Welcome back dear reader. In the previous post we write about our visit to enchanting Chefchaouen. There were photo opportunities abound and the blue pearl of the Rif didn’t stop to amaze us.
In this story we check out from Tangier and begin our 125 Nm overnight sail South to Morocco’s capital Rabat. The marina of Rabat is about 1 Nm inland on the Bou Regreg river that you should only enter by daylight since waves and current at the river mouth can be treacherous under certain conditions.
The tidal difference at this part of the African coast is about 2.5 meters and we planned our arrival around high water to have sufficient clearance under the keel and no difficult currents to deal with when entering the river.
Around 100 BC the area was occupied by the ancient Berber Mauretanian Kingdom when it became a client state of Rome. Around 40 AD the Romans built their own city, Sala Colonia, at “A”. Sala began to be abandoned 400 years later and was mostly in ruins when the Muslim Arabs arrived in the 7th century. During the Merinid period (13th to 15th centuries) the site of ancient Sala was turned into a royal necropolis (city of the dead) for the ruling dynasty, now known as Chellah.
The zāwiya featured a mosque, a madrasa with an attached prayer hall, a funerary hall, and a number of shrines dedicated to members of the Merinid royal family, including that of Abu El-Hassan.
Undisturbed by the café’s thumping music the storks perform their welcome ritual upon return to the nest.
After the end of the Umayyad Caliphate in Al-Andalus in the early 11th century, Muslim families fled Portugal and Spain and founded the town of Salé (B). The Almohads (al-Muwaḥḥidūn or Mujahideen) rose from the ashes of the Umayyads. They built the Great Mosque in Salé and built a Ribat at the mouth of the river, becoming what is now known as the Kasbah of the Udayas (D). The town of Salā on the right bank of the river continued to develop and during the following Merinid dynasty (13th to 15th centuries) it grew more important than the settlements on the left bank.
In 1260, Salé was sacked and occupied by Castilian forces, during which 3000 women, children and elderly residents of the city were gathered in the mosque and taken as slaves for Spain. The Merinids reconquered the city soon afterwards, and the Merinid Sultan Abu El Hassan (buried in Chellah) built the Madrasa of Abu El-Hasan next to the mosque.
During the Merinid period, the city’s fortifications continued to be upgraded and a new protected harbour was built. The harbour, located on the south side of the city, was linked to the river by a channel, with Bab el-Mrisa serving as water gate through which boats passed. The leftover of that channel can still be seen on the East (right) side of the bridge over the river.
In the 17th century, Salé became a haven for Barbary pirates, who formed the independent Republic of Salé. Barbary pirates, or naval mujahideen, were mainly Muslim corsairs and European privateers who operated from the Barbary Coast, in reference to the Berbers.
Barbary pirates captured thousands of merchant ships and repeatedly raided coastal towns in Europe as far as Iceland. As a result, residents abandoned their villages on long stretches of coast in Spain, Italy and Greece. The raids were such a problem that coastal settlements were seldom undertaken until the 19th century. Between 1530 and 1780, Barbary pirates were said to have enslaved an estimated 1.75 to 2 million people. According to the American economic historian Thomas Sowell, more Europeans were enslaved by the Barbary pirates in Africa than Africans were enslaved by Europeans in North and South America combined.
Borj Ad Dumû or Bastion des Larmes (C) was a notorious prison where European slaves were kept before being sold on the African market or, let free after paying a considerable ransom.
Some European sailors who previously worked as a privateer (“kaper” in Dutch) for their respective Government joined the Barbary pirates, bringing with them the skills to handle ships that were much faster and more effective than the galleys with rowers, which they used until then.
One of them, Jan Janszoon, began as a Dutch privateer in 1600 sailing from his home port, Haarlem, working for the state with letters of marque to harass Spanish shipping during the Eighty Years’ War between Spain and the Netherlands. He was shipwrecked in 1618 in Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands, taken prisoner and brought to Algiers. He was lucky since another Dutch ex-privateer, Ivan Dirkie de Veenboer known as Soliman Reys, was the admiral and top official of the Barbary fleet in Algiers and probably saved his life. Jan changed his name to Moerat Reys, converted to Islam and joined the pirates where he made a “career” in Salé.
Jan Janszoon van Haarlem, alias Moerat Reys de jongere (c. 1570 – c. 1641) became the first President and Grand Admiral of the Corsair Republic of Salé, Governor of Oualidia, one of the most notorious of the Barbary pirates from the 17th century; the most famous of the “Salé Rovers”.
After having explored the major sites of Salé we meander through the peaceful medina back to the boat. See photo’s below.
The now completely silted up old harbour South of Salé. From high to low tide.
As explained earlier, the Almohads (al-Muwaḥḥidūn or Mujahideen) rose from the ashes of the Umayyads, who were expelled from Portugal and Spain during the reconquista. They built a Ribat (fortified monastery/outpost) at the mouth of the river, becoming what is now the Kasbah of the Udayas (D). Over decennia the Kasbah was conquered and lost by several rivalling tribes with each of them adding palaces, mosques and fortifications. The name “Udaya” only became associated with the kasbah in the 19th century, after the Udaya tribe was permanently expelled from the region by the Alaouites and their remaining members settled in the kasbah until today.
As already said before, Yaqub al-Mansur embarked on a huge project to construct a new fortified imperial capital on the site of what is now the medina of Rabat (E). This project included the construction of an enormous mosque, the remains of which include the Hassan Tower. After Abu Yusuf Ya’qub’s death in 1199 the mosque and the capital remained unfinished and his successors lacked the resources or the will to finish it. The kasbah itself became essentially abandoned. Meanwhile, Salé was further developed by the Marinids.
In 1609, Philip III decreed the expulsion of all Moriscos (people of Muslim or Moorish descent) from Spain and many of them settles in the old Kasbah. The name “Rabat” was not yet in use; the city of the south bank was known as “New Salé” while the city of the north bank was known as “Old Salé”. It is only when the French relocated the countries capital from Fez to Rabat that “Rabat” became common name.
We hope you liked this blog about this interesting city. We certainly liked doing the research and piecing it all together. But Morocco has even more to offer and we are making plans to visit Fez, known as the yellow city, by train. See you in our next blog, Liza and Frits.