Morocco travel guide

Huet, K and Lamazou, T Sous les toits de terre Casablanca: Belvisi/Publication (1988). Superb portrait in coloured line drawings and text of life in the Vallée des Aït Bougmez.

Ouazzani, T’hami La colline des potiers Casablanca: Editions LAK International (1993). Introduction to the pottery of Safi. A superbly produced book which will no doubt become a collector’s item.

Bennani-Chraïbi, Mounia Soumis et rebelles, les jeunes au Maroc Casablanca: Editions Le Fennec (1994). Good, readable account based on interviews on what it feels to be young and aspiring in Morocco today.

Crapanzano, Vincent Tuhami, story of a Moroccan Chicago University Press (1980). Life and times of an illiterate Moroccan tilemaker – and a great storyteller.

Dwyer, K Moroccan Dialogues: Anthropology in Question Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press (1982). A classic of anthropology writing.

Abun-Nasr, J M History of the Maghreb in the Islamic Period Cambridge: CUP (1987). Densely written scholarly account of the Islamic history of North Africa.

There is a growing amount of contemporary fiction in Arabic and French. The most translated writers include Tahar Ben Jelloun, Mohammed Choukri and Driss Chraïbi. The latter’s Le Passé simple is an outstanding autobiographical piece of writing. You will probably easily find Paul Bowles’ translations of stories by Mohammed Mrabet and Driss Ben Hamed Charhadi. Also translated are Brick Ousaïd and Abdelhak Serhane. If you read French, look out for Lotif Akalay (Les nuits d’Azed), Mahi Binebine and Fouad Laroui. Rachid O. (L’enfant ébloui, Plusieurs vies) and Paul Smaïl (Vivre me tue) are both published in France, but write with a vigourous spoken-language style. In Arabic, Mohammed Berrada and Mohammed Zezaf are highly regarded.

European writers working in a Moroccan background or on North African themes include the following:

Busi, Aldo Sodomies in Elevenpoint London: Faber and Faber (1992). The title sets the tone. Adventures of an Italian novelist in Agadir and Taroudant.

Goytisolo, Juan Makbara London: Serpent’s Tail (1993). Surreal tale shifting between Morocco and Paris by Spain’s leading writer – who resides partly in Marrakech.

The early 2000s saw a spate of road improvement schemes across Morocco, and road map publishers have found it hard to keep pace.

Michelin 959 is probably the most accurate.

Maxwell, Gavin Lords of the Atlas London (1966).

Meakin, B The Land of the Moors London (1901).

Ogrizek, Doré L’Afrique du Nord Paris: Editions Odé (1952).

Potocki, Jean Voyage en Turquie et en Egypte, en Hollande at au Maroc Paris: Fayard (1980).

Potocki, Jean Voyage dans l’Empire du Maroc fait en l’année 1791 Paris: Dédale (1997).

Secret, Dr Edmond Les sept printemps de Fès Privately published (1990). Memoires of one of the first French doctors to work in Fès.

Vieuchange, M Smara: The Forbidden City New York: Ecco Press (1987, reprint). A heart- breaking account of a painful and fatal journey.

Dickinson, M Long Distance Walks in North Africa Crowood Press (1991).

Fougerolles, A Le Haut Atlas central. Guide alpin with many good diagrams and maps.

Peyron, M La grande traversée de l’Atlas marocain (also apparently available in an English version). Describes trekking in the Toubkal region and beyond.

Bergiers, P and Bergier, F A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Morocco Perry: Prion Ltd. This is a slim but useful guide to the best localities in Morocco for bird observation. Good site maps and fairly comprehensive species list.

Blamey, M and Grey-Wilson, C Mediterranean Wild Flowers London: Harper Collins (1993). Beautifully illustrated and comprehensive guide to the flowers of this region. Biased towards coastal areas and not particularly easy for the non-specialist to use. Many Moroccan endemics are not described. Highly recommended nonetheless.

Morocco’s sporting heroes are footballers and runners. The country has been particularly successful in international athletics. In 1984, Saïd Aouita won the 5000 m at the Los Angeles Olympics, and went on to set five world records, ranging from the 1500 m to the 5000 m. Other Moroccan athletes went on to imitate his success, including Brahim Boutayeb, Khalid Skah and Hichem Guerouj. Women’s sport is catching up. At the 1984 Olympics, Nawal Moutawakil unexpectedly won the 400 m hurdles, the first major title won by an Arab woman in an international competition – and is now a cabinet member. Like Aouita and Guerouj, Moutawakil provides a model for aspiring Moroccan athletes to look up to. Events like the Marrakech marathon attract numerous participants and much media coverage.

Above all, however, Moulay Ismaïl’s authority depended on a special corps of black slave troops, the Abid Bukhari. By the end of his long reign, Moulay Ismaïl had a loyal force of some 150,000 men, ever ready to deal with Ottoman encroachments or Sanhaja Berber rebellion. By 1686, the sultan’s authority was complete, with only remote mountain areas outside his control. Such a security force required considerable resources, which meant resorting to rather un-Islamic forms of taxation. Repressive taxation produced resentment in the already defiant cities, notably Fès.

After the decay of Saâdian power, a second cherifian dynasty, the Alaouites, originally from the oases of the Tafilalet (southeastern Morocco), came to power. The first sovereigns, Moulay Rachid (1666-1672) and Moulay Ismaïl (1672-1727), a tireless builder, restored order. As Fès and Marrakech had risen against him, he created a vast new capital at Meknès: with a large palace and four mosques, he transformed a provincial town into a regal city.

There seems to have been major political and strategic motives behind the decision to centre Alaouite authority on Meknès. It enabled the sultan to avoid identifying himself too closely with the interests of either Fès or Marrakech. Meknès was also very central, and better situated for campaigning against the Middle Atlas Berbers and it was more distant than Fès from Turkish dominated lands further east.

After a period of chaos in the 1730s, the work of Moulay Ismaïl continued under Mohammed Ben Abdallah (1757-1790). Stability was restored, and the influence of Moulay Ismaïl’s Abid army was ended. Many of the presidios were re-taken, including Mazagan (today’s El Jadida), while Essaouira was fortified. In 1760, the port of Anfa (today’s Casablanca) was fortified, and Christian merchants were exempted from customs duties as an incentive to settle. Morocco came to be respected by the European powers.

