IV. MOROCCO.
| Route | Page | |
|---|---|---|
| Geographical and Historical Sketch. Practical Hints | [93] | |
| 12. | Tangier | [98] |
| 13. | From Tangier to Tetuán (Ceuta) | [102] |
| 14. | From Tangier to Mogador by Sea | [104] |
Morocco, a region 270,000 sq. M. in area, extends from the Straits of Gibraltar on the N. to the Sahara on the S., and is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the W. and by the French colony of Algiers on the E. It is called by the Arabs El-Gharb or Maghreb el-Aksâ (‘the extreme West-land’), being the westmost part of the ancient Barbary (Arabic Jezirat el-Maghreb, ‘island of the West’), the long coast-land of N. Africa between the Libyan desert and the ocean. The backbone of this region, whose population is estimated at from six to eight millions, is formed by the Morocco Atlas, the highest mountains in N. Africa, a folded rock-formation, mostly of early origin. The range consists of three main chains: the barren Great Atlas, an enormous wall of rock culminating in the Tamyurt and Likumpt (about 14,800 ft.); then the Lesser Atlas to the N., rising in the territory of the Beni Waraïn tribe to over 13,000 ft., and separated from the Great Atlas by the Wâd el-Abid and the Mulûya; and lastly the Anti-Atlas and Jebel Sarro or Saghro, parallel with the Great Atlas, and about 6500 ft. in height. A low range of hills, called the Jebel Bani, between the Anti-Atlas and the river Draa, forms the boundary between Morocco and the Sahara. On the N.W. side of these mountains, between them and the ocean, lies an extensive intermediate tableland called the Tell, steppe-like in character, with a girdle of oases, whence protrude the Jebilet, the Jebel el-Hadid, the Jebel Akhdar or Lakhdar, and several smaller isolated heights, which are evidently relics of an ancient range of mountains. The seaboard itself consists of the plain between the rivers Tensift and Sebu (rendered extremely fertile by its mantle of black soil, Tuaress or Tîrs), and of the marshy flats on the lower course of the Sebu (ancient Subur), the most copious stream in Barbary. These occupy a district once penetrated by the sea, and geologically resembling the basin of the Guadalquivir (p. [49]). The entire Mediterranean coast, on the other hand, from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Mulûya valley (p. [124]), is bordered by the Rîf Mts. (p. [104]), a range culminating in the Jebel Mulaï Abd es-Slam (p. [102]; 5742 ft.) and the Jebel Tiziren (ca. 8200 ft.), these being folded mountains of recent formation, clothed with extensive forests of Atlas cedar (p. [210]) and arar (Callitris quadrivalvis L.). The Rîf Mts. and the Atlas are sharply separated by a deep depression watered by the Sebu and its tributary the Innaûen on the W., and by the Msûn, an affluent of the Mulûya, on the E., a valley which once formed the most important route between Morocco and Algeria. Both of these mountain-ranges are said to contain great mineral wealth (iron, copper, zinc, silver, gold, etc.), but as yet it has only been tapped to a small extent by the natives, chiefly in the Sûs, the region between the Great and the Anti-Atlas, and near Ujda (p. [197]).
The Great and the Lesser Atlas, whose chief peaks are covered with perpetual snow, afford also an abundant supply of water, which is utilized for irrigation, though as yet very inadequately, by means of open cuttings (sakhiâ) or underground conduits (foggâra or khattâra). The rainfall in Morocco diminishes as we proceed southwards from the Straits of Gibraltar; at Tangier it is 32 in.; at Mogador, 16 in.; while in the interior (as at Marakesh, 11 in.), and particularly on the S. margin of the Great Atlas, it becomes very insignificant. In the interior the climate may be described as continental (as at Marakesh, where the mean temperature of January is 51½° Fahr., and that of July 84½°), while that of the S. part of the ocean seaboard, thanks to the prevalent N.W. winds and the N. to S. ocean currents, vies with that of Madeira in mildness and equableness. Thus at Rabât the mean of January is 55°, that of August 75°; at Mogador 61° and 72°, respectively. The variations are greater near the Straits (as at Tangier, 50° and 75°) and particularly on the Rîf seaboard.
