History and Culture

By Andrew Zimmerman

Today was our first full day in Marrakesh. As the tourist capital of Morocco, there were plenty of sights to see and areas to explore. We started our day by meeting our tour guide, Mustafa, who has lived in Marrakesh for his whole life. He began the tour by taking us to the Berber Museum in the Majorelle Gardens, where we were able to explore Amazigh cultural artifacts. Although we were not allowed to take pictures in the museum, there was a wide variety of instruments, outfits, rugs, jewelry, and doors. During the time there, we had time to walk around the Majorelle Gardens, built by a French painter named Jacques Majorelle. The natural indigo color was very prevalent throughout the day, reminiscent of both Chefchaouen (The Blue City) and other sites that we’ve visited on this trip.

Mustafa also took us to see the Saadian Tombs, where the kings and royal advisors from the Saadian Dynasty (c. 1550-1650 CE) are buried. The Saadian Dynasty was very powerful both economically and militarily, and they were best known for defeating the Portuguese at the battle of the 3 Kings and defeating the Ottoman Empire in their attempts to invade North Africa. Following the fall of the Saadians, the new king wanted to erase the history of the dynasty. He achieved this by hiding the tombs behind a thick wall, and also destroying the Badi Palace, a beautiful palace that, according to Mustafa, would have been the 8th wonder of the world had it been still standing. 

Following this, we went to the Bahia Palace, where the Indigo color was extremely prevalent throughout the complex. Built in 1894 by a grand vizier to the king, the palace changed hands until it was granted to the public in 1980. The Almoravid empire created the beautiful irrigation system, and the thick walls with high ceilings led to natural ventilation. The architecture of the palace has no people or animals, as Islamic culture believes that only Allah can create humans and animals. In its place, the palace was filled with plenty of geometric shapes such as triangles, diamonds, and stars. The Bahia palace was named after the favorite wife of the Vizier.

To top off our day, we had a speaker from a company that works to create dialogue between different sides of the conflict in the Middle East. In the debrief following the speaker, Professor Lauren Cohen Fisher from Colby College discussed a summarized view of the course by providing different frameworks that we as students should follow to make the most of our education. The first framework provided was that we need to decide as to whether or not issues are opened or settled, meaning determine whether an issue is up for debate or if it is a factual topic, and consider why an issue may be in a different category for others. Many tour guides have believed that issues are settled, while we see the issues as open with many different sides. The second framework was that we need to know whether to read with a text, meaning agree with it and accept it as truth, or read against a text, looking for errors or things that are determined to be false. Using these two frameworks, we can work to create a cohesive view of situations, which I will carry with me throughout my life. These two frameworks can also be used to summarize this Dialogue, as many of the tour guides and speakers have spoken with certain biases that need to be analyzed to truly understand the surrounding history of situations.