The Republican journal., 1901-11-28
HOW PEOPLE LIVE IN MOROCCO.
A Moorish Household. Supersititions of AZ
rican Jews.

CITY OF MOROCCO, OCC. IL, lSUI. IL
is hard to believe that during the early
centuries of it's existence Hundreds of
years before America vas discovered
this now dilapidated and poverty
stricken city ranked as one of the
richest and greatest in Islam. History
says that in the tenth century it had
nearly million inhabitants, incalcula-
BILE wealth and an extraordinary degree
of learning, as education was rated in
those days. Now its extremely mixed
and turbulent population, numbering
fifty thousand or so, appear to devote
their mental energies mostly to the
gentle arts of robbery and murder and
crimes of violence are of hourly occur
renee. Were it not for the exception
al beauty of Situation-at just the right
elevation in the semi-tropics to secure
perfection of climate, surrounded by
luxuriant groves and gardens, and with
i'll full sight of the magnificent Atlas
mountains-the city of to-day would be
to live in Words cannot picture the
squalor and decay encountered at every
step, the foul odors that salute you in
its inconceivably dirty streets, the pit
falls and cess-pools in the most fire.
quented thoroughfares, and the eternal
vigilance required to protect your be-
tJIal Ire nd
professional thieves. 1t would never
do for the stranger to be abroad after
nightfall; and even at MONDAY, in the
most crowded thoroughfares, he would
better avoid dim doorWays and shadowy
corners, where assassins may lurk. The
very walls that encompass the town
once thirty feet high, eight feet thick
and with immense square towers at
frequent ntervals-speak of the desc
lation within. They are now SO dilapi-
dated that in many places both foot
passengers and horsemen make nothing
of clambering over the fallen bricks
and through the breaches, ignoring the
gates, which are yet as religiouSly
guarded as if they were of any use
There are now not half dozen struc-
lures worth visiting in the town, and
not one building of stone, except the
tower of kutubia mosque and an arch
way which was brought from Spain in
sections Even bricks are very little
used. though the native manufacture is
said to be excellent. The universal
building material is tappia, or tabiya,
as here called-which is mud, hardened
i'll frame, akin to the betin of Algeria
and the adobe Of Mexico-than which
nothing could be drearier in architec-
tural effect.
OF course you HE at once to kutubia
tower, the solitary show-place of the
town 1t is not only a wonder in it
self, but about the only memorial of
the constructive genius of the early
Moors that is left in the Empire of Mo
rocco-outside of Fee, the Holy City,
where the far-famed beauties of the
Alhambra, san Sophia, even the Tai
Mahal of India, are outdone in hun
dreds of mosques, minarets, arches
and doorWays This Kutubia tower is
almost identical with that of Hassan,
at Rabat, and both are after the pat
tern of the Giralda at Seville-for the
simple reason that the three were de-
signed by the same architect, one Alb
dulla Jabir, who went his way to the
Moslem paradise, some eight or nine
centuries ago. The mosque to which
kutubia tower belongs is remarkable
only for size, being an immense brick
building, perfectly bare inside except
for forest of marble pillars. Its en-
tire crypt is occupied by a vast mys-
FERROUS clStern, said to have been eXca-
waited by Mansur himself,-for what
purpose, maybe Allah knows. There
are nineteen other mosques in the City
of Morocco, among which the most
notable are Abu Yusuf, Al-Mansur and
Al-Mo-izz. From their lofty minarets,
at the first glimmer of dawn, the muz-
Yin cry resounds over the sleeping city.
Pitched in clear, high key, more pene-
trating than the sound of silver bells,
the confession of faith is echoed from
tower to tower: "La ilah il Allah iva
Mohammed er-rasool Allah Again at
sunset the same cry resounds; and at
hourly intervals during the day an
abbreviated form is heard. Every Moor
and Arab hears it and pays instant
and undivided attention. If asleep in
bed, he arises at once, or drops what
ever work he may be doing; spreads his
prayer cloth on the ground, turns his
face Meccaward, bows to the earth and
reverently repeats the orison. To us,
dogs of unbelievers,' it is problem
incomprehensible how such religious
devoutness can go hand and hand with
all manner of crime.
Another noteworthy institution in
Morocco city is the shrine of Sid
Saint Bel Abbara which possesses
property to the value of million dol
lars, and whose great chapel serves as
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