The key event in shaping Morocco’s history was the conquest by the Muslim Arabs in the eighth century AD. Islam, the religion of the Prophet Mohammed, was born in the oases of Arabia in the seventh century AD. It gave the warring Arab tribes and oasis communities, formerly pagan, Jewish and maybe Christian, the necessary cohesion to push back the Byzantine and Sassanian Empires, exhausted by years of warfare. Mesopotamia and Syro-Palestine, along with Egypt, were quickly taken – the population of the latter, Christian heretics in the eyes of Byzantium, welcomed the invaders. The first Arab conquerors of North Africa founded Kairouan (in present-day Tunisia) in AD670, and pushed on as far as the Atlantic.

In eighth-century North Africa, Islam was welcomed by the slaves – who freed themselves by becoming Muslims – and by Christian heretics, who saw the new religion as simpler and more tolerant than Byzantine Christianity. In 711, therefore, it was an Islamized Amazigh army which crossed the Straits of Gibraltar under Tarik Ibn Ziyed, conquering the larger part of the Iberian peninsula. Along with North Africa, the southern regions of the peninsula, referred to as Al Andalus (whence Andalucía), formed a unified socio-cultural area until the 15th century.

Islam, which vaunts a spirit of brotherhood within a vast community of believers, and condemns petty clan interests and local loyalties, was to prove an effective base for new states based on dynastic rule, with central governments drawing their legitimacy from their respect for the precepts of the Quran and the Hadith, the codified practice of the Prophet Mohammed.

From the moment that Islam arrived, Morocco’s history thus became that of the rise and fall of dynasties, often ruling areas far wider than that of the contemporary nation state. Simplifying heavily, these dynasties were the Idrissids (ninth century), the Almoravids (11th century), the Almohads (12th-13th centuries), the Merinids (13th-15th centuries), the Wattasids (15th-16th centuries), the Saâdians (16th century), and finally the Alaouites, rulers of Morocco from the 17th century to the present. Almost all these dynasties arose from politico-religious movements.

To return to the early centuries of Islamic rule in North Africa, the new religion took hold fairly slowly, as struggles between rival dynasties in the Middle East – the Ummayads and the Abbasids – divided the Islamic heartlands. The Islamic ideal was certainly not the only interest of the Arab governors sent out by the caliphs. Power was often exercised despotically, with repression leading to a major revolt against the Arab rulers (740-780) in the name of Islam. The revolt was of Kharijite inspiration – the Kharijites considering that they practised the most pure and egalitarian form of Islam. They rejected the split between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims and refused to submit to the authority of the caliphs of Damascus and Baghdad. Even at the end of the struggle between Umayyads and Abbasids in 750, and the victory of the latter, central Islamic power was slow to reassert itself in the northwestern extremities of Africa, which remained, along with the northern Sahara, independent as the Berber Kharijite Kingdom of Tahert. Then, in the mid-eighth century, an Ummayad descendant of the Prophet, fleeing the Middle East, founded the first great Muslim dynasty in 788. Idriss I founded Fès in 808. A further refugee Umayyad prince was to build a kingdom in Al Andalus, centred on Cordoba.

What made nomad tribal groups, living on the fringes of the desert or in remote mountains, seek to rule all Morocco? In the case of the Almoravids and the Almohads, it was religious doctrine which gave them motivation, while tribal solidarity provided the necessary cohesion. The Beni Merini, rulers of Morocco from the mid-13th to mid-15th centuries, were not champions of any particular religious doctrine. Nomads from the Figuig region, they appear in Moroccan history in the late 12th century, and grow in influence during the early 13th century.

In the 1250s, the Merinid forces took the main cities under Abou Yahya el Merini, and Abou Youssef Yacoub (1258-1286) consolidated their rule. The 14th and 15th centuries saw the Merinids build a state centred on Fès – but more or less constantly involved in struggles with mountain tribes and neighbouring dynasties – the Tlemcen-based Zayyanids, the Hafsids further to the east, and the Nasrids to the north in Granada. The entanglements of late-medieval dynastic politics in North Africa are tortuous, to say the least. What, then, was the importance of the Merinids?

Home to the Merinid court and administration, Fès grew as a centre of religious learning, too. Having conquered power in a land where political authority depended closely on religious credentials – as was the case for most medieval regimes – the Merinids tried to build legitimacy by sponsoring theological education. Medersas, operating rather like the colleges of some early European universities, were founded at Fès and in other cities, providing teaching reflecting the urban elite’s piety. Students, however, came from both town and country. In attempting to build an educated group with formal theological and legal training, the Merinids sought to counter the influence of Sufi leaders in rural areas.

The routes of the gold caravans linking sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa meant that any Moroccan dynasty had certain importance. However, as of the 14th century, new routes opened up, reducing the Maghreb’s importance. The Mamlouks in Egypt fought back the Christian kingdoms of Nubia, Spain, and Portugal began the quest for sea routes to the ‘gold coasts’. The epoch of the great discoveries began as the Portuguese explored the Atlantic coast of Africa. In 1492, Granada, the last Muslim stronghold in Andalucía, fell to Ferdinand and Isabella and Columbus sailed for America. The era of European imperialism had begun, and the Maghreb was first in the firing line as the Catholic monarchs continued the Reconquista into Africa. The two Iberian powers occupied strong-points along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts (the Spanish garrison towns of Ceuta and Melilla date from this time). However, under Iberian powers, resources were soon taken up with the commercially more important development of far flung empires in the Indies and Americas. And the Arabo-Berber peoples of North Africa (and the terrain) put up solid resistance.

Human settlement in Morocco goes back millennia. Rock carvings in the High Atlas and Sahara and objects in stone, copper and bronze have survived from early times. Nomadic pastoralism is thought to have existed in North Africa from around 4000 BC, among a population today referred to by historians as Libyco-Berber, probably part of the wider Hamito-Semitic group which eventually sub-divided into the Egyptians in eastern North Africa, and the Berbers to the West.

