Meknes — All about Meknes

Meknassa of the olives (10th-11th century)

The Roman ruins of Volubilis are close by, but the present city and its name come from an Amazigh tribe, the Miknasa, who settled in the region in the 10th century. They founded a group of unwalled villages called Miknasat al-Zaytun, "Meknes of the olives".

In the 11th century the Almoravids built a stronghold just to the south, Tagrart, which became the core of today's medina. The Nejjarine mosque, often described as the city's oldest, and the first Great Mosque date from this time.

Almohads and Marinids

The Almoravid stronghold resisted the Almohads, who destroyed it after a long siege in the 12th century. In the early 13th century Caliph Muhammad al-Nasir (1199-1213) rebuilt the city, its walls and its Great Mosque.

The Marinids took Meknes in 1244. In 1276 Sultan Abu Yusuf Ya'qub founded its first kasbah, the same year he created Fes el-Jdid. Marinid princes and viziers often lived here. Sultan Abu al-Hasan built three madrasas, including the Bou Inania Madrasa, completed around 1336. Under the Saadians, in the 16th century, the city was neglected.

Moulay Ismail's capital (1672-1727)

Governor of Meknes under his brother Moulay Rashid, Moulay Ismail became sultan in 1672 and made it his capital. Several reasons explain the choice: he had to reconquer Fes and Marrakech from a rival nephew, the ulama of Fes were hostile to him, and he wanted a new base for his personal guard, the Abid al-Bukhari, recruited from Black slaves from sub-Saharan Africa.

Over his 55-year reign he built a vast palace-city south of the old town. Older buildings were demolished; their rubble gave its name to El Hedim Square, "the rubble". Between 25,000 and 55,000 workers laboured there, paid or captive.

Legends and reality of the imperial city

Accounts by European ambassadors, who came to negotiate the ransom of captives, speak of tens of thousands of Christian slaves locked in huge dungeons. Historians consider these figures exaggerated: Christian captives were probably a few thousand at most, and the underground halls called "prisons" were in fact used to store grain and provisions.

Moulay Ismail moved the city's Jews to a new Mellah near the kasbah, strengthened the walls, opened new gates such as Bab Berdain and Bab Khemis, and built forts for his troops. His wife Khnata bent Bakkar, who played a leading political role, founded the Bab Berdain mosque, completed in 1709. Between 1721 and 1725 he built the Heri al-Mansur and its vast stables. The great Bab Mansour gate was only finished in 1732, by his son Moulay Abdallah.

After the sultan (1727-1912)

When Moulay Ismail died in 1727 his sons fought over the throne and Morocco sank into decades of turmoil. Meknes lost its capital status, and the 1755 earthquake damaged it. Much of the imperial city fell into ruin.

Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah (1757-1790) still added the Dar al-Bayda palace, the Er-Roua mosque, Meknes's largest, a dome over the tomb of Sidi Mohammed ben Aissa, founder of the Aissawa brotherhood, and the present minarets of the Great Mosque and Nejjarine mosque.

Garrison, vineyards and resistance

Under the protectorate, from 1912, the French built a new town on the plateau facing the medina and made Meknes a major military centre and road hub. The population grew from 25,000 at the start of the century to over 140,000 by the mid-20th century. Settlers took over large tracts of land and developed vineyards.

In 1937, in the midst of shortages, a plan to divert the river's water to benefit settlers sparked a revolt, bloodily suppressed: thirteen dead. After independence the city kept growing with rural migration. Its medina and imperial city were listed as UNESCO World Heritage in 1996.

The Aissawa moussem

Every year, around the Mawlid, Aissawa brotherhoods from all over Morocco converge on the mausoleum of the Shaykh al-Kamil. Shawms, drums and trance chants fill the town for several days.

Horses and tbourida

Heir to the royal stables, the Meknes region is still horse country. The region's moussems are home to some of the best tbourida troupes, the charge of riders who fire their rifles together.

The Meknassis

Meknes is a city of traders, soldiers and Saiss farmers. Its people are known as modest and attached to their town, less turned towards tourists than those of Fes or Marrakech. The city takes its name from the Amazigh Meknassa tribe.

Between Fes and the Middle Atlas

Meknes darija is close to that of Fes but more rural; in the surroundings you hear the Tamazight of Middle Atlas tribes.