Morocco is inhabited chiefly by Berbers, the white Hamitic indigenous race of N. Africa; of these the Amâziges live in the N.W., the Berâbs in the Atlas, and the Shilluh or Shluh on the ocean coast. Some of them retain their ancient languages (Tamâzirt, or Shelha, and Berbri), which are akin to early Egyptian, but many, especially the dwellers in the low country, have spoken Arabic since the middle ages. Pure Arab Tribes, mostly survivors of the Beni Hilal and Beni Soleïm immigrants (p. [323]), are chiefly met with in the Sebu plain and in the S.W. steppe-region. Many of the dwellers in the towns are Moors (Andalûsi) of Spanish origin, while numerous Jews are settled, usually in a walled ghetto (Mellah), under the direct protection of the sultan. Negroes, too, most of whom were originally slaves, imported from the Sudan by way of the Tafilet, abound in the southern districts of Morocco. The S.W. provinces of Sûs, Wâd Draa, and Wâd Nûn, which are interesting on account of their primæval African flora (p. [30]), are mostly inhabited by the despised Harrâtin (sing. Hartâni), the hybrid offspring of negroes and Berbers, or, according to others, descendants of the indigenous population of N. Africa.
Owing to the inaccessibility of its mountains and the natives’ passionate love of independence, coupled with their hatred of foreigners, Morocco has ever been one of the least explored regions. The settlements of the Phœnicians and Carthaginians were limited to a few places on the coast, such as Rusaddir (Melilla?) and Ceuta, and also, beyond the pillars of Hercules (p. [54]), Tingis (?), Zilis (Arzila), Lixus (p. [105]), and Sala (Salee). The Romans also seem to have shunned the Rîf region, and scarcely ever to have penetrated into the interior beyond Meknes (Mequinez) in the Zerhun Mts. From the time of Emp. Claudius (42 A. D.) Morocco, with Tingis as its capital, formed the Provincia Mauretania Tingitana (comp. p. [124]); and after the reign of Diocletian it became part of the Spanish Provincia Ulterior. In the early Christian period also the coast of Morocco, whose inhabitants had joined the Donatists (p. [172]), shared the fortunes of Spain, belonging successively to the Vandals (p. [322]), the Eastern Romans, and (after 620) the Visigoths, until in 682 it fell into the hands of the Arabs under Sidi Okba (p. [322]), and then after long struggles was united with the caliphate of Damascus (p. [485]). Although the Berber tribes of Morocco were thenceforth among the most zealous champions of Islam, and in 711, at the instance of Mûsa, the governor, had undertaken their victorious expedition against Spain under Târik (p. [54]), yet they afterwards took part in the Kharijite movement against the Arabs (comp. p. [323]). In 788 Idris I. (d. 793), an Arab refugee and a descendant of the Prophet (‘sherif’), founded the oldest Moroccan dynasty, that of the Idrisides, and under Idris II. (793–828) Fez became their new capital in 807 instead of Volubilis in the Zerhun Mts. After the fall of the Idrisides the country was divided among Berber princes, and its independence was threatened by Omaiyades (p. [69]) and Fatimites (p. [323]) alternately. At length in 1055 it succumbed to the attacks of the Almoravides (Morabitîn, comp. p. [368]), a Berber sect from the W. Sahara, who under Abu Bekr’s lead converted the inhabitants of the interior as far as the Sudan to Islam. Under Yûsuf ibn Têshufîn they took possession of Agâdir in 1081 (p. [188]) and of Ceuta in 1084, and in 1086 took the lead in the struggle against the unbelievers in the Iberian peninsula. Morocco became still more powerful under the Almohades, a Berber sect formed in 1181 in the district now called Oran (p. [169]), especially under the gifted caliph Abd el-Mûmen (1130–63), who, after the battle of Tlemcen (p. [188]), extended his sway over the Moorish states of Spain, and in 1160 as far as Barca (p. [414]). After the overthrow of the Almohades in 1212 there arose in Barbary the three new kingdoms of the Merinides at Fez, the Abdelwadites (p. [188]) at Tlemcen, and the Hafsides (p. [323]) in Tunis, whose strength was exhausted by sanguinary internecine struggles which lasted for centuries.