The enterprising Phoenicians traded along North Africa’s coast. Utica in Tunisia is thought to have been their first entrepôt in North Africa. Carthage (also in modern Tunisia) was founded in 814 BC, and was to develop an extensive network of trading posts along the Mediterranean and African coasts. Archaeological excavations at Russadir (Melilla) on the Mediterranean, and at Larache and Essaouira on the Atlantic coast have shown that these towns started life as Phoenician settlements. Daring Carthaginian seafarers also undertook journeys far to the south, along the West African coast.

Lost in the mists of ancient times is the history of the Imazighen, the Berber peoples of inland Morocco, referred to by the Romans as the Maures – hence the Latin name ‘Mauritania’ for the kingdom which seems to have taken shape in the fourth century BC over part of what is now Morocco. This early state may have had its capital at Volubilis, near modern Meknès and no doubt traded with the maritime Carthaginian empire.

After the defeat and destruction of Carthage in 146 BC and the establishment of the Roman province of Africa, it was only natural that the empire of the Caesars develop an interest in the lands of the Maures – always a potential source of trouble. (Roman forces had had considerable problems in putting down the revolts of the Berber kingdoms, the most difficult campaigns being in the eastern Maghreb against Jugurtha, 109-105 BC.) To establish stable rule in northwestern Africa, Augustus entrusted Mauritania to Juba II, son of Juba I, an enemy of Julius Caesar who had committed suicide after Pompey’s defeat in the civil war between Caesar and Pompey.

A cultured monarch, Juba II married Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony. From 25 BC, he reigned over much of what is now Morocco. Fluent in Amazigh, Greek, Latin and Punic, he was interested in the arts, sciences and medicine. His portrait in the form of a fine bronze bust was discovered during the excavation of the ancient city of Volubilis near Meknès.

An independent-minded Mauritanian monarchy was too much for Rome. The last king, Ptolomey, grandson of Anthony and Cleopatra, was put to death by the Roman emperor Caligula and the client kingdom was transformed into a Roman colony. Roman northwestern Africa was reorganized as two provinces, with capitals at Iol-Caesarea (Cherchell in Algeria) and Tingis, today’s Tangier.

Roman administration and Latin culture were grafted onto Punic and Berber peoples. An important influence was the army (as was also the case in Roman Britain). Right down to 19 BC, there was fighting in North Africa and the army continued to extend its influence. A major Berber revolt, led by one Tacfarinas, took seven years to suppress. Such tensions were probably generated as Roman centurions settled to farm wheat and olives on lands once grazed by the nomads’ flocks. Although not as densely settled as the province of Africa (modern Tunisia), the towns had all the trappings of Romanized urban life, and flourished until the third century AD.

Because of the development of French Algeria, Morocco increasingly found itself isolated from the rest of the Islamic world – and subject to severe pressure from the European powers who were steadily growing in confidence. France attacked Morocco for providing shelter to the Algerian leader, the Emir Abdelkader, defeating the Moroccan army at the Battle of Isly in 1844. Great Britain forced Morocco to sign a preferential trade treaty in 1856, while in 1860 a Spanish expeditionary force took the key northern city of Tetouan. Sultan Aberrahman was forced to accept unfavourable peace terms, with customs coming under foreign control by way of an indemnity; an ill-defined Saharan territory, was ceded to Spain. The departure of Spanish troops in 1862 left Morocco considerably weakened.

In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte led an expedition to Egypt. The lands of Islam became aware of the newly acquired technological power of European armies. Modernization was essential, despite the high financial costs, if colonial rule was to be avioded. The European peace of 1815 established conditions favourable to colonialism, and France, anxious to re-establish lost prestige, looked towards North Africa. Algiers was taken in 1830, and French colonial expansion continued throughout the 19th century, with a settler population of largely Mediterranean origin putting down roots. European farming grew, thanks to the redistribution of land confiscated after revolts and modern land registration. New European-style cities were constructed. Although Algiers fell with little resistance, the central Maghreb was occupied at a terrible price to the local population.

A reform policy had been launched, however, under a series of bright, dynamic sultans: Abderrahman (1822-1859), Mohammed IV (1859-1873) and Hassan I (1873-1894). Despite the latter’s efforts to expand his power base with the support of the High Atlas tribes, further treaties were imposed by Great Britain, Spain and France. The country ran into increasing debt problems with foreign banks. The situation continued to worsen under the weak rulers who succeeded Hassan I.

In the late 19th century, with the vast majority of the African continent under some form of colonial rule or another, Morocco figured as an exception when viewed through a European lens. Part of the reason for this was that Morocco had been spared colonial rule because the European powers could not agree on who should get the country. In 1906, the Conference of Algeciras brought 12 nations together to discuss the Moroccan debt. France and Spain emerged as key contenders for occupation. In 1907, following the killing of some Europeans during unrest, France occupied Casablanca. A new sultan, Moulay Hafidh (great-uncle of the present king), was proclaimed the same year. In 1911, with Fès surrounded by insurgent tribes, he called in Algerian-based French forces to end the state of siege.

The full occupation of Morocco was to be an arduous affair, with the tribes putting up heroic resistance and an area of the Rif (northern Morocco), establishing itself as an independent republic for a short period in the 1920s, thereby threatening the whole protectorate system’s stability.

The protectorate bore the firm imprint of the first French resident-general, Maréchal Lyautey – and the work accomplished during his 12-year rule was to leave a long-lasting mark on the country. Lyautey, a Roman Catholic aristocrat who had seen service in Algeria, Indochina and Madagascar – and witnessed at first hand what he considered to be the errors of the colonial system – was fascinated by Morocco; as something of a monarchist, he had great respect for the sultanate, and was thus not really disposed to intervene in the new protectorate’s traditional life.

Thus, the first period of French rule saw local institutions consolidated, alongside the gradual occupation of the main cities and the coastal plains. The sultan remained ruler, although executive and legislative powers were shared with the French resident-general. To govern the vast southern regions, the French relied on local Berber chiefs – Marrakech and its region was ruled by co-opting a local potentate, T’hami el Glaoui, for example. This meant that large scale forces did not have to be committed at a time when they were needed elsewhere. Exploitation of Morocco’s natural wealth turned out to be a capitalist venture, rather than a settler one. French private banks financed public and private building works and exploited mineral concessions through the Compagnie Générale Marocaine and the Omnium Nord Africain. Infrastructure development was impressive: 1600 km of railway lines were created, a major new port was constructed at Casablanca. Rabat was chosen as the capital, and other new towns were planned using the most up-to-date techniques. Working closely with the planner Léon-Henri Prost, Lyautey ensured that Morocco’s traditional cities were preserved – and carefully separated from the elegant new European quarters.

