islam ; for a global vision of the Arab-Andalusian civilization
622: year 1 of the Hegira. Of Arabia began the conquest in 640 towards the west ; it reached the Atlantic coast around 705 with the submission of Berber tribes.
From then on, Morocco became the bridgehead of the conquest to the north and the Iberian Peninsula, via the Strait of Gibraltar.
But the huge Arab empire is mishanding itself. Strong resistance appears.
February 5, 789: Idriss ibn Abdallah, descendant of the prophet - he is the grandson of his daughter - founds, under the name of Idriss 1st the dynasty of the Idrissids and the city of Fez; he gathers together the Berbers of northern Morocco.
It is the 2nd Muslim kingdom after Andalusia to emancipate itself from the Caliphate of Baghdad. Dynasty that then erupts in successions.
1061: Nomadic Berbers from Western Sahara take possession of Morocco and found the almoravid dynasty who appropriated the Muslim religion; creating the city of Marrakesh, they then conquer Andalusia.
Around 1125: another dynasty of Berbers this time Mauretanians, the Almohads,intransigent Muslims and Puritans take power, from Spain to Libya. Their most famous sultan is Yacoub el Mansour. But the Christians are trying to reconquer. The Empire is vast and distended.
1269 to 1421: the Merinid dynasty succeeds him, and remakes the unity of the Maghreb, New dissensions; the Portuguese seize some coastal sites.
1472 to 1492: the Wattassid dynasty that took over comes up against the apogee of the Christian Reconquest.
After the Reconquista
1578: The Saadians, another Arab dynasty engages in holy war against the Christians, defeats the Portuguese, takes to the south Timbuktu in 1591 and Mali ; it enriches itself by controlling salt mines, gold, and strengthening the slave trade of black Africa.
Around 1660: the Alawite dynasty (descendants of Ali, son-in-law of the prophet) whose members lead a poor, meditative and virtuous life takes power.
1672 to 1727: from the same Alawite dynasty, a contemporary of Louis XIV, King Moulay Ismail reorganizes Morocco, fighting against the rebellious Berber tribes, the Ottoman Turks, the Christians. He was nicknamed "the Bloodthirsty".
The modern era
With the plague at the beginning of the 19th century and the decline of the economy, Morocco withdrew into itself and is exposed to European expansion ambitions.
1912: French protectorate. Lyautey assumes the role of Resident General (Governor). With great respect for Islam, he vouched for the country's traditional values, including local notables in his reorganization. Still honored by Moroccans, his situation is special in the history of the French colonial period.
1925: Predicting the natural "detachment" of Morocco, he is immediately excluded by the French government.
March 2, 1956: independence of Morocco, without too much pain on either side, unlike Algeria for example; this may be explained by the attitude of Lyautey governor.
The Residents who succeeded him, less sagacious, less intelligent, try to oppose Berbers and Arabs with the complicity of the rich Glaoui Berber pasha allied with France, provoking in reaction the commitment of the UNITED STATES alongside Mohammed V for independence.
The current King Mohammed VI, his father Hassan II are the direct representatives and descendants of the Alawite dynasty, hence their title of "Commander of the Believers", which gives them a certain religious legitimacy throughout the Muslim world even today.
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