Maghrebi Adventures
Eighteen months ago I began planning for my first sabbatical as a professor. My original plans were to spend several months in Jordan refreshing my Arabic and immersing myself in Arabic. About a year ago, as tensions between Israel and Iran began ratcheting up, the prospects for studying in Jordan looked shaky and I pivoted to studying in Morocco. Throughout my education and professional career, the focus of my studies has been focused around the Mashriq, or the eastern portion of the Arabic-speaking world (Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and the Gulf countries), and the study of the Maghreb (Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria) has been neglected. While I visited Tunisia in 2022 and Morocco in 2024, my knowledge of the country is still pretty limited and I’m really excited for the upcoming seven and a half weeks I’ll be spending in the region studying Arabic and Medieval Islamic history in Morocco and Spain.
In preparation for trip I’ve been working my way through a small reading list I’ve prepared for myself and building out a robust itinerary for the trip loaded with historical sites, cultural hubs, and natural landmarks. If you are interested in following my travels, I’ll update the blog along the way. I’m also including my reading list below and a rough itinerary below:
Reading List:
Michael Willis; Power and Politics in the Maghreb: Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco from Independence to the Arab Spring
Aomar Boumar; Memories of Absence: How Muslims Remember Jews in Morocco
Shlomo Deshen; The Mellah Society: Jewish Community Life in Sherifian Morocco
Amira K. Bennison; The Almoravid and Almohad Empires
Lawrence Rosen; Two Arabs, a Berber, and a Jew: Entangled Lives in Morocco
Alma Rachel Heckman; The Sultan’s Communists: Moroccan Jews and the Politics of Belonging
Tahir Shah; The Caliph’s House: A Year in Casablanca
Fatima Mernissi; Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood
Robert Satloff; Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust’s Long Reach into Arab Lands
Maria Rosa Menacol; The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Christians, and Jews Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain
Brian Catlos; Kingdoms of Faith: A New History of Islamic Spain
Itinerary:
Throughout most of my stay in Morocco I’ll be based in the capital city of Rabat; however I have three longer road trips planned plus a week in southern Spain. I will hit most of Morocco except for the far south and the northeast.
Trip 1: On this trip I’ll be exploring the north of the country visiting the coastal city of Asilah, Tetouan (once the administrative capital of Spain’s occupation of Morocco), Chefchaouen (the Blue City), Moulay Idris Zerhoun, and Meknes.
Trip 2: On this trip I’ll be visiting the eastern desert and the famous Erg Chebbi near Merzouga, the oasis of the Skoura Valley and its picturesque Kasbahs, before traveling on to Marrakesh and spending a day in the High Atlas mountains via the Ourika valley.
Trip 3: On this last road trip, I’ll be exploring the Atlantic coast with stop in Casablanca, Essaouira, and Agadir before heading inland to explore Taroudant and the Draa Valley. Finally I’ll spend a couple of days Fez after returning from Spain.
Near the end of my trip, I’ll meet up with my wife and some friends and we are going to visit Andalusia, or Southern Spain, with stops in Seville, Cordoba, Granada, a quick trip across the Straits of Gibraltar to Tangier, and then a drive through the Pueblos Blancos of Ronda and Arcos de la Fronterra.
In the coming weeks, I’m excited to share my experiences with any who are interested in following along here on this blog.
