Salé

Salé is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the right bank of the Bou Regreg river, opposite the national capital Rabat, for which it serves as a commuter town. Founded in about 1030 by the Banu Ifran, it later became a haven for pirates in the 17th century as an independent republic before being incorporated into Alaouite Morocco.
The city's name is sometimes transliterated as Salli or Sallee. The National Route 6 connects it to Fez and Meknes in the east and the N1 to Kénitra in the north-east. It recorded a population of 890,403 in the 2014 Moroccan census.
History
The Phoenicians established a settlement called Sala, later the site of a Roman colony, Sala Colonia, on the south side of the Bou Regreg estuary.
It is sometimes confused with Salé, on the opposite north bank. Salé was founded in about 1030 by Arabic-speaking Berbers who apparently cultivated the legend that the name was derived from that of Salah, son of Ham, son of Noah.
The Banu Ifran Berber dynasty began construction of a mosque about the time the city was founded. The present-day Great Mosque of Salé was built during the 12th-century reign of the Almohad sultan Abu Yaqub Yusuf, although not completed until 1196.
In September 1260, Salé was raided and occupied by warriors sent in a fleet of ships by King Alfonso X of Castile. After the victory of the Marinid dynasty, the historic Bab el-Mrissa was constructed by the Sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd Al-Haqq which remains as a landmark of the city.
Republic of Salé
In the 17th century, Salé became a haven for Barbary pirates, among them the Moriscos expelled from Spain turned corsairs, who formed an independent Republic of Salé. Salé pirates (the well-known "Salé Rovers") enslaved civilians from European coasts; capturing, for, example, 1,000 English villagers in 1625, selling them later in Africa. They sold their crews and sometimes passengers into slavery in the Arabic world. Despite the legendary reputation of the Salé corsairs, their ships were based across the river in Rabat, called "New Salé" by the English.
European powers took action to try to eliminate the threat from the Barbary Coast. On 20 July 1629, the city of Salé was bombarded by French Admiral Isaac de Razilly with a fleet composed of the ships Licorne, Saint-Louis, Griffon, Catherine, Hambourg, Sainte-Anne, Saint-Jean; his forces destroyed three corsair ships.
20th century
During the decades preceding the independence of Morocco, Salé was the stronghold of some "national movement" activists. The reading of the "Latif" (a politically charged prayer to God, read in mosques in loud unison) was launched in Salé and became popular in some cities of Morocco.
A petition against the so-called "Berber Dahir" (a decree that allowed some Berber-speaking areas of Morocco to continue using Berber Law, as opposed to Sharia Law) was given to Sultan Mohamed V and the Resident General of France. The petition and the "Latif" prayer led to the withdrawal and adjustment of the so-called "Berber Decree" of May 1930. The activists who opposed the "Berber Decree" apparently feared that the explicit recognition of the Berber Customary Law (a very secular-minded Berber tradition) would threaten the position of Islam and its Sharia law system. Others believed that opposing the French-engineered "Berber Decree" was a means to turn the table against the French occupation of Morocco.
The widespread storm that was created by the "Berber Dahir" controversy created a somewhat popular Moroccan nationalist elite based in Salé and Fez; it had strong anti-Berber, anti-West, anti-secular, and pro Arab-Islamic inclinations. This period helped develop the political awareness and activism that would lead fourteen years later to the signing of the Manifest of Independence of Morocco on 11 January 1944 by many "Slawi" activists and leaders. Salé has been deemed to have been the stronghold of the Moroccan left for many decades, where many leaders have resided.
Culture
Salé has played a rich and important part in Moroccan history. The first demonstrations for independence against the French, for example, began in Salé. Numerous government officials, decision makers, and royal advisers of Morocco have been from Salé. Salé people, the Slawis, have always had a "tribal" sense of belonging, a sense of pride that developed into a feeling of superiority towards the "berranis", i.e. Outsiders.
