Stories

Keeping a Moroccan Tradition Alive, One Tale at a Time - New York Times

Mr. Jabiri is a storyteller, a profession he has practiced for more than 40 years. Every day, he conjures up a real or imagined past that is filled with ancient battles and populated with sinners and prophets, wise sultans and tricky thieves.

The New York Times profiles the storytellers of Jemaa El Fna, who are perhaps the last of their kind.

Andalusian Fantasy

Guy Gavriel Kay's evokes the last days of Al Andalus in a historical novel disguised as a fantasy. Without making any claims to historical accuracy, Kay nevertheless vividly reimagines the refined Al Andalus (Al Rassan) crushed between the Spanish zealots to the North and the North African zealots to the South. Not a book to slake a thirst for knowledge about Al Andalus, but perhaps a book to awaken one.

Eid El Kbeer Mubarak!

Eid El Kbeer (Eid El Adha) marks the high point of the Muslim year with the commemoration of Abraham's near sacrifice of Ishmael before God intervened and commended him to sacrifice a ram instead. (Yes, I am aware that the Biblical version is slightly different.) In commemoration of the event, Muslims throughout the world sacrifice a sheep on this day.

To all my Muslim and Moroccan friends, happy Feast of the Sacrifice!

The Latest Thing

The View From Fès is among the latest in a growing number of high quality English Language blogs about Morocco. In light of the polished prose, stunning photographs, and steady stream of content, it is no surprise that this is a website produced by professionals — novelist and broadcaster Sandy McCutcheon ("Samir") and his wife, photographer Suzanna Clarke ("Zany"). McCutcheon and Clarke are in the process of renovating a "riad" or traditional Fassi house that once belonged to the notorious qaid Thami El Glaoui, who ruled southern Morocco for most of the French Protectorate but was spectacularly humbled upon the return of Mohammed V from exile in 1956. See Gavin Maxwell, Lords of the Atlas. The View from Fès is not merely a first class blog on Morocco, but a first class blog in its own right.

Two Books

The topical interest of Laila Lalami's might present a danger of obscuring its literary merit if it were not so beautifully written. This compact book of less than 200 pages presents snapshots in the lives of four Moroccans who attempt the dangerous illegal crossing of the Straits of Gibraltar in search of a better life in Spain. The results are ambiguous and poignant.

Phillip Kurata's dissects the slimy underbelly of a thinly fictionalized Tunisian police state. His naive, self-centered protagonist, Habib Ben Hamed, is quickly in over his head as his brother lures him into becoming an agent of the national police, a job for which his basic decency renders him completely unsuitable. This hard-boiled novel provides an unblinking look at the brutality of the modern police state, also a topic of considerable contemporary interest as Morocco reflects on the Years of Lead and on its own current human rights record.

Dylanesque

When I was a teacher in Morocco, we used to teach the students songs on Fridays, and Bob Dylan was a perennial favorite. For example, "Blowing in the Wind" is rife with examples of the present continuous: "The answer is blowing in the wind." Naturally enough, the students would use phrases from the songs in their essays, so that the answers to questions sometimes came back as Dylanesque pastiches.

I was listening to Dylan this afternoon with the kids, while I was thinking about John Murtha, and the war, and how we seem to be right back where we started in 1965. It don't take a weather man to know which way the wind blows.

Rap on Brooks

David Brooks, Playa Hater - The New York Times columnist grapples with "gangsta rap." By Jody Rosen

The crime here isn't just laziness. It's tackiness and gall. Did Brooks bother to notice that the rappers whose songs he cites in his piece about "the future of Islam" aren't Muslim at all, but two black Frenchmen and one black Belgian? There's a word for this kind of stuff. "Mr. R," I suspect, would call it teub�.

Slate takes the Times to task for stereotyping Muslims and French rappers.

Self-Fashioning

I have always thought of my blogs primarily as a means of self-fashioning and self-expression. To the extent that they also serve to communicate, I am pleased, but I have few illusions about my place in the blogosphere. What has been gratifying in recent months, as I have tried to focus more on my blog about Morocco, is the gradual discovery of other sites about Morocco, including an increasing number of sites in English. Attempting the quixotic (presumptuous?) task of trying to write about Morocco from the eastern United States has required me to read and learn more about the country than I would ever have done otherwise.

The Place to Be

Taste of Morocco :washingtonpost.com

A Moroccan stew, as well as the conical topped vessel that it's sometimes cooked in and always served in, is called a tagine. And this is where this kitchen really shines. Whether you order lamb or chicken, the tender meat falls off the bone, and the seasoning is superb. My favorite might be the chicken tagine with green olives and preserved lemon -- the last a tangy ingredient that gives many Moroccan dishes legs. When the belly dancer asks me to join her for a once around the room, I stay with the chicken. Now that's commitment.

Taste of Morocco's new Silver Spring location gets two and a half stars and is designated an "Editor's Pick" by the editors of the Washington Post.

Blog a la marocaine

Morocco Time � Police and Taxis

A vivid story of an ordinary grand taxi ride gone bad . . . almost. One of the great things about the explosion of weblog technology is the amount of new writing coming from Morocco, of which there seems to be more and better with every passing month. Morocco Time is one my newest "must reads."