Marrakech

A Nested Sentinel of Marrakech’s Medina

It’s 5:19am.  I’ve been up for 2 hours, sitting outside our Radisson Hotel room in Marrakech’s Ville Nouveau. Sound sleep will prove to be an issue throughout this trip for me. But the quietude also has had its reflective beauties.  

The porch overlooks an ultra-modern riad-like central courtyard which includes a pool.  The cell phone’s mobile connection works just fine.  Astonishingly, cell reception has been quite good throughout our Moroccan visit. Cities, small towns and even in the deep mountains, we’ve had reception. Add to that speedy Wi-Fi in hotels and we are world-connected. In many ways.

But as I said, it’s 5:19 and I put down my phone, listening to the day’s first call to prayer. It lasts more than 10 minutes. Najib, our guide to Marrakech’s medina for the day, later tells us that the actual prayer portion in a call to prayer is really not very long.  Perhaps a minute or two.  But the muezzins like to sing.

Marrakech.  The name itself feels exotic. Eastern. Aromatic.  It is the pink city (clay from the area is required to be the facing of all structures in older parts of the city.) It’s Morocco City – the name it had for hundreds of years. And all of us of a certain age, immediately think of the Crosby, Stills and Nash song, “Marrakesh Express.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIMt7FmQXgkSweeping cobwebs from the edges of my mind

Sweeping cobwebs from the edges of my mind
Had to get away to see what we could find
Hope the days that lie ahead
Bring us back to where they’ve led
Listen not to what’s been said to you.

Wouldn’t you know we’re riding on the Marrakesh Express
Wouldn’t you know we’re riding on the Marrakesh Express
They’re taking me to Marrakesh
All aboard the train, all aboard the train.

((Quick aside on transliteration.  Why is Marrakech’s ending sometimes spelled with an ech and sometimes with an ash.  A meaningless call for standardization!  But I’ll use the ech here for that’s what “most” of the road signs say.))

The Marrakech medina is huge.  The term medina refers to the old part of a city. (https://www.marrakechsunset.com/blog/what-is-a-medina/41/) In Morocco, its larger cities medinas are usually surrounded by fortress walls. In the case of Marrakech, its original city boundaries were constructed more than a thousand years ago.

Come with us to the Kasbah?

Crossing into its medina from Ville Nouveau is a profound and immediate transportation to not only a different historic era, but a different currently operating economy and society. 200,000 people live in Marrakech’s medina. That’s about a fifth of the city’s entire population.  My presumption is that for many, they never or hardly ever leave this warren of narrow streets and whirling and weaving humanity.

Our guide, Najib, has been in the tourist-serving business for more than 20 years.  He owns his own tour operation, but Covid threw that business for a loop, so he has had to scamper to find work where he can. In our case he had agreed to serve directly as a guide to us, Brahim’s clients.

Najib comes across as both knowledgeable about the medina’s history, and intimate with many of its inhabitants.  Our tour is not infrequently stopped by Najib’s greetings with medina residents and businesspeople. Lots of hugging going on.

Only about 100 km from the wealth of the Atlantic.

As we started merging into the heart of the medina, Najib, a practicing Muslim, nevertheless earnestly explained his concern about “fanaticism” and the influence of the Shia portion of Islam in Sunni-dominated Morocco.  He said even young girls are now wearing the hijab in Morocco.

Marrakech’s medina is an extraordinarily complex maze of passages.  It would be no trouble at all to be in deep trouble and lost. Jean was amazed at Najib’s ability to negotiate his way through.

Najib and Jean searching for kaftans.

The medina is really a densely packed residential district intersected by a series of plazas, mosques, and souks upon souks. Najib explained that historically, it was a sort of agglomeration economics ideal.  Each souk (let’s call it a business district), was a specialized area for commerce. One street contained rug dealers.  Another glassware. Two warrens to the right are ceramics. Then one can walk to artisanal metallurgy.  It’s been mixed up a bit lately, but those concentrations still exist.

Metal artisans at work. One had been at it for 50 years. The other a brand new apprentice.

However, there are threats to the health and stability of the medina. Foreigners – mostly French apparently – have been buying up apartments. Housing prices have skyrocketed, pricing out locals. Prices for the tiny stalls used by the medina’s artisans have escalated too.  In response, the Moroccan government has been purchasing some of the stalls and renting them out at reduced rates to artisans to maintain the integrity of the medina.

I asked about the economics of artisans and retailers in the warrens. How could so many (literally 1000s of sellers) make a living with so many selling precisely the same things?  Najib said, “Yes, that’s the question. I have no idea.”

We visited the artisans’ workshop areas that were subsidized by the government.  Welding light arches; sanding; puncturing metal.  We purchased a gorgeous metallic plate individually made by an artisan and his helper.

Dear readers, you may be wondering about the earthquake damage in the medina.  There were many pictures and videos worldwide about the impacts on Marrakech. Najib did show us areas of the most prominent damage. But they were clearly isolated areas, already well roped off and contained from the continued functional areas.  The medina was busy, vibrant, and for the most part, appeared unaffected by the earthquake.

Some evidence of clean up from the earthquake.

Coincidentally, our one full day in Marrakesh was also Rosh Hashanah.  I had known this when we had to reschedule our trip, and also had researched that there was one active synagogue in the medina.  I asked Najib if he could take us there and he did.

