Moulay Idriss is Morocco’s holiest city. For years it was off-limits to Westerners, but now it could be the country’s next boom town – attracting visitors with the kind of charm that has all too often vanished elsewhere. Doug McKinlay reports
My initial approach to Moulay Idriss is along a bumpy country road, drifting from side to side in a large Mercedes cruiser. At the wheel is UK native Louis McIntosh, now a resident of Fes. He is one of the many Brits who upped sticks and hopped on the Moroccan housing express a couple of years ago. It was McIntosh who told me about the town. So fulsome was his praise for it, I felt I had to see it for myself.
‘I like to say I discovered Moulay Idriss,’ he says. ‘A couple of years back I was on a drive through the country; I had no idea this place even existed and almost missed it. When I started looking around the town on foot it soon became apparent that very few Europeans had ever been here. To me it was totally unspoilt and unexplored.’
One of the reasons for this is that Moulay Idriss is one of Islam’s holiest sites, and the most revered in Morocco – a country that is attempting to balance traditional beliefs with ever-encroaching external forces. It has thus far managed, by and large, to keep at bay the hard-line fundamentalist ideas that are affecting many other parts of the Muslim world, while at the same time embracing some aspects of the West’s modernity. With a young, European-educated King and Princess Royal it is perhaps in a better position to do this than most of its neighbours.
Still, it remains a deeply religious country whose foundation can be traced back to Idriss Ben Abdallah, the great grandson of Ali, Mohammad’s first disciple and cousin, whose last resting place is 70km west of Fes at Moulay Idriss. The town is often called the Poor Man’s Mecca. Every August thousands of pilgrims descend upon the town, pitching colourful tents on any patch of open ground available. For those who cannot afford to go to Mecca for the Haj, as every Muslim is supposed to at least once in their life, the tomb of Moulay Idriss comes a close second. However, it takes five visits to Moulay Idriss to equal one to Mecca.
Moulay roughly translates as ‘saint’ in English and that is the standing in which Moroccans hold the man they consider to be the father of their country. At the Battle of Fakh in 786, near Mecca in today’s Saudi Arabia, the Muslim world was split. Rival factions had been fighting a bloody civil war since Muhammad’s death; one side following the Sunni lineage of Abu Bakr, the Prophet’s uncle, the other favouring the Shi’ite line of Ali, viewed by some as the lawful successor to Muhammad.
Idriss, a Shi’ite, found himself on the losing side of the battle and fled for his safety to the western extremity of Islamic influence.
Being a man of exceptional charisma, he managed to align himself with fiercely anti-Arab Berbers, who were living among the ruins of Volubilis, a once powerful Roman city. These pagan Berbers had been fighting Arab attempts to control their land and lives for decades. And although Idriss was an Arab, he was the rival of the Arabs who were trying to dominate Berber land. Their enemy’s enemy was their friend.
Within five years Idriss united the fractious Auraba and Berghouata Berber tribes, converted them to Islam and carved out an impressive kingdom. By 790 he founded the city of Fes and created the first Arabic dynasty in Morocco.
Still, Idriss’ enemies were not idle. News of his achievements filtered back to his nemesis Harun al Rashid, the Caliph of Baghdad. In 792 an assassin poisoned Idriss, the Caliph expecting the Moroccan kingdom to crumble and eventually vanish. However, the potentate was to be disappointed – in 807 the founder’s son, Idriss II, assumed the throne.
Upon his death, Idriss’s Berber followers laid him to rest among the craggy hills of the Zerhoun Range, his tomb, overlooking Volubilis 4km distant, would quickly become the holiest place in Morocco.
Today Moulay Idriss is a quiet provincial town with whitewashed walls that looks as though it could conceivably have been lifted intact from Spain’s Andalucia.
Buried among the rocky Middle Atlas mountains, it is at the centre of one of Morocco’s greatest agricultural regions, and with no modern industry to speak of the skies are perennially blue, the only visible pollution coming from the occasional wisps of smoke from bakeries or barbecues. Every patch of arable land is in use, the air hunger-inducing with the smell of ripening olives and dates. Vineyards hide behind rows of giant cypress trees, a reminder of the fact that this area produces some very fine wine.
The town’s status as a holy site has worked in its favour as well as against it. Many guidebooks and websites advise visitors that staying in Moulay Idriss overnight is not possible and the town’s people are hostile to outsiders.
According to Zalaghi Amine, the deputy mayor, nothing could be further from the truth. ‘It’s simply not true,’ he says, gesturing emphatically.
‘We have gone to great lengths to get this notion changed. Our message is clear; we are open to visitors from all cultures, all religions.’
