Bordj el Baroud

The ruins located south of the mouth of Oued Ksob is known as "Bordj el Baroud " or "Borj el Baroud".
Late 18th century construction of defensive fortresses included Borj el Bermil at the entry of the port, Borj el Assa at the island of Mogador ( Ile Purpuraires ) and Borj el Baroud south at the Oued Ksob.
Borj el Baroud was an isolated fortress which served as a store for gunpowder probably situated somewhere between Bab Marrakech and Sidi Mogdoul. There are no traces left of it today caused by the new settlements and the construction of Boulevard Mohammed V.

The Phoenician explanation:

"I suggest this structure may have been an integral part of the Ile Purpuraires Phoenician settlement for the following reasons:
(i) The position of Bordj El Berod is directly opposite the Phoenician fort at the southeast tip of Ile Purpuraires, permitting a pincer effect upon naval monitoring into the harbour via the southern approach; (Google, 2007)
(ii) The bordj El Berod follows the classic form of Phoenician coastal construction using an immense natural rock as the foundation;
(iii) The stonework follows Phoenician practises of mixing different stone types within the same structure. In particular most of the stonework utilises a native red stone hewn into large rectilinear blocks, but a prominent horizontal course is evident which uses a lighter gray colour hewn in smaller blocks and faced in a cylindrical fashion.
(iv) The condition of the ruined Bordj is remarkable, given its exposure to surf and salty mist. The condition of mortar exposed to these elements is more suggestive of Phoenician engineering, whose talents regularly attacked severe coastal conditions, whereas later Moorish mortar was not as durable to these extreme marine conditions and indeed was not called upon for many such assignments.
(v) The location of Bordj El Berod is remarkably consistent with a fort suitable for monitoring the trading practises that Heroditus depicts in describing the Phoenicians laying out their wares on a broad beach for local tribes to purchase;
(vi) The destruction of the Bordj El Berod was most likely associated with the 18th century major earthquake in western Morocco, making it unlikely that any significant part of the Bordj was associated with the mainstream Moorish construction of Essaouira that occurred in the late 18th century and beyond; and
(vii) The existence of such a grand mainland watchtower would clearly justify naming the site after the Phoenician word ‘'migdol'‘ or watchtower..
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=17926

Eid al-Adha II

Jimi Hendix

People in Essaouira love to tell stories about Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) and other famous people who has been here and they love to tell you that he slept in their house. Most of it is not true. There are legends and myths about him here.
What is fake about Jimi Hendrix in Essaouira you can read on Maroccofake.
What is true is that:
Jimi Hendrix made a short visit to Morocco during the summer of 1969. He came by a regulary flight from Paris to Casablanca.
He enjoyed a romance with Colette Mimram while here.
He visited Morocco just once an he loved Morocco!

Orson Welles

In 1948 the film director and actor Orson Welles stayed in Essaouira filming his classic version of Othello which contