MOROCCO 



317 



preserved, and the long-expected dtbAcle postponed. 

 Tlie only European nation which at present has 

 any territory in Morocco is Spain, which maintains 

 a fortress at Ceuta, and four convict settlements, 

 and a fishing-station at Ifui. But independently 

 of the sacred chiefs of Sus, the Grand Shereef of 

 Wazan, as the nearest descendant of Mohammed, 

 governs that city and is lord paramount or pro- 

 prietor of a large territory in the Migbboorhood : 

 where he is, or was before he became a French 

 subject and liecame addicted to Prankish ways, 

 almost as powerful as the sultan himself. 



Kiliirntion is at a low ebb. Few of the people 

 can read or write, a capacity to repeat by heart 

 passages of the Koran or of Al Bekkhari's com- 

 mentaries upon it, and the traditions l>eing almost 

 the sum of what is taught in the village schools. 

 The so-called 'university' of Fez is nowadays 

 merely a seminary attached to the chief mosque 

 for the training of religious acolytes. Printing 

 i- ^till an unknown art, save amongst the Euro- 

 peans of Tangier. There are no roads except 

 bridle-paths, and no wheeled carriages in the in- 

 terior except the sultan's state coaches. The chief 

 industry besides the rude agriculture of the Berliers 

 and Arals, and the breeding of horses and mules, 

 is the making of ' morocco leather, harness, slip- 

 pers, red ' Fez ' caps, cloth for native apparel, 

 the chiselling of brass trays, the making of rough 

 pottery and of inlaid Hint-lock muskets, and the 

 weaving of car|>ets (principally in Kahat). The 

 l>est mechanics ami the jewellers are Jrw>. 



The army has of late years been reorganised under 

 European officers, a Scotsman ( Raid Maclean ) 

 taking the chief part in this task, so that at present 

 there is a force (tbeAskar) of about 10,000 men, 

 drilled, armed, and clothed after an approach to 

 the European fashion, the rest l>eing mainly un- 

 disciplined native levies. Altogether, the sultan 

 is believed to be able to mooilise upwards of 

 100,000 men, and double that numlier should 

 the Faith be in danger. There is now no navy 

 imperial or mercantile a single steam-transport 

 representing the once-dreaded 'Bailee rovers.' 



Morocco is connected with Spain by telegraph, 

 and the telephone is in use in Tangier, Casablanca, 

 and other coast towns. The posts also are confined 

 to the Europeans. Morocco has three capitals or 

 imperial residences, at one of which the sultan 

 and his army reside at uncertain intervals and 

 for indeterminate periods. These are Fez (q.v.), 

 Makinas or Mequinez (q.v.), and Marakesch, 

 letter known as the City of Morocco (q.v.). 

 Beside these the principal coast towns are 

 Tangier (20,000 to 25,000 people); Tetuan (25,000), 

 a little way up the Martil River ; Larache ( El- 

 Arish), with 10,000 people (1800 Jews and 200 

 Europeans) ; Kaliat and Sallee, on opposite sides of 

 the Bu-Ragreb River (21,000); Casablanca, or 

 Dar-al-Baida (8000); Mazagan (5000); Sam 

 (SIKH)); and Mogador (q.v.). But all of them are 

 liT.-ixing, most of them in partial ruins, and 

 without any exception filthy, undrained, and 

 insanitary to the last degree. When not mere 

 collections of flat-roofed or thatched hut*, of sun- 

 dried bricks, around a kusbah or walled fortrc-s, 

 they are congeries of narrow intricate lanes, often 

 covered over with vines or reeds to keep out the 

 un. These lanes are lined with shops which look 

 like large packing-boxes, with the lids raised as 

 a penthouse and padlocked at night, or else with 

 whitewashed windowless walls, over which here 

 and there rise the square towers of a mosque. 