Western travellers may be thin on the ground at the moment, but that is slowly beginning to change. An April 2006 visit by King Muhammad VI and his wife Princess Lalla Salma seems to have given budding entrepreneurs a confidence boost. Since then eight guesthouses have opened, with four more set to commence business in the coming months.
The terrace of the four-room La Colombe Blanche hotel is large and comfortable; the front view looks down along the plain below to the ruins of Volubilis, while off to the right the town’s whitewashed buildings climb up to meet the green-tiled roof of the Moulay Idriss mausoleum.
I get into conversation with owner Zaimi Mohammed. With strong mint tea to lubricate the conversation he tells me he opened his hotel just after the royal visit in 2006. For him, tourism is the future of his town, but he would like to see Morocco’s central government lending more of a helping hand. Like others in Moulay Idriss, he believes the town is being left behind by its bigger neighbours, Fes and Meknes.
‘There is so much to do and see here,’ he says. ‘It’s not just Volubilis or the tomb, but the area is full of walking and hiking trails, some even suitable for horses. There is the Saturday market, probably one of the most authentic in Morocco, and then there are the people. All we need is a little recognition.’
On paper, Moulay Idriss looks like a potential tourist hotspot; its historical pedigree alone would appeal to anybody with an interest in this part of the world. But what is more impressive is its location and attitude.
McIntosh and I arrived on a Saturday, with the weekly market in full swing. The streets are labyrinthine and snake up at a steep angle from a small main square in the lower town. The climb to the top is not for the faint-hearted, but according to McIntosh it is the place for the best views.
As I huff my way up the sharp incline it dawns on me that something is missing. We have been in town for about 90 minutes, have had lunch at one of the small cafés in the main square selling chicken brochettes, ambled through the tidy little fruit and vegetable market and even poked our noses in the few shops that sell local trinkets. But it is not until we are deep among Moulay Idriss’ narrow, shaded streets that I realise we had done all the above without being given the hard sell. If this had been Fes or Marrakesh it would have been virtually impossible to make it through town without being buttonholed at least a few times.
Pushing past a sleepy donkey we finally make it to the top. There is no particular name for this spot, but maybe there should be because the views are superb: a vast panorama encompassing the town, the surrounding hills and, off in the distance, the ruins of Volubilis.
Moulay Idriss now is how I imagine all of Morocco must have been decades ago, with only a few intrepid souls making the arduous journey across the desert landscape. There is no tugging at shirt-sleeves here, no forcible invitations to enter shops and no offers of the best price.
It is quiet and, with the exception of August, the town dwells in relative isolation, a situation that has helped preserve its natural state. However, that same isolation has kept it from participating in Morocco’s greater tourism boom. Though that is all beginning to change, albeit ever so slowly.
Since McIntosh’s first visit, small numbers of Europeans have begun to take interest in Moulay Idriss. Housing here is cheap and, for those who take the long view, there is potential; although it comes with a caveat.
‘At the moment Moulay Idriss isn’t geared for the kind of trade you get in Fes or Marrakesh,’ says McIntosh. ‘But that’s its safety net. The only infrastructure it has is its charm, clean air, incredible views, beautiful countryside and its people. If you buy into that you’ll love it, and best of all, it’s all right at your doorstep.’
HOW TO GET THERE
Fes, only an hour away, has the closest airport and train station. There are some direct flights to Fes from Europe. Internal connections can be picked up either at Casablanca or Marrakesh. Airlines serving both these cities include BA, Air France, Easyjet, Ryanair, Atlas Blue and Royal Air Maroc. Hire cars can be picked up and dropped off at either Fes or Marrakesh airport.
Where to eat
Hotel Volubilis has the two best restaurants in the area. For lunch the main square in the lower town has a number of cafés serving chicken and meat brochettes, tagines and couscous.A new restaurant run by a French couple is in the middle of a renovation project. There is a fresh fruit and vegetable market for eating on the go.
WHERE TO STAY
La Colombe Blanche
guesthouse
21 Derb Zouak Tazgha
Moulay Idriss
Tel: (+212) 6004 0283
www.maisondhote-zerhoune.ma
Hotel Volubilis
Jnane Zitoune
Moulay Idriss
Tel: (+212) 544 369
Hotel Volubilis, 3km
from Moulay Idriss
and only 1km from the
ruins of Volubilis, has
the only bar serving
alcohol in the area. It
has two restaurants, one
specialising in traditional
Moroccan dishes, the
other in European food.
INSIDE AFRICA AIRS SATURDAY AT 18:30 AND 01:30; SUNDAY AT 15:00 (CET).
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