The attacks of the Portuguese, who took Ceuta in 1415, occupied Arzila and Tangier in 1471, and after 1500 even threatened Marakesh from their base on the ocean seaboard, coupled with the advance of the Spaniards, who after the fall of Granada (p. [75]) had conquered Melilla, called forth the new counter-movement of the Saadites of the Draa. To this new dynasty, after the conquest of Marakesh in 1520 and of Fez in 1550, tho feeble dynasty of the Merinides succumbed in 1554. Morocco was afterwards torn by sanguinary family feuds, yet owing to the destruction of the Portuguese army in the ‘battle of the three kings’ at Alcázar (Ksar el-Kebîr), and the influx of well-educated Moors expelled from Spain, the kingdom was greatly strengthened and obtained a new lease of life. It prospered once more, after 1649, under the sixth dynasty, that of the Filali, a family from the Tafilet (see below), and notably under the cruel Mulaï Ismail (1672–1727), one of the most powerful princes of his age, who even fought against the Turks in Oran (comp. p. [206]) and led a campaign against Timbuktu.
After the defeat of the Portuguese the pirates of Larash (p. [104]) and Salee (p. [106]), vying with the Rîf pirates and the ‘Barbaresques’ (p. [221]), had seriously hampered European trade for two centuries or more, but by the occupation of Algeria by the French and the expedition of the Spaniards against Tetuán in 1859–60 the seaboard of Morocco was at length opened up to European influence and to commercial enterprise. In 1906 the Algeciras Conference (p. [56]) prevented the French from advancing towards Fez and obtaining a passage from the Oran and Sahara railway through the Tafilet or Tafilelt, the richest group of oases in S. Morocco, to the ocean seaboard. In 1907, however, the unrest at Casablanca (p. [107]), and also on the Algerian frontier, led to the French occupation of that important seaport along with the adjacent Shâuya, of Ujda (p. [197]), and of Berguent and Bu Denib in S.E. Morocco. After the deposition of Mulaï Abdul-Aziz (1894–1907), who was favourable to the French influence, Mulaï Hafid was proclaimed sultan in 1908.
The Morocco of to-day, whose institutions, manners, and customs are still quite mediæval, consists of the so-called Blad el-Makhzen (‘government land’), the dominion of the sultan, and the far larger Blad es-Siba (‘outer land’), occupied by independent tribes. These tribes recognize the sultan, or the grand sherif of Wazzân, a descendant of the Idrisides, as their spiritual chief only, but usually deny the sultan a right of way through their territory between the capital towns of Fez and Marakesh.
The foreign trade of Morocco is confined to the eight ‘open’ ports of Tangier, Larash, Rabât, Casablanca, Mazagan, Saffi, Mogador, and Tetuán, to the capitals of Fez and Marakesh, and has lately extended to Ujda and the Spanish Melilla (p. [124]). In 1909 its total volume amounted to 132,612,000 fr. of which were ascribed to Great Britain 52,339,000 fr., to France 51,255,000 fr., to Germany 13,582,000 fr., to Spain 6,456,000 fr., and to the United States 1,111,000 fr. From France Morocco imports sugar, flour, and silk, from England cotton goods, tea, rice, and candles, from Germany iron wares, cloth, and sugar, and from Italy flour and wax-matches. The exports (to Marseilles, Gibraltar, Spain, England, Hamburg, etc., and also to Algeria and America) consist of goats’ and sheep’s hides, fruit (almonds, oranges, etc.), eggs, cattle, chick-pease, wheat, barley, and maize. The Morocco-leather slippers (belra, yellow for men and red for women) go to Egypt, Algeria, and Senegal. Besides the breeding of cattle, that of horses and mules also is important. Sardines and other fish abound off the ocean coasts.