In all of Morocco’s larger cities, and many of its smaller ones, there are Jewish Quarters in their medinas. These quarters are named Mellah, which is Arabic for salt.  Why salt?  In the Middle Ages, salt was a means of commercial exchange, more common than precious metals. Jews, the inveterate traders, where perceived by Muslims and Christians, as occupiers of that commercial and social space.

This role in society would of course prove to me a mixed blessing.  Deprived of the right to own land by some Christian and Muslim rulers, and not subject to the restrictive usury laws of the other two faiths, Jewish merchants and financiers made the best of the constraints of their eras. We all know how that played out over time to the motivational inspiration of the anti-Jewish majorities. At times, Jews became the confidants and advisors of Sultans and Kings. Other times, they were blamed for all evils of the world: restricted, banished and/or killed.

What’s behind door #1? In the Muslim areas of the city one never knows. The Hand of Fatima hides all.

In the Mellah, the Stars of David and open windows are evidence of a lively historic Jewish presense.

In 2023, there aren’t many Jews left in Morocco.  But Jewish presence and influence in the region goes way back and has been substantial.  The evidence is a bit sketchy, but we were told frequently that Jewish settlement in the Atlas Mountains and the Moroccan plain predated the Roman conquests in the area.  The Berbers were said to be of multiple faiths, including pre-rabbinic Judaism. The single star in the Moroccan flag was the Star of David prior to 1912 and the era of the French Protectorate.  

Upon the founding of the modern Zionist program to create a new nation Israel, Moroccan Jews started emigrating in mass to pre-1948 Palestine and then Israel after its founding. The emigration rates went up and down based on the push and pull of pogroms in Morocco, legal and social constraints on Jewish life in Morocco, and limits on emigration. According to the Wikipedia article on Moroccan Jewish emigration, about 275,000 Jews left Morocco for Israel after its founding and about half that prior to 1948.

As an example of the level of detail we have gotten from our guides, we were told Jewish Moroccan emigration numbers that ranged up to 2 million people. But in any event, Moroccan Jewish influence on Israeli society is enormous.

For the few Jews who have remained in Morocco, there are, at the moment, pretty positive signs.  Morocco recognized Israel as part of 2020’s Abraham Accords.  Jews in Morocco are permitted to worship freely and openly.

Najib brought us to Marrakech’s Mellah. He explained that one could quickly grasp the identity of the place in that the houses in the Jewish quarter have windows and balconies that face outside.   For Jews, it was important to express themselves to the world – for example lighting the menorah in the front window during Chanukah. For Muslims, we were told that it would be immodest to distinguish the wealth of a family from public spaces. It isn’t until one opens the door and is invited inside that the economic class of the family is apparent.

As we walked in the Mellah, we saw the outside of a synagogue. Turning the corner, we found that in fact, it was in use for Rosh Hashanah.  There were two military police present at the entrance.  Najib asked them If I could enter and they checked inside, smiled at me and gestured for me to come on in.

Najib said that he and Jean would be fine and would wait for me when I was done with the morning services – scheduled to be over in about 20 minutes. I put on my kippah that I had brought for such an occasion and walked into the synagogue’s courtyard. 

I was greeted there – or perhaps more accurately ignored – by about 10 women and children.  I proceeded to enter the sanctuary, where 15 men were engaged in the services.  I requested a tallit – in Hebrew and French – and was given one that was in a plastic bag.  Donning it, I joined the services, but did not ask for a siddur (prayer book) and no one offered one to me.

It appeared to be purely an orthodox service.  Only men. Only Hebrew.  But surprisingly, I felt comfortable.  I recognized some of the prayers and even more surprising, I recognized many of the tunes.  When they finished the service with Adon Olam, I was able to join right in. Upon departure, I shook hands with a few men and we exchanged wishes for a sweet new year – Shana Tovah Umetuka.

How did it feel to be praying with Jews in Marrakech?  In part I sensed an unexpected normalcy by the men in the room.  This is what Jews do and we are Jews. But also, I became overwhelmed by the magnitude of the Jewish experience in Morocco and the world. Why was it important for this small remnant of Jews to fulfill their religious duties in this distant land? Why was it so easy for me to join in with them and somehow know that I am legitimate in their eyes and my own?  How did I feel? At home.

As I emerged from the synagogue and back into the medina street, I soon saw Najib coming toward me.  He had coordinated with the police who called him after services were over.

Najib showed us a beautiful madrassa, historical museum and a few other examples of ancient Moroccan cultural relics. With that, after a long 4-plus hours of walking and shopping and praying, we met Walid once again, said our thanks and goodbyes to Najib, and returned to our hotel in Ville Nouveau.

Inside a former Medina madrassa, now a museum.

Ok.. all is not back to unblemished normal. The earthquake had its way with a museum exhibit. No permanent damage noted.

What should top off our one full day in Marrakech?  Why a nice Italian dinner of pizza and pasta and wine, of course.

Najib, Walid, and every other guide the rest of the trip emphasized Moroccan acceptance of differences. Tolerance as a key virtue.

It wasn’t always so. And in all likelihood, won’t always be true in the future. But for now, Moroccans have managed to put forth an increasingly competent technological society with one that also honors its past.  And tourists like us are part of the dynamic which both provide glue to that mixture of goals and challenges to its stability.