MOROCCO IS A COUNTRY IN NORTHWESTERN AFRICA, bounded in the north by both the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
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CLIMATE |
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Morocco has a generally mild climate. Rainfall is most plentiful in the north and decreases toward the south. A dry season extends from April to October, when a hot, dry wind blows from the Sahara Desert. In winter the high mountains receive heavy falls of snow.
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Berbers and Muslims
Hunter-gatherers lived in Morocco (muh-RAH-koe) from about twenty thousand years ago. The Berber (BUHR-buhr) people have lived there since before 2000 B.C.E. as hunters, herders, and farmers. For most of its history, Morocco has not been a united country; instead the Berbers have ruled small, independent states. In 105 B.C.E. Romans invaded the region. The lands between Tangier (tan-JIR) and Rabat (ruh-BAHT) became a province of the Roman Empire, called Mauretania Tingitana, but the Berbers kept control of the mountain regions of Morocco and the desert south.
In 429 C.E. armies of Vandals from eastern Europe ended Roman power, and the Berbers ruled Morocco once again. Then, between 683 and 705, the first of many groups of Muslim soldiers and farmers arrived from Arabia and the Middle East. Some settled in Morocco; others traveled through it on their way to conquer southern Spain. The Berbers rebelled against rule by these Muslim invaders, but they were unable to halt the growth of independent Muslim kingdoms along the north African coast.
Muslim settlers continued to arrive in Morocco until the eleventh century, but the Berbers remained in the majority. During this era most Berber people converted to Islam, though they kept many of their own customs and traditions, as well as their language and their political independence.
From about 1060 Morocco was ruled by Berber Muslim dynasties: the Almoravids, the Almohads, and the Merenids. Under their leadership Morocco was unified for the first time.
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FACTS AND FIGURES |
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Official name: Al-Mamlakah al-Maghribiyah (Kingdom of the West) Status: Independent state Capital: Rabat Major towns: Casablanca, Tangier, Marrakech, Fès, Meknès Area: 172,413 square miles (446,550 square kilometers) Population: 33,200,000 Population density: 193 per square mile (74 per square kilometer) Peoples: A majority of the population are of mixed Arab-Berber ancestry; about one-third of the population identify themselves as Berber Official language: Arabic Currency: Dirham National days: Feast of the Throne (March 3); Anniversary of the Green March (November 6); Independence Day (November 18) Country’s name: Al-Maghrib is Arabic for "the West." Morocco is from the old European name Moors, which referred to people of mixed Arab-Berber ancestry.
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During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, rulers of Spain and Portugal attacked Morocco and conquered the cities of Agadir (ah-gah-DIR), Ceuta (THAE-ootah), and Tangier. These attacks halted after the Moroccans defeated the Portuguese in battle in 1578.
In 1666, after a civil war between rival Moroccan families, the Alawite dynasty came to power. At first it controlled only the area around Fès, but after ruthless campaigns by Sultan Ismail al-Hasani (1672–1727), it gradually extended its rule. Ismail al-Hasani’s descendants still rule Morocco today.
