Tafilet

by Walter Harris

Thanks to oriental historians, we are from time to time able to obtain a glimpse of what was passing in this remote corner of the dominions of Morocco, although Tafilet was until comparatively lately a separate kingdom, and to-day figures as such amongst the titles of the reigning Sultan of Morocco, who in summing up his dominions styles himself “King of Tafilelt.” Originally a settlement of the Amazigh or Shloh people—both terms signify “noble”—it was not until the year 88 A.H. (707 A.D.) that the Arabs appeared upon the scene, under the leadership of Musa ben Nasr, who, according to Ibn Khaldun, founded the town of Sijilmassa, though there seems every reason to believe that the name at least had been in existence from a much earlier period. In all probability the Berbers were dwelling there in thatch huts, and it was not until the Arab invasion that buildings of tabia, or native concrete, were raised, the sole material at hand at Tafilet, where stones are not to be found. We find that the divisions of the Berber people at this time (88 A.H.) inhabiting that and the surrounding district were the Beni Mgil, who to this day are a powerful tribe on the plains of the Wad Muluya, and the Dhu Mansur, though the second name is distinctly Arabic, and is probably a translation into that language of the Berber name, now unfortunately lost. Tafilelt itself was in the possession of an ahlaf, or confederation, the principal families of which were the Monabat and Amana. “At this time,” says Leo Africanus, “the oasis was a great emporium of trade, a number of Moorish and European merchants being settled there, while a king governed and took taxes at the douane.” It would be interesting to learn more of the European merchants, and one is inclined to think that foreign would have been a more appropriate term, possibly meaning Turks, Algerians, Tunisians, and Egyptians.

With varied local history, of which there is no need to make particular mention here, Tafilet maintained its trade importance throughout the middle ages, its rulers reigning under the title of Sultans of Sijilmassa. It was no doubt owing to the caravan-routes that so inhospitable a spot became so important a trading-place, for the extremes of heat and cold are cruel.

In 1536 the then King of Fez captured Tafilet for the Beni Merins, his own dynasty. In 1620, however, Ali Shereef arrived upon the scene from Yembo, in Arabia, bringing no doubt with him such a store of oriental knowledge and such a holy reputation from his life in Mecca that in a very short time he became a great man at Tafilet, and was appealed to as arbitrator in all questions. On his death his son, Mulai esh Shereef, succeeded to the holy birthright, styling himself King of Tafilet. Both lie buried near Rissani, in the district of Wad Ifli in Tafilet, and their tombs to-day are held in great reverence as founders of the present Fileli dynasty.

The third of the line, Mulai Reshid, in 1668 seized the throne of Morocco and became the first Fileli Sultan, Mulai Abdul Aziz, who commenced his reign on the death of his father, Mulai el Hassen, in June last (1894), being the fifteenth ruler of this same dynasty.

Affairs in Morocco necessitated the residence of the Sultans being fixed there; but we hear of Mulai Ismail having made a journey to Tafilet, founded the still important ksar of Rissani, and rebuilt Sijilmassa; while in later times the Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdullah visited Tafilet (in 1783-84). Curiously enough, the two Sultans who made this long journey, Sidi Mohammed ben Abdullah and Mulai el Hassen, lie buried in the same tomb at Rabat.

In local wars that occurred at the end of the last century Sijilmassa was destroyed, and nothing remains to-day of the great town but acres, almost miles, of shapeless ruins, with a mosque still in tolerably good condition. These ruins extend for some five miles along the east bank of the Wad Ziz.

Tafilet may be said to consist of a long strip of irrigated land extending along the parallel beds of the Wad Ziz and the Wad Gheris. Although the northern districts of Ertib (Reteb) and Medaghra are often included under the name of Tafilet, they seem in the eyes of the natives to be in reality separate districts, and as such I shall treat them.

Before discussing the actual oasis, some words ought to be written describing the means by which this portion of the desert is rendered capable of cultivation. I have elsewhere briefly described the course of the Wad Gheris; it now remains to briefly trace that of the Wad Ziz.

The Wad Ziz rises in the Atlas Mountains, near that portion of the chain to which the natives apply the name Jibel Ayashi, near the Zauia Sidi Hamza, situated close to the pass of Tizi’n Telremt, where the trade-road from Fez to Tafilet crosses the main chain of the Atlas. Thence the Wad Ziz takes a southerly course, which it pursues with but the slightest deviation throughout. This upper district, the slopes of the Atlas which form the basin of the river, is known as the province of Wad Ziz. Some thirty miles from its source (“one day’s journey”) it is joined by the Wad Guers, flowing from the Atlas, and rising some twenty miles to the west, on the western slopes of Jibel Ayashi. The Berber tribes of Aït bu Hadidu, a division of the Aït Atta, and the Aït Ishak inhabit these slopes. The united rivers, flowing south and passing through Tialallil, drain the district of El Khanek, south of which the Wad Ziz irrigated the oasis of Medaghra, then Ertib, and finally, viâ Tizimi, Tafilet is reached, where by a wonderful system of irrigation some 400 square miles of desert are put under cultivation. It is only after rains that the Wad Ziz and Wad Gheris, which unite at the southern end of the Tafilet oasis, ever reach the great lake, or marsh, Dayet ed Daura, where the sand exhausts the water.

The Wad Ziz at Tafilet, although so large a quantity of its waters is drained off to irrigate the oases of Medaghra and Ertib, was at the time of my visit in November 1893—after a very hot and dry season—still well supplied with water. The channel is deeply sunk between high clay and sandy banks, the actual stream occupying perhaps one-third of the river-bed, and averaging from 60 to 100 feet in breadth; the depth at the ford where I crossed it, at the north end of the ruins of Sijilmassa, being some 2 feet. The water is transparent, and very fast flowing, the river often splitting up into a number of small streams in the course. That the fall in altitude as the river proceeds must be large is easily perceived, as otherwise the water, drained off no very great distance above, could not be brought, except by artificial means, to the level of the high river-banks, which must be from 30 to 40 feet above the level of its course. With regard to the system of irrigation, I shall have more to tell farther on.