Ibn Ibn Battuta

Reading on the Road in Morocco: Conclusion, with Some Final Thoughts on Literacy

I hope you've enjoyed my Reading on the Road in Morocco series over these last few days.

Before I leave the topic of reading, I have one final note - a disappointing observation, really. Yes, it's a generalization, but one of the truer ones I've told: in spite of the rich body of literary and narrative works written by Moroccans and about Morocco, this country still has no culture of reading.

The first few times I rode the train in Morocco, I felt something amiss. At the start of every long, dull ride, Jacqueline and I would sit down and immediately reach for our books. All around us, the Moroccans chatted with each other, stared at the wall, stared out the window or, more often than not, stared at us, generally doing little to

Reading on the Road in Morocco: Travel Guidebooks

Guidebooks are the necessary evil few travelers can ever really escape. They warp our view of places, both by prejudicing us before the fact and by orienting our visit, once on the ground, toward a certain narrow selection of destinations (often the same ones every other foreigner seems to be visiting).

In no country does this appear more true than Morocco. Something about the place just seems to make every writer want to liberate their inner Orientalist: Welcome to a land of ancient enchantments, of labyrinthine cities perfumed in exotic spices, of secrets yet untold, hidden behind the veil. Welcome... to Morocco.

Wincing, shuddering, and cringing yet, all at the same time? Me, too. Thankfully, not all the guides are created equal. Here are my impressions of those I've used personally:

Reading on the Road in Morocco: Nonfiction

Morocco's unique history, geography, and social composition make it fertile ground for academic studies, travel writing, and historical narratives.

Many of those currently published in English are written by outsiders, but Moroccans continue to produce ever more works on their country, including a growing body of reflective personal histories and memoirs.

Here, in no particular order, are the nonfiction books on Morocco that I have read during my time here:

Reading on the Road in Morocco: Fiction

Particularly within the context of English-language literature, both the fiction about Morocco and the fiction of Morocco are dominated by one man - Paul Bowles. The novelist emeritus of American expats in Morocco, Bowles is known worldwide for his own writing as well as his contribution to the "discovery" of many now-famous Moroccan authors. To many, he remains an icon of Tangier's heyday as an international capital of arts and debauchery. Several generations of Moroccan authors owe him a debt, though the country's literature continues today to evolve in new and unexpected directions, having been reclaimed by Moroccan luminaries like Tahar Ben Jelloun and a new generation of stars.

Reading on the Road in Morocco: Introduction

Since I first tore through The Crusades Through Arab Eyes while exploring Crusader castles in Syria a few years back, I've been a firm believer that reading a novel or historical narrative while actually in the place where it is set is a special experience. Both the travel encounters and the reading can be richer and more engaging for it.

So, among the suitcase-loads of books that Jacqueline and I lugged to Morocco last year, we selected many that are set in the country. Now that I've read them all, I thought I might share some impressions. I've split my comments into several entries, which I'll be posting in the next few days.

I hope you enjoy my reviews and recommendations, and I encourage you to read some of these works - they are a great way to learn about Morocco, particularly if you're interested in traveling here someday.

Bonne lecture.

Lonely Planet Polls Self, Disappoints Readers

The travel guide publisher Lonely Planet is forever on the fence. It wavers somewhere between being the budget travel sector's equivalent of a benevolent, can-do-no-wrong Google, or its incompetent, ultra-corporate opposite, Microsoft.

This week, LP took a step toward the incompetent side - and managed to disappoint some of its followers - by publishing a "Top 10 Countries for 2010" list without first polling its readers. Judging from their comments, those readers care less that LP clearly missed out on a chance to create a fun, interactive exchange with its fans, and more that the publisher just seemed to choose lame countries.

In Zemrude, A Revelation About Fes

As I wrote in my previous post, street harassment has tainted my experience in Fes these last few months. But writing the place off as a pit of brutish, resentful street rats seems overly critical. After all, this is Fes - UNESCO World Heritage site, Morocco’s self-styled “cultural capital”, an imperial city with 1,200 years of history, and last but not least, Travel + Leisure magazine’s #1 pick for the “Best Romantic Getaways of 2009”.

Fes?! A romantic getaway? At first that announcement bewildered me. Then I began to wonder, Why do I see this city so differently from this magazine's editors and lovestruck readers?

A Walk in the Medina: Bab Bou Jeloud to Bab Jdid

Fes map west / Fes map east

Jacqueline and I recently bought Fez from Bab to Bab: Walks in the Medina, a renowned guidebook available for sale locally. The guide offers ten walking tours throughout Fes’ old city, one of which Jacqueline and I walked on Saturday, with some of our own modifications and on our own schedule.

Our exploration began at Bab Bou Jeloud (باب بو جلود), among the most ornately decorated of the medina’s dozen or so gates, which allow passage through the ancient city walls.

After walking a few hundred meters through a bustling market, we arrived at the Bou Inania madrasa, named for one of Fes’ greatest sultans, Abou ‘Inan,

Shaking Hands with the General

Today I met Roméo Dallaire, former commander of UNAMIR, the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda during the country's 1994 genocide. Boxed in by a constricting UN mandate while the killing raged, Dallaire grappled with many lose-lose decisions in trying to mitigate the slaughter that surrounded his forces. Dallaire's book, Shake Hands with the Devil, earned him further acclaim and criticism for his decisions.

He was at Georgetown for a ceremony, but spoke to a few members of the campus STAND chapter (of which I'm an occasional member) about his experiences and his thoughts on the current crisis in Sudan's Darfur region. Most interesting, in my eyes, was his criticism of the Bush administration and others who have labelled recent events in Darfur as "genocide." Levelling the

A Castle, a Column, a Kurd: A Visit to Aleppo

Syria map

Friday morning, prior to the noon prayer, is a poor time to visit anywhere in Syria. I learned this lesson on Friday in Aleppo (a city known in Arabic as Halab, حلب) after catching a bus north from Damascus the previous evening.

After hearing tales of Aleppo's lavish souqs - the only markets in Syria that could rival those of Damascus - I found the passages deserted, the shopfronts shuttered, and the awnings flapping silently in the warm, pungent breeze. All of Aleppo was resting at home, preparing to go to Friday prayers.

I meandered through the covered alleyways, zigzagging through the markets

My Day at the Pool in Kigali

Rwanda map

On my first day in Kigali, I walked along the city's lazy, dusty streets and snapped a few pictures, trying to master my first digital camera (and failing at it, if the resulting photographs are any indication).

Most striking about Kigali is its normalcy; it is shocking that a country so thoroughly devastated by genocide was rebuilt so quickly. Today, almost ten years to the date after the carnage peaked, office buildings, bustling grocers, bars, telecom shops, and tidy churches line the neat, well-paved roads. Guards leaned idly against the faces of banks and internet cafes, rifles slung over their shoulders. Women in