It was quickly realized too that the lands controlled by the sultan’s government, the bilad el makhzen (basically the coastal plains, along with the Fès, Meknès and Oujda regions), were the most fertile – hence the term le Maroc utile, ‘useful Morocco’. An increasingly dynamic European community undertook to develop the country’s resources to its own advantage, helped by tax concessions. By 1951, the European population had reached 325,000.

But for Lyautey, Morocco was not to be a settler colony, like neighbouring Algeria, where the French had shattered local society with such ferocity. Great efforts were made to understand Moroccan society – the rural areas were administered by the specially trained officiers des affaires indigènes, and special government departments were created to catalogue and restore Morocco’s heritage of historic buildings and crafts. Unfortunately, the knowledge of French experts often only served would-be colonists’ interests – take, for example, the exploitation by settler-interests of their data regarding the land necessary for a nomad family’s existence.

Ultimately, however, Lyautey may have been too ‘pro-Moroccan’ to satisfy a growing settler lobby. The fatal moment came in 1925. The Rif uprising, led by the enterprising Abdelkrim el Khattabi, imperilled the two protectorates. (In July 1921, the Rif armies had captured or killed around 15,000 Spanish soldiers at the Battle of Anoual.) Maybe Lyautey was felt to have been too hestitant – how could things have reached a point that the tribal army of the Rif Republic, led by a Muslim scholar, actually threatened Taza and Fès? Lyautey was recalled to France, replaced by Maréchal Pétain at the head of a large army which only finally defeated the Rifans in 1926 in co-operation with Spain. Fighting to defeat tribes resisting colonial incursions elsewhere in Morocco continued into the early 1930s.

Hardly had Morocco been ‘pacified’ than a nationalist movement arose. A focal point for nationalist resentment was the so-called Berber dahir (decree) of 1933, basically an attempt to replace Muslim law with Berber customary law in the main Berber-speaking regions. French colonial ethnography, which had provided the reasoning behind this project, had made a fundamental miscalculation: Morocco could not be divided into Berbers versus Arabs. The educated urban bourgeoisie demanded a reform programme in 1934 and, with the Second World War, the international situation clearly shifted to favour independence. The urban elite formed the Istiqlal (Independence) Party in 1944 – with the goodwill of Sultan Mohammed V. Although closely watched by the French, the Alaouite sultan had remained a symbol and had come to be seen as an instrument of French policy, and certainly not a collaborator. The situation under which the sultan was to all intents and purposes the resident-general’s unwilling puppet was viewed by the influential religious leaders as an outrage.

Tension grew in the early 1950s – under the Pacha of Marrakech, contingents of tribal horsemen converged on Rabat to demand the deposition of the sultan. In 1953 the resident-general, in violation of the protectorate treaty, deposed Mohammed V and replaced him with a harmless relative. The royal family found themselves in exile in Madagascar, which gave the nationalist movement yet another point of leverage. The sultan’s return from exile was a key nationalist demand.

The situation elsewhere in the French Empire was to ensure a fast settlement of the Moroccan question. France had been defeated in Indochina in 1954, and there was a major uprising in Algeria, considered an integral part of France by Paris. Extra problems in protectorates like Morocco and Tunisia had to be avoided. The La Celle-St Cloud agreements of November 1955 ensured a triumphal return from exile for the royal family, and independence was achieved in March 1956, with Spain renouncing its protectorate over northern Morocco at the same time. (The issue of the southern desert provinces under Spanish rule, like Río de Oro, was left to one side.)

The Saharan gold trade in the 11th century was to be dominated by a nomad Berber group based in fortified religious settlements (ribats), hence their name, el murabitoun, which transposes as Almoravid, the name of the dynasty (in English). Based in the northern Sahara, they founded a capital at Marrakech in 1062. Their empire expanded to include much of Spain and present-day Algeria.

In the 12th century, the Almoravids were overthrown by the Almohads, el muwahhidoun or ‘unitarians’, whose power base lay in the Berber tribal groupings of the High Atlas. United by their common religious cause, the Almohads took Sijilmassa, the ‘gold port’, and their empire expanded to include the whole of present day Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia along with Andalucía. This political unity, lasted from about 1160 to 1260. Towns expanded, distinctive mosques were built (along the lines of the Koutoubia at Marrakech), trade grew with southern European merchant cities, and Arabic took root as the language of the urban areas.

Morocco’s climatic zones are varied. While the northern coastal region is in the Mediterranean zone, the proximity of the Atlantic effects the classic Mediterranean pattern of mild, wet winters and warm, dry summers: depressions move across northern Morocco from the ocean, bringing heavier and more reliable rainfall than in much of the rest of the Mediterranean basin. The Atlantic coast in the south feels the moderating influence of the ocean even in summer, thanks to the cold Canaries current.

Away from the coasts, high altitudes and the influence of the Sahara produce a complex set of micro-climates. The further south and east you go, the more you feel the influence of the desert, including higher daytime and lower night temperatures together with greater aridity. Increasing altitude in the Atlas reduces temperatures and also means very cold nights in exposed areas, and higher risks of rain and snow in between November and March. Winters can be bitterly cold and wet throughout the Middle and High Atlas. Marrakech averages only 16°C in January, but 33°C in June. Rabat on the coast has temperatures in January of 19°C against 25°C in June.

With so many people dependent on farming for a living, the rains make the difference between a good and bad year for the Moroccan economy. Periods of extreme drought are disastrous for rural areas. Rabat on the Atlantic coast receives an average of 530 mm of rain, while Marrakech, further south and in the foothills of the High Atlas, receives only 230 mm. In the southeast, arid desert conditions prevail. Rain often comes in heavy showers, sometimes with intense thunder and lightning. In the north, this can occur at any time of year. During storms there is a high risk of flash floods, with oued beds carrying violent spates for short periods. Be very wary of venturing into an oued in your four-wheel drive vehicle at such times. If you are going to be travelling to Morocco in the winter, it is as well to have waterproofs with you, as well as good shoes or boots, as it really can bucket down.

