Almost thirty
million people harmoniously inhabit the modern kingdom of
Morocco.
The great majority of them descent from two peoples, Berbers
and Arabs. No matter what their origins, all Moroccans
share the values of profound hospitality, charity, and generosity
that profoundly inform contemporary Moroccan culture.
Morocco's
history began with the Berbers, the indigenous people of uncertain
origin who have inhabited the country for literally thousands
of years. The original inhabitants of North Africa, the Berber-speaking
peoples now only makeup about 40 percent of the peoples of Morocco
and 20 percent of Algeria's population. But once dialects of the
Berber language were spoken throughout all of North Africa, and
parts of Spain and Sicily during the Middle Ages.
Much
as many other peoples in the world, Berbers have blended with
other people. There are differences between Berbers which have
inspired many stories, of European slaves and war captives, bringing
blond hair and red hair as well as green and blue eyes into the
Berber race.
Fiercely tribal
and independent, are dominant in the southern and mountainous
regions of the country.
Of major cities
in North Africa, only
Marrakech has a population with a Berber
identity. The Berber dominance in the mountains comes from the
days of early Arab conquest, (see below) when the Arabs took control
over the cities, but left the countryside to its own (the number
of Arabs was to small for a more profound occupation). Berbers
in those days had the choice between living in the mountains,
resisting Arab dominance, or moving into the Arab community, where
Arab language and culture were dominating.
Read more about
Berber
history, language,
culture,
music and
more
on the Internet and in print.
The
Arabs first arrived in Morocco in the 7th century, C.E. with the
rapid expansion of the dar-al-Islam, a series of overlapping Islamic
kingdoms. However, Arabs were a initially small minority in the
country. However, they brought with them a powerful new faith,
a common language that enabled them to introduce and share knowledge
and technology from across the expanding empire.
These let their
influence greatly outpace their actual numbers in the earliest
days, until waves of immigration from Spain, in the wake of the
Catholic reconquista, greatly increased their numbers.
to this day, Arab influence is strongest in the northern and coastal
regions of the country. The Arab spiritual, cultural and aesthetic
center of Morocco is Fez, one of the holiest cities of Islam, and
the largest continuously operating medieval city in the world.
The interaction
of the Arabs and the Berbers with the flavorful accents of the
Jewish, European and Nomadic
The Jews have
been a much smaller, but important presence in Morocco since the
country's founding. Legend
brings Jews to North Africa long before the Romans. Indeed, history
finds Hebrew inscriptions on tombstones near modern-day Fez at
the time of the Romans. It seems segments of the indigenous Berber
population first converted to Judaism. Until the fifth century,
these Jewish Berbers enjoyed equal rights with Muslims Berbers.
In the late
seventh century, however, Muslim Arabs swept through Northwest
Africa bringing Islam with them. In Morocco they stumbled across
the phenomena of Jewish Berber tribes. By the eight century, Jews
had become a minority, living in small mountain and desert communities.
They remained a distinctive, and important segment of society
for more than the next thousand years, living (with occasional persecution) within the larger Islamic culture, simultaneously
influencing and being influenced by larger Islamic corpus.
With the 1948
establishment of Israel, the Jewish population of Morocco fell
precipitously. 40,000 Jews still reside in Morocco, and there
has been a resurgence of interest among expatriated Jews in rediscovering
their Moroccan homeland.
Read
more about the Jews
in Morocco, their music
and more on the Internet and in
print.
In the arid
Saharan region, tribes related to the nomadic Tuareg people of
the desert. These people are known for by their extraordinary Ghandoura, or indigo garments. There are still members
of these nomadic tribes who live their entire lives without ever
seeing a paved road.
During the last
century the increasing trade activities between Morocco and the
other African countries have caused a black African population
to settle in Morocco. This minority group live in the southern regions of the country and especially in Meknes and Marrakesh.
Finally, a small community of Jews and some other European nationals
such as Spaniards, French and Italians live in Morocco.
Elements
of this article were taken material contained in the Encyclopedia
of the Orient.
