Bassiouney with Tutankhamun, wearing Fatimid-era dress Nov. 2022
From the first time we worked together (on the translation of her novel Ashiyaʾ raʾiʿa / Wonderful Things, published in English as Mortal Designs, AUC Press 2016), Reem Bassiouney and I have maintained a shared understanding of the role of literature in society; the role of creativity in an individual’s life; and the role of imagination in the mind of the readers and all those of us who are re-envisioning our lives and the world around us.
Map of Morocco courtesy of David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries | Source
انظروا هنا للنسخة العربية Guest Post by Meriem Sahli | In the following post, guest writer Meriem Sahli outlines important developments in education in Morocco and identifies remaining areas for improvement.
INTRODUCTION The Kingdom of Morocco is situated in the North-Western part of Africa. Its geographic location makes it both an African and an Arab-Muslim country; it is a member of the African Union and the Arab League.
Atlas Studios. Source
Two Film Industries (Separate, Not Equal) It would seem that there are two very distinct film industries in Morocco: the films produced by Moroccans, and the films produced by foreigners. In fact, they are linked to one another by political economy. Consider the following scene. Moroccan filmmaker M. A. Tazi was trying to reconstruct a fourteenth-century urban environment in Salé for a film based on a Moroccan novel.
Scene from Tazi’s Looking for My Wife’s Husband (1995). Source
This mini-series consists of two posts. The first provides a historical introduction to the film industry in Morocco. How did it get started? What are the big issues that shaped, and continue to shape, this industry?
The Foreign Origins of Cinematography in Morocco Both domestic and foreign production are best understood in the context of Moroccan history. The history of film in Morocco, like that of modern technology in most of the world, begins with colonialism.
This series seeks to map shifting levels of language dominance in Moroccan history in order to investigate contemporary developments in government policy. The previous post focused on Colonial Language Policy.
Nationalist Language Policy of Arabization The Moroccan constitution of 1956 names Arabic as the sole official language, and by the end of the 1950s, a project of Arabization was swiftly in place. A key component of Morocco’s Arabization project was a five-year plan for transforming the school system left by the French Protectorate.
This series seeks to map shifting levels of language dominance in Moroccan history in order to investigate contemporary developments in government policy. The previous post presents a Brief Linguistic History of Morocco.
Street sign, includes French and Arabic
Colonial Language Policy French Morocco’s first resident-general, Hubert Lyautey, relied on ethnological research to guide Protectorate policy. Georges Hardy, head of the educational service from 1920 to 1926, supervised the research. He sought to adapt Protectorate schools “to the specific characteristics of Morocco’s Muslim population,” based upon a psychological approach (Segalla 172).
Tiles in Bahia Palace, Marrakesh
Introduction This series seeks to map shifting levels of language dominance in Moroccan history in order to investigate contemporary developments in government policy. The debate over language policy is closely connected to Moroccan history. Language represents an important site of contestation in most modern states, and especially in post-colonial nations. In Morocco, the nationalist project failed to represent Imazighen (Berbers). As Amazigh (Berber) activists grew more vocal, the Moroccan government has begun developing new national language policies.
This post presents a new translation of an old poem, a qaṣῑda from classical Arabic literature. The poet is Abu Nuwas (who lived c. 757-814), but this is not a typical Abu Nuwas poem. Instead, it provides a nice example of a standard and celebrated praise poem (essential for poets to make a living in this time). Enjoy! PDF copy of this post available here for easy printing or to save for later.
Image from here
I just finished listening to a beautiful interview by Krista Tippett with Kate DiCamillo on the On Being Podcast. It was a poignant and honest exploration of the power of stories to increase our capacity for life and the fullness of experiencing wonder and joy amidst the suffering and seeming chaos of the world around us.
Image from Unsplash
The stories most specifically discussed were Kate DiCamillo’s books, but as someone who is both bookish AND friends with people/cultures that don’t do reading for fun, I feel the need to expand the meaning of “story” here.
If you teach anything related to the region of Middle East/Southwest Asia and North Africa or you want to learn more yourself, this post is for you!
Course Outline by Melanie Magidow and Christine Baker My colleague Christine Baker assisted with the design of the course outline provided here. Intended for an Introduction to the Middle East course, it provides many sources for learning about the region’s cultures, history, languages, religions, and societies.