The practice of Islam is based on five central points, the Pillars of Islam, namely the shahada or profession of faith, salat or prayer, sawm or fasting during the month of Ramadan, zakat or giving charity, and the hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca which every Muslim is supposed to accomplish at least once. The mosque is the centre of religious activity. There is no clergy in Islam, although major mosques will have an imam to lead prayers. In principle, the mesjed, a small local prayer-room, will have someone chosen from the neighbourhood with enough religious knowledge to conduct prayers correctly.

The shahada involves reciting the statement, “There is no god but God, and Mohammed is the Messenger of God.” A Muslim will do this at salat, the prayer ritual performed five times a day, including at sunrise, midday and sunset. There are also the important Friday noon prayers, which include a sermon or khutba. When praying, Muslims bow and then kneel down and prostrate themselves in the direction of Mecca, indicated in a mosque by a door-sized niche in the wall called the qibla. A muslim must be ritually pure to worship. This involves washing in a ritual manner, either at the hammam (local bathhouse) or the midha, the ablutions area of the mosque.

A third essential part of Islam is the giving of zakat or alms. A Muslim was supposed to give surplus revenues to the community. With time, the practice of zakat was codified. Today, however, zakat has largely disappeared to be replaced by modern taxation systems. The practice of zakat al fitr, giving alms at Aïd el Fitr, the Muslim holiday which marks the end of Ramadan, is still current, however.

The daytime month-long fast (sawm) of Ramadan is a time of contemplation, worship and piety. Muslims are expected to read one thirtieth of the Koran each night. Muslims who are ill or on a journey, as well as women breast-feeding are exempt from fasting. Otherwise, eating, drinking and sexual activity is only permitted at night, until “so much of the dawn appears that a white thread can be distinguished from a black one.”

The hajj or pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca is required of all physically able Muslims at least once in their life time and should take place during the month of Dhu al Hijja. The ‘lesser pilgrimage’ to the holy places of Islam is referred to as the umra, and can be performed at any time of year. Needless to say, the journey to Mecca is not within every Muslim’s financial grasp – fortunately, perhaps, as the mosques would probably be unable to cope with the millions involved, despite the extension works of recent years.

Literalist interpretations of the Koran would, however, lead to women to being pushed out of positions of responsibility in public life, although they would no doubt continue to operate in professions where they could work in women only institutions (hospitals, schools). Muslim fundamentalists, including the Moroccan Salafiya, claim to have the absolute monopoly on applying the letter of the Koran, in understanding the words of a book ‘written’ in the 7th century AD as a programme for social organization applicable in every time and every place. But as a reading of the text will show, Mohammed had no political programme: he was the vessel for the transmission of the divine word.

Women’s status in Morocco achieved a major step forward in 2004 with the reform of the country’s personal status code, the Moudawana. Under the original terms of the code, first drafted after independence and timidly reformed in 1993, women were essentially eternal minors, unable even to initiate divorce proceedings. While it does not actually go so far as to abolish polygamy, the new code advances women’s rights considerably. The unilateral repudiation of a wife is abolished and the taking of a second wife subject to the first wife’s approval. Women can now have custody of their children. Hailed as a major achievement, the new Moudawana is facing problems in application. The norms of married life vary enormously between social classes and regional groups. Paradoxically perhaps, in poorer areas women often seem to be the most vigilant guardians of the status quo.

All the usual soft drinks are available in Morocco. If you want still mineral water (eau plate) ask for Sidi Harazem, Sidi Ali or Ciel. The main brands of fizzy mineral water (eau pétillante), are Oulmès and Bonacqua, a new water produced by Coca Cola.

For a Muslim country, Morocco is fairly relaxed about alcohol. In the top hotels, imported spirits are available, although at a price. The main locally made lager beers are Flag, Flag Spécial, Stork, Castel and Heineken. In the spring, look out for the extremely pleasant Bière de Mars, made only in March with Fès spring water.

Morocco produces wine, the main growing areas being Guerrouane and Meknès. Reds tend to prevail. Celliers de Meknès (CdM) and Sincomar are the main producers. At the top of the scale (off licence prices in brackets), are Médaillon (90dh) and Beau Vallon (CdM, 90dh, anything up to 185dh in a restaurant). A CdM Merlot will set you back 45dh. Another reliable red is Domaine de Sahari, Aït Yazem. A pleasant claret, best drunk chilled in summer (30dh). The whites include Coquillages and Sémillant, probably the best (40dh). At the very bottom of the scale is rough and ready Rabbi Jacob, or, cheaper and still cheerful, Chaud Soleil. The local fig fire-water is Mahia la Gazelle.

A limited selection of desserts is served in Moroccan restaurants. In the palace restaurants, there will be a choice between orange à la cannelle (slices of orange with cinammon) or some sort of marzipan pâtisserie like cornes de gazelle or ghrayeb, rather like round short-cake. El jaouhar, also onomatopoeically known as tchak-tchouka, is served as a pile of crunchy, fried filo pastry discs topped with a sweet custardy sauce with almonds. Also on offer you may find m’hencha, coils of almond paste wrapped in filo pastry, served crisp from the oven and sprinkled with icing sugar and cinammon, and bechkito, little crackly biscuits.

Most large towns will have a couple of large pâtisseries, providing French pastries and the petits fours essential for proper entertaining. Here you will find slilou (aka masfouf), a richly flavoured nutty powder served in tiny saucers to accompany tea but you won’t find maâjoun, the Moroccan equivalent of hash brownies, made to liven up dull guests at wedding parties. (On the more disastrous effects of maâjoun.)

Seksou (couscous) is the great North African speciality. Granules of semolina are steamed over a pot filled with a rich meat and vegetable stew. Unlike Tunisian couscous, which tends to be flavoured with a tomato sauce, Moroccan couscous is pale yellow. In some families, couscous is the big Friday lunch, an approximate equivalent of old-fashioned English Sunday lunch.