 But within these is often a pleasant courtyard 

 shaded by oranges and palms and cooled by a 

 fountain, into which open gaily Araliesqirc-painted 

 rooms, furnished with the rich carpets that con- 

 stitute the principal furniture of a strictly Moorish 



house. The sole accommodation for travellers is 

 caravanserais, with a yard for beasts and unfurnished 

 rooms for their owners. 



After being for more than four centuries a part 

 of the Roman empire, and in the latter period of its 

 sway veneered with a corrupt Christianity, ' Mauri- 

 tania Tingitana' fell (429 A.D.) into the hands of 

 the Vandals, who held it until 533, when Belisarius 

 having defeated them it became subject once more 

 to the Eastern Empire. But in the year 680 the 

 Arab invasion began, and with little intermission 

 the Arabs have ever since been possessors of the 

 country, and the entire population are now the 

 most fanatical adherents of Mohammedanism. At 

 first, with Spain, part of the ealifate of Bagdad, 

 it liecame divided into several independent nom- 

 archies, and during this period the country en- 

 joyed a prosperity to which it has ever since been 

 a stranger. After seeing^ the successive dynasties of 

 the Edrisite (789 A.D. ), Mahhditi, Zeiridi, Almora- 

 vidi, Almohadi, Beni Marini, Uatasi, Shereeti-EI- 

 hhoseini, and Shereefi EI-Fileli (or Alides), and 

 almost unbroken civil and foreign wars and revolu- 

 tions, Muley (Mulai = 'My Lord') Ismail (1692- 

 1727) united the entire country under his sway, and 

 as one empire it has, with occasional rebellions, 

 continued ever since. Morocco though now 

 more contracted than formerly, has at present, 

 with the exception of the Spanish 'presidios,' 

 no foreign strongholds on its coast, as there 

 were up to the year 1769, when the Portuguese 

 evacuated Mazagan ; anil since the unsuccessful war 

 with Spain in 1859-60 the country has not l>een 

 disturbed by foreign hostilities. But it is still very 

 backward. A passive resistance is offered to every 

 improvement, and, though Christian slavery and 

 piracy by government vessels have been abolished 

 since 1817-22, and foreign traders have nominally 

 had access to all part* of the empire, the interior 

 is not much different from what it was a thousand 

 years ago, and many cities and districts are still 

 dangerous or impossible to visit. The slave-trade 

 is as brisk as ever, negroes being openly liawked 

 jilniut the streets of the ports, and systematically 

 offered for sale in the markets of the larger towns 

 of the interior. The sultan's chief complaint against 

 the European representatives is that some of them 

 sell 'protections wholesale to his subjects, and 

 that tlius whole villages are passing from under his 

 sway ; while they justly insist that every obstacle, 

 short of absolute abrogation, is offered to the carry- 

 ing out of the treaty obligations, and that owing to 

 the long distance of the court from Tangier and the 

 almost continual al>sence of the sultan during his 

 punitory and tax-collecting expeditions it is nard 

 to transact any business with him. 



The city of MOROCCO (Arab. Marakesch, by 

 which name it is usually known among European 

 residents), the southern capital of the empire of 

 the same name, is situated in 31 37' 28" N. lat. and 

 7 36' 30" W. long., between 4 and 5 miles from the 

 left bank of the Tensift, at the northern end of 

 an extensive and fertile plain dotted with date- 

 palms, 1447 feet above the sea, about three and a 

 half days' journev from Mogador and Mazagan, and 

 two and a half from Satti. It is surrounded by a 

 lime and earth ('tabia') wall, once strong, but 

 now dilapidated, more than five miles in circum- 

 ference, lietween 20 and 30 feet high, flanked at 

 regular intervals by square towers, and pierced 

 by seven gates, some of which are said to have 

 l>een brought piece by piece from Spain. The 

 town is squalid and ill-built, though it bears the 

 marks of former grandeur, the mean, flat-roofed, 

 windowless houses on either side of the narrow, 

 irregular, unpaved, filthy streets, being mostly 

 one-storied and half in decay. A large portion of 

 the immense space within the walls is occupied by 