Subdivisions
The prefecture is divided administratively into the following:
Climate
Salé has a Mediterranean climate (Csa) with warm to hot dry summers and mild damp winters. Located along the Atlantic Ocean, Salé has a mild, temperate climate, shifting from cool in winter to warm days in the summer months. The nights are always cool (or cold in winter, it can reach Sub sometimes), with daytime temperatures generally rising about . The winter highs typically reach only in December–February. Summer daytime highs usually hover around , but may occasionally exceed , especially during heat waves. Summer nights are usually pleasant and cool, ranging between and and rarely exceeding . Rabat belongs to the sub-humid bioclimatic zone with an average annual precipitation of 560 mm.
Salé's climate resembles that of the southwest coast of the Iberian Peninsula and the coast of Southern California.
Sports
In December 2017, AS Salé became Africa's basketball club Champion. It was the first continental crown in the club's history.
The A.S.S. is the football club of the city, and the president is Abderrahmane Chokri.
Infrastructure
Transport
Air
Salé's main airport is Rabat–Salé Airport, which is located in Salé but also serves Rabat, the capital city of Morocco.
Trains
Salé is served by two principal railway stations run by the national rail service, the ONCF. These stations are Salé-Tabriquet and Salé-Ville.
Salé-Ville is the main inter-city station, from which trains run south to Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech and El Jadida, north to Tanger, or east to Meknes, Fes, Taza and Oujda.
Tram
The Rabat–Salé tramway was the first tramway network in Morocco and it connects Salé with Rabat across the river. It was opened on 11 May 2011 after a construction cost of 3.6 billion MAD. The network was constructed by Alstom Citadis and is operated by Transdev. As of February 2022, the network had two lines with a total length of and 43 stations. In 2023, an extension of the network was being planned and is due to be completed by 2028.
Water
Water supply and wastewater collection in Salé was irregular, with poorer and illegal housing units suffering the highest costs and most acute scarcities. Much of the city used to rely upon communal standpipes, which were often shut down, depriving some neighbourhoods of safe drinking water for indefinite periods of time. Nevertheless, Salé fared better than inland Moroccan locations, where water scarcity was even more acute. Improvements from the government, local businesses and the water distribution companies of Régie de distribution d'Eau & d'Électricité de Rabat-Salé (REDAL) have meant that this situation has improved drastically.
In popular culture
The film Black Hawk Down was partially filmed in Salé, in particular the wide angle aerial shots with helicopters flying down the coastline.
The character Robinson Crusoe, in the early part of Daniel Defoe's novel by the same name, spends time in captivity of the local pirates, the Salé Rovers, and at last sails off to liberty from the mouth of the Salé river - an adventure less well remembered than the protagonist's later sojourn on the desert island.
Notable residents
Abdellah Taïa, writer
Abdelwahed Radi, politician
Abu Zakariya Yahya al-Wattasi, governor of Salé for the Marinids
Ahmad ibn Khalid al-Nasiri, historian
Ahmed al-Salawi, writer
Amina Benkhadra, politician
Amine Laâlou, athlete
Chaim ibn Attar, world renowned biblical commentator, talmudist, and posek known for his work "Or HaChayim" on the Pentateuch
Gnawi, rapper
Hajj Ali Zniber, writer
Hayat Lambarki, athlete
Houcine Slaoui, musician
Larbi Naji, footballer
El Mehdi Malki, judoka
Merouane Zemmama, footballer
Mohamed Amine Sbihi, politician
Mohammed Zniber, writer and historian
Nores (musician), Rapper
Raphael Ankawa, Chief Rabbi of Morocco and a noted commentator, talmudist, posek, and author
Reda Rhalimi, basketball player
Saad Hassar, politician
Tarik Khbabez, kickboxer
Twin towns – sister cities
Salé is twinned with:
Aryanah, Tunisia
Beitunia, Palestine
Gandiaye, Senegal
Grand Yoff, Senegal
Maroua, Cameroon
Portalegre, Portugal
Partner cities
Salé also cooperates with:
Alexandria, United States
Sochi, Russia
Tlaxcala, Mexico
See also
Bouknadel
Le Bouregreg
References
External links
Salé entry in LexicOrient
Le portail de la ville de Salé
Prefecturial capitals in Morocco