Tagines are stews, the basic Moroccan dish. It is actually the term for the two-part terracotta dish (base and conical lid) in which meat or fish are cooked with a variety of vegetables, essentially, carrots, potato, onion and turnip. Tajine is everywhere in Morocco. Simmered in front of you on a brasero at a roadside café, it is always good and safe to eat. Out trekking and in the South, it is the staple of life. For tajines, there are four main sauce preparations: m’qalli, a yellow sauce created using olive oil, ginger and saffron; m’hammer, a red sauce which includes butter, paprika (felfla hlwa) and cumin; qudra, another yellow sauce, slightly lighter than m’qalli, made using butter, onions, pepper and saffron, and finally m’chermel, made using ingredients from the other sauces. Variations on these base sauces are obtained using a range of ingredients, including parsley and coriander, garlic and lemon juice, boussera, eggs, sugar, honey and cinammon (karfa).

In the better restaurants, look out for djaj bil-hamid (chicken with preserved lemons and olives), sweet and sour tajine barkouk (lamb with plums), djaj qudra (chicken with almonds and caramelized onion) and tajine maqfoul. Another pleasant dish is tajine kefta, basically fried minced meat balls cooked with eggs and chopped parsley. In eateries next to food markets, delicacies such as ra’s embekhar (steamed sheep’s head) and kourayn (animal feet) are a popular feed.

A dish rarely prepared in restaurants is djaj souiri, aka djaj mqeddem, the only plat gratiné in Moroccan cuisine. Here, at the very last minute, a sauce of beaten eggs and chopped parsley is added to the chicken, already slow-cooked in olives, diced preserved lemon, olive oil, and various spices.

Moroccan newspapers are produced in Arabic, French and Spanish. The main political parties all have their newspapers. From the mid-1990s, the general tone of the press became increasingly critical, dealing with issues once taboo. Of the daily newspapers, Le Matin du Sahara and Maroc Soir give the official line. The party press includes L’Opinion, Libération and Al Bayane. These newspapers are cheap and give an insight into Morocco and its politics. Coverage of overseas news is limited, but sheds interesting light on attitudes to major international issues. The daily L’Economiste is essential reading for some insight into the general economic climate.

More interesting, and generally better written, are the weekly newspapers, which include Maroc-Hebdo, and La Vie économique. The best discussion of contemporary issues is provided by Le Journal, which also provides major economic and business coverage. Morocco’s best newsmagazine is Tel Quel, see http://www.telquel-online.com. Téléplus has some cultural events coverage. Aimed at a sophisticated urban audience, the glossy monthlies La Citadine and FDM (Femmes du Maroc), have articles on issues concerning Moroccan women alongside the fashion features.

Radio Télévision Marocaine (RTM), is the state service, predominantly in Arabic and French. The news is given in Arabic, French and Spanish, with early afternoon summaries in the three main Berber languages. All agree that the RTM provides humdrum fare – hence the huge popularity of satellite television and the second channel 2M, pronounced ‘deux-em’, which started life as a pay station, broadcasting North American and European feature films and some local current affairs programmes. 2M’s news broadcasts are generally more lively than those on the RTM.

Although prices for many basics can seem very low indeed to those used to prices in European capitals, the cost of living is high for most Moroccans. At one end of the scale, in the mountainous rural areas, there is Morocco’s fourth world, still on the margins of the cash economy. In these regions, families produce much of their own food, and are badly hit in drought years when there is nothing to sell in the souk to generate cash to buy oil, extra flour and sugar. This precariousness means much ‘hidden’ malnutrition.

Conditions are improving for the city shanty-town dwellers. Here families will be getting by on 2000dh a month, sometimes much less. The urban middle classes, those with salaried jobs in the public and private sectors, are doing fairly well. A primary school teacher may be on 3000dh a month, a private company employee at the start of their career will make around 3000dh a month, too. This category has access to loans and is seeing a general improvement in living standards. Morocco’s top-flight IT technicians, doctors, and business people have a plush lifestyle with villas and servants available to few Europeans. And finally, a very small group of plutocrats has long been doing very, very well, thank you.

As a budget traveller, it is possible to get by in Morocco for £30-35/US$60-70 a day. Your costs can be reduced by having yoghurt and bread and cheese for lunch and staying in an 80dh a night hotel (you can often find even cheaper options in small towns).

Accommodation, food and transport are all relatively cheap compared to Europe and America, and there is a lot to see and do for free. However, this budget does not allow much room for unexpected costs like the frequent small tips expected for minor services. If you start buying imported goods, notably cosmetics and toiletries, foods and electrical goods, things can get expensive. Allowing £40/US$80 is more realistic.

The major unit of currency in Morocco is the dirham (dh). In 1 dirham there are 100 centimes. There are coins for 1 centime (very rare), 5, 10, 20 and 50 centimes, and for 1, 2, 5 and 10 dirhams, as well as notes for 20, 50, 100 and 200 dirhams. The coins can be a little confusing. There are two sorts of 5 dirham coin: the older and larger cupro-nickel (‘silver coloured’ version), being phased out, and the new bi-metal version, brass colour on the inside. There is a brownish 20 dirham note, easily confused with the 100 dirham note. The 50 dirham note is green, the 100 dirhams brown and sand colour, and the 200 dirham note is in shades of blue and turquoise. Currency is labelled in Arabic and French.

You can sometimes buy Moroccan dirhams at bureaux de change at the London airports but dirhams may not be taken out of Morocco. If you have excess dirhams, you can exchange them back into euros at a bank on production of exchange receipts. However, as European cash and Visa cards function in Moroccan ATMs (guichets automatiques), in major towns it is possible to withdraw more or less exactly the amount you need on a daily basis. At weekends and during big public holidays, airport and city-centre ATMs can be temperamental. The most reliable ATMs are those of the Wafa Bank (green and yellow livery) and the BMCI.

On the night of 14 May 2003, Casablanca was shaken by co-ordinated kamikaze bomb attacks targeting a Jewish social club and a major hotel. Over 40 Moroccans were murdered. Salafiya-Jihadiya fundamentalist groups organized these murders and the national security forces reacted with a wave of arrests. Summer 2003 saw the men responsible, including some of the suicide-bombers who survived, on trial. Some were condemned to the death penalty, which is not likely to be applied, however. The speedy trials were widely criticized as being more a vengeful reaction to the attacks than an attempt to apply justice. Nine of those found guilty escaped from prison in Kénitra in 2008.

