Moulay Idriss Zerhoun — All about Moulay Idriss Zerhoun

Idris I and the Awraba (788-791)

Idris I, a descendant of the Prophet, had to flee Abbasid territory after the Battle of Fakh in 786, where he had backed the defeated Alid rebels. He settled at Walili, the former Roman Volubilis, then inhabited mostly by Berbers. Thanks to his prestige he allied with the local tribes, especially the Awraba, who recognised him as imam around 788-789: he quickly became the leading religious and political figure of the region.

As the Roman site on the plain was considered vulnerable, settlement moved a few kilometres towards the mountains, probably to the site of the present town. Idris I died in 791, possibly poisoned on the orders of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, just before his son Idris II was born.

The tomb forgotten, then found (9th-14th century)

Idris II took power in 803 and founded Fes, some fifty kilometres away, which soon eclipsed his father's town. A mausoleum, probably a simple qubba, sheltered the tomb of Idris I, and the name Walili was gradually replaced by Moulay Idriss.

After the end of the Idrisids the founders' cult declined; the Almoravids, hostile to the veneration of saints, did not encourage it. It revived under the Marinids: the announced rediscovery of Idris I's remains in 1318 caused a sensation, and the annual August moussem took shape at this time.

The Alaouites' shrine (1719 to today)

The sharifian dynasties, the Saadians then the Alaouites, also descended from the Prophet, raised the Idrisids' status further. Moulay Ismail had the old mausoleum demolished and rebuilt on a larger scale between 1719 and 1721; he had the Friday prayer said there. In 1822 Moulay Abderrahmane enlarged the mosque again, and under Sidi Mohammed IV (1859-1873) the Meknes craftsman Ibn Makhlouf added rich tilework. In 1939 the cylindrical minaret covered in green tiles, unique in Morocco, was built.

After independence Mohammed V and Hassan II had the shrine redecorated. A holy town, Moulay Idriss was closed to non-Muslims until 1912, and they could only stay overnight from 2005. It has been on UNESCO's World Heritage tentative list since 1995.

The Moulay Idriss moussem

Every year at the end of summer thousands of pilgrims and brotherhoods climb to the mausoleum; it is said that several visits here are worth a pilgrimage.

The Shorfa of Zerhoun

Many residents consider themselves shorfa, descendants of Idris I and so of the Prophet. The town lives from pilgrims, Zerhoun olive groves and small shops around the shrine.

A mountain darija

People speak a darija close to Meknes', punctuated by religious formulas: blessings and invocations run through every conversation.