... the stables of the bloody Moulay Ismail
and grain silos
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, Marrakech ....
Our visits where on November 2010, in a circuit completed at a run, at the pace of a fantasia, almost in apnea.
Founded in 711 by a Berber tribe, Meknes became a military stronghold under the Almoravids in 1061, then capital of Morocco in the 17th century; it is now the 5th largest city in Morocco.
But where are the famous colors, light and sun of North Africa on that day in November 2010?
Fortunately, in an old mosque that became the mausoleum of Sultan Moulay Ismail, here is the elegance of the arcades in broken vault and the central fountain of a patio, the stucco lace with the effects of gems, the recurring motif of the octagonal rose window.
Moulay Ismaïl, son of the 1st sovereign of the Alawite dynasty (that of the current ruler of Morocco) has a mother who is a black slave.
A contemporary of Louis XIV, he reigned for as long over his Cherifian empire (1672-1727) as the Sun King over France (1651-1715).
Between the powerful, it is even to the point that he solicits Louis XIV to marry one of his daughters Marie-Anne de Bourbon, Princess of Conti; one of his emissaries praised her beauty that stirred the Court (Louis XIV got it from his favorite Louise de La Vallière and legitimized her).
Our Versailles monarch carelessly ignores the request of Moulay Ismail - rather strategic alliance against Spain than love at first sight - and offers him in compensation, the skinflint, some Comtoise clocks that are still exposed in the mausoleum above...
At the same time, the hope of negotiating the redemption or exchange of French slaves captured by Moulay's privateers (25,000 Christian slaves in those days, more than half of them French) was fading to nothing.
All slaves of course perfectly treated : threatened with the whip, heavily chained, exposed to the murderous whim of the sultan himself who would have killed by his hand 20,000 people (not only slaves) in 20 years, and whose "one [of] ordinary entertainments was to pull his sword while riding a horse, and to cut off the head of the slave who held him the stirrup (Wikipedia)."
After taking Fez, the sultan chooses Meknes as the capital of his empire and undertook major works. 2,500 Christian slaves and 30,000 of his subjects worked there.
He protects the city with a rampart enclosure of more than 40 km, originally equipped with 70 gates.
The ramparts, as well as some large irrigation basins mark his reign, for the building of which Christian slaves payed a high price.
But this does not stop his works.
He built several palaces in Meknes that were to compete with the Versailles of the Sun King by their splendor, looting in particular the Roman remains of Volubilis, as Yacoub el Mansour had already done for his unfinished mosque in Rabat 5 centuries earlier.
Several royal palaces remain in the city, including the El Mansour Palace.
This row of vaults is one of the rather colossal remains of another of his achievements, the large stables.
They could accommodate up to 12,000 horses, tied by 4 to 3,000 pillars. The roofs and a third of the stables were destroyed by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755.
Close to the stables, the old grain silos, of the same colossal dimensions, built of adobe walls 4m thick maintained a cool temperature in summer and temperate in winter. They filled up to the ceiling.
Everything counts in the thousands, for this flamboyant and cruel mulatto potentate, whom his contemporaries say greedy, wordless, intractable. But organizer of a formidable army to inexorably unify his empire and pacify it.
As many... qualities that allowed him to achieve his goal, from the Mediterranean to Senegal in the years 1695, after having fought without defeating the Ottomans further east (Algiers), and, unleashed, after having beaten the Christians in the north (Spanish, English in Tangier) and the Berber tribes everywhere else.
Thus against the Berbers in 1693, 12,000 of their heads, 10,000 horses, 30,000 rifles were brought to him as a war trophy after a terrible battle.
For the warrior's rest, it was also 500 women in his harem; perhaps only they could overcome it, the unfortunate!!! He would have had more than a thousand children.
Like tyrants, his reign brings stability and security.
But Ottomans, Christians and family dissensions will bring him down later.
This gate of the city expresses the power of the lord.
and going to Casablanca, Rabat, Fez, Marrakesh, 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 Marrakech, 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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