Morocco has seen little urban terrorism and violence in recent years. The influence of purist strains of Islam grew among the urban poor in the 1990s, in part due to the authorities’ inability to provide any tangible improvement in standards of living. Moroccans have always looked with surprise and disdain at the mess created in neighbouring Algeria by the violence of fundamentalists and the ruling military, and closer ties are being forged with Europe. But none of this necessarily precludes attacks happening again in the future.

Cross Cultural Adventures, PO Box 3285, Arlington, VA 22203, T1-703-237-0100, piotrk@erols.com. Custom crafted adventures for independent travellers and special-interest groups, from private Atlas treks to soft adventures by Mercedes cars.

Heritage Tours, 121 West 27th St, Suite 1201, New York, T1-800-378 4555, http://www.htprivatetravel.com. Custom-designed in-depth itineraries. Specialize in cultural and historic tours, sahara encampments, crafts and architecture.

Acacia Adventure Holidays, LGF, 23A Craven Terr, London, T020-7706 4700, http://www.acacia-africa.com. Leading African travel specialists, offer a comprehensive selection of adventure holidays, overland safaris and tented and lodge safaris. Good value for money.

Africa Explored, Rose Cottage, Summerleaze, Magor, Newport, UK NP6 3DE, http://www.africaexplored.net. Overland camping expeditions and safaris which include a 3-week comprehensive circular journey from Tangier called ‘Morocco Encountered’, visiting the main cities and main sites, and a shorter 2-week Morocco Encountered with a flight back from Marrakech. Their 22-week Trans African expedition begins in Morocco and goes on through Mauritania to Nairobi.

Atlas Mountain Information Service (AMIS), 26 Kircaldy Rd, Burntisland, Fife, KY3 9HQ T01592-873546. Small agency run by the very knowlegable Hamish Brown, who organizes treks and climbing trips.

The Best of Morocco, Sneed Park, Sneed, Wiltshire SN12 0NZ, UK, T01380-828533, http://www.morocco-travel.com. Offer unlimited flexibility using quality hotels.

Exodus Travels, T020-8772 3822, sales@exodus.co.uk, http://www.exodus.co.uk. Well-established worldwide operator.

Explore Worldwide, 1 Frederick St, Aldershot, Hants GU11 1LQ, T0125-319448, http://www.exploreworldwide.com. Offers small exploratory accompanied travels. On offer are eight days in the Jbel Siroua including Taroudant; 15 days trekking in the High Atlas attempting an ascent of Mount Toubkal; 15 days in the sparsely populated Jbel Saghro; 15 days exploring the mountains, desert and coasts in winter; 15 days visiting the imperial cities of Marrakech, Rabat, Fès and Meknès then moving on into the great sand sea. This group attempts to make the impact of tourism positive – by taking small groups, dealing with local suppliers for transport and food and controlling litter and waste disposal.

Guerba, Guerba Adventure & Discovery Holidays, Wessex House, 40 Station Rd, Westbury, Wiltshire, BA13 3JN, T01373-858956 (brochures), T826611 (reservation), http://www.guerba.com. Tours and treks.

Imaginative Traveller, 1 Betts Av, Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, IP5 3RH, T0845-0778802, http://www.imaginative-traveller.com. Has well trained, motivated ground-staff who have worked in lots of countries. As you would expect, an imaginative choice of hotels. Main clients are experienced travellers with professional jobs who do not have the time to set up holidays for themselves. Lots of free time built into schedules.

Naturally Morocco, T01239-710814, http://www.naturallymorocco.com. Recommended, environmentally responsible company with lots of Moroccan experience and expertise.

Australia, 11 West St, Sydney, NSW 2060, T9576711.

Moroccan National Tourist Board (ONMT) http://www.visitmorocco.org.

Belgium, 66 Rue du Marché-aux-Herbes, Brussels 1040, T027361100.

Canada, 2 Carlton St, Suite 1803, Toronto, Ontario M5B 1K2, T416-5982208.

France, 161 Rue Saint-Honoré, Place du Théâtre-Français, 75001 Paris, T1-42604724.

Germany, 59 Graf Adolf Strasse, 4000 Dusseldorf, T211370551/2.

Sweden, Sturegaten 16, Stockholm 11436, T66099.

Switzerland, Schifflande, 5, 8001 Zurich, T2527752.

UK, 205 Regent St, London, T020-7437 0073.

February

Salon du livre, Casablanca. Morocco’s biggest annual bookfair. Prix du Grand Atlas, literary events

May

Les Alizés, Essaouira. Small classical music festival in early May, http://www.alizesfestival.com. Festival des Musiques Sacrées, Fès – generally late May running into June. Attracts a strange mixture of the spiritual, the hippy and the wealthy. Accompanied by popular music concerts open to all. See http://www.fesfestival.com. Mawazine Festival, Rabat. The capital comes alive with world music and pop concerts held in various venues. Whitney Houston closed the 2008 festival.

May/June

Tanjazz Tangier jazz festival, mixture of free and paying concerts, http://www.tanjazz.org. June L’Boulevard, Casablanca. Annual urban music (hip-hop, electro, fusion, rock etc) festival, http://www.boulevard.ma. Festival Gnaoua, Essaouira. One of Morocco’s most successful music festivals, http://www.festival-gnaoua.co.ma. Festival Rawafid des créateurs marocains de l’étranger, Casablanca. Late July. Focusing on work by Moroccan creative artists abroad. Music and film.

August

Arts Festival, Asilah. Paintings of the médina, festival now in its 30th year.

September

Festival international du film méditerranéen, Tetouan. Long-established but slightly erratic small film festival.

October

Festival of the Almond Blossom, Tafraoute, near Agadir.

Honey Festival, Immouzer des Ida Outanane.

Moussem de Sid Ahmed Ben Mansour, Moulay Bousselham, north of Kenitra.

Moussem de Sidi Mohammed Ma El Ainin, Tan Tan.

Festival of Sea Produce, Al Hoceïma.

Marriage Festival, Imilchil in the last week of September/first week of October). Horse Festival, Tissa near Fès. Moussem of Moulay Idris al Azhar, Fès.

