Disculpad que esta sección este en inglés, si algún día tengo tiempo la traduciré...

"MOROCCO THAT WAS"

Walter Harris, (1921; reprinted by Eland Books/Greenwood).

Harris, Times correspondent in Tangier from the 1890s until his death in 1933, saw the country at probably the strangest ever stage in its history - the last years of "Old Morocco" in its feudal isolation and the first of French occupation. Morocco That Was is a masterpiece - alternately sharp, melodramatic and very funny. It incorporates, to some extent, the anecdotes in his earlier Land of an African Sultan (1889, o/p) and Tafilet (1895, o/p).

"WESTERN BARBARY: ITS WILD TRIBES AND SAVAGE ANIMALS"

John Drummond Hay, (1846, o/p).

The account is more sympathetic (and less wild) than the title\par suggests: a fine narrative of a journey from Tangier to Larache, during which Hay (the future British Consul in Tangier) is told fabulous tales of local life.

"MOROCCO: ITS PEOPLE AND PLACES"

Edmondo de Amicis, (1882, reprinted by Darf Publishers, London).

More intrepid journeying in the Harris mould - illustrated with copious line drawings.

"THE LAND OF THE MOORS"

Budgett Meakin, (1900; reprinted by Darf/State Mutual Book), "The Moors: A Comprehensive Description" (1902, o/p). These wonderful encyclopaedic volumes were the first really detailed books on Morocco and Moroccan life. Many of Meakin's "Comprehensive Descriptions" remain accurate and the sheer breadth of his knowledge - from "Berber Feuds" to "Specimen Recipes" and musical notations of "Calls to Prayer" - is fascinating in itself. Highly recommended library browsing.

"HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF AFRICA"

Leo Africanus, (no recent edition but available in major libraries).

Written in the mid-sixteenth century, this was the book Meakin himself followed, "astounded at the confirmation [of its accuracy] received from natives of remote and almost inaccessible districts". Leo, who was Moroccan by birth, was captured as a young man by Christian pirates. He subsequently converted and lived in Italy; the book was suggested to him by the Pope, and so there's more than a hint of propaganda about his accounts. (See also Amin Malouf, under "Fiction".)

"MOGREB-EL-ACKSA: A JOURNEY IN MOROCCO"

R. B. Cunninghame Graham, (1898; reprinted by Marlboro Press, US).

And yet more adventuring and anecdotes, most interesting of which is an enforced stay in a caidal Kasbah in the High Atlas (his host did not understand the motive of "curiosity"). The prose, however, is flat.

"JOURNEY INTO BARBARY"

Wyndham Lewis, (1932; reprinted by Black Sparrow Press, US).

Terrific drawings and an obscure, eccentric and very rambling text.

"IN MOROCCO"

Edith Wharton, (1920; reprinted by Century/David & Charles).

Wharton dedicated her book to General Lyautey, Consul General of the Protectorate, whose modernising efforts she greatly admired. By no means a classic, it is nonetheless worth reading for glimpses of harem life in the early part of the century.

"SAINTS AND SORCERERS"

Nina Epton, (1958, o/p).

Highly readable travelogue, concentrating on folk customs and religious sects and confraternities.

"MOROCCO: MARRAKESH, FEZ, RABAT"

Rom Landau, (1967, o/p).

Landau has written numerous books on Morocco, none of them very inspiring. This one's redeeming feature is an excellent series of photographs - including rare pictures of mosque interiors.

"WIND, SAND AND STARS AND SOUTHERN MAIL"

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, (various editions, some with Flight to Arras and/or Night Flight).

Accounts by the French aviator of his postal flights down to West Africa, by way of Cap Juby in the then-Spanish Sahara.

"SEE OUARZAZATE AND DIE"

Sylvia Kennedy, (Abacus/Scribners).

An account of visits to Morocco in 1990-91, both before and during the Gulf War. The narrative is hyperbolic and highly critical - Moroccan officials would not be impressed to find the book in your luggage - but it has some good observations nonetheless.

RCB©

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