Mountain bikes, mopeds and sometimes small motorcycles can be hired in tourist towns. There is no shortage of mechanics to fix bikes and mopeds. Trains, buses and even grands taxis will take bikes for a small fee. Some European companies now run cycling holidays, with bikes being carried on vans on the longer stretches. Off-road biking is popular near Tafraoute in the Anti-Atlas and the Gorges du Dadès.

If you go touring with a bike or motorcycle, beware of the sun. Wear gloves, cover those bits of exposed skin between helmet and T-shirt. For motorcyclists, helmets are complusory and gendarmes will be happy to remind you of the fact.

Riding a motorbike in Morocco is even more testing than driving a car. Watch out for stray pedestrians and note that vehicle drivers will not show you much respect. Where flocks of animals are straying across the road, try not to drive between a single animal and the rest of the flock, as it may well try to charge back to join the rest. Use your horn. If you are going to go off-road, wear boots and make sure your tyres are in tiptop condition.

Domestic bus services are plentiful. Price variations are small while the quality of service varies enormously. Broadly speaking, if the train, a Supratours bus or grands taxi run to your destination, don’t bother with the small bus companies. For early morning services it’s worth getting your ticket in advance, also at peak times when many Moroccans are travelling, like the end of Ramadan and around Aïd el Kebir (two months after the end of Ramadhan). You will find that there is a man who helps stow luggage on the roof or in the hold, so have a couple of dirham coins handy for him. Interailers note: the pass is not valid with Supratours.

As distances are great having a car makes a huge difference to the amount you can cover. All the main hire car companies are represented and there are numerous small companies which vary hugely in reliability. The smallest car available is generally a Fiat Uno, more rarely a Renault 4. A large number of agencies now have Fiat Palios in their fleets. The Peugeot 205 is felt to be a more reliable small car, with slightly higher clearance and better road holding. A good deal would give you an Uno for 500dh a day, unlimited mileage, although some Marrakech agencies can be cheaper. Four-wheel drives available in Morocco include the Suzuki Gemini (two persons) and the Vitara (four persons), at around 800dh per day; long-base Mitsubishi Pajeros (6 persons) are hired at 900-1,000dh per day. Toyotas are said to be the best desert 4WDs. Landrovers are very uncomfortable for long cross-country runs on road, especially in summer without air conditioning. There is huge demand for hire cars during the Christmas and Easter breaks. Always try to have the mobile phone number of an agency representative in case of emergency. Most cars do not as yet use unleaded petrol – if you have one that does, you will find that not all petrol stations have unleaded, especially in the south. Always drive more slowly than you would in Europe.

Remember that you are responsible for damage if you take a car unsuited to the piste into areas suitable only for 4WDs. Regarding insurance, the best agencies will provide all risk insurance. Check for scratches and especially tyre condition (this includes spare tyre), presence of jack and warning triangle, working lights and safety belts. When hiring an all-terrain vehicle, try to ascertain that the agency you are hiring from has a reliable, well-maintained fleet. Make sure that the vehicle will go into four-wheel drive easily.

Long distance grands taxis, generally Mercedes 200 saloon cars, run over fixed routes between cities, or within urban areas between centre and outlying suburbs. There is a fixed price for each route and passengers pay for a place, six in a Mercedes, nine in a Peugeot 504 estate car. Taxis wait until they are full. You may, however, feel rich enough to pay for two places in order to be comfortable at the front (and be able to wear a safety belt). In a Peugeot estate, the best places are undoubtedly at the front, or, if you are quite small, right at the back. The middle place in the middle row is probably the worst.

Between towns, grands taxis are quicker than trains or buses, and normally only a little more expensive. Each town has a grand taxi rank, generally, although not always, next to the main bus station. The drivers cry out the name of their destination, and as you near the taxi station, you may be approached by touts eager to help you find a taxi.

In mountain areas, the same system applies, although the vehicles are Mercedes transit vans (where there is tarmac) or landrovers, which have two people next to the driver and ten in the back.

EasyJet (http://www.easyjet.com) fly daily from London Gatwick to Marrakech. Ryanair (http://www.ryanair.com) fly daily from London Luton and Bristol, also to Marrakech. Atlas Blue (http://www.atlas-blue.com), a subsidiary of Royal Air Maroc, fly from London Gatwick to Marrakech and from London Heathrow to Tangier. The Ryanair flight from London to Fès is not running at the time of writing, though it is possible to fly indirectly to Fès with Ryanair by changing in Brussels, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Marseilles or Milan. Thomas Cook (http://www.thomascook.com) fly weekly to Agadir from Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and London Gatwick.

Casablanca’s main airport is at Nouasseur, 30 km southeast of Casablanca, T022-339100. The airport terminal has cafés, post boxes, bureaux de change and agencies for car hire companies. There are also ATMs on the main concourse, just after you pass customs. There is no hotel at this airport. Following the 2003 Casablanca bomb attacks, the airport was put off-limits to all but travellers with tickets. Those meeting travellers wait outside.

Onward travel is by train or taxi. The station is under the main airport concourse, and the Bidhaoui blue regional express train runs services on the hour to Casablanca Voyageurs (30dh), the main station for intercity trains. From here, you can take another train for the short ride to Casa-Port station, close to the hotels and the CTM bus terminal. You can also do this run in a red petit taxi, for around 10-15dh. Just outside the main door of the airport is the taxi rank. A grand taxi is 200dh to Casablanca city centre, 400dh to Rabat.

The main ferry route between Spain and Morocco is the Algeciras/Tangier passenger and car service (note that it is booked solid for cars in summer and around Muslim feast days). Algeciras has regular bus services from Gibraltar and Málaga, both towns having cheap flights from UK, and a train service from Madrid. The ferry terminal, near the town centre, has a ticket office and money changing facilities. There are similar facilities in the Tangier terminal. The ferry takes two to three hours, the catamaran an hour and a half, and there are normally between six and 10 services a day, either way, with some seasonal variation. Be a bit early for your ferry, allowing at least an hour to clear the police and customs, particularly in Tangier. Be cautious about scheduling onward journeys on the same day, in view of the delays. Check the Moroccan railways (ONCF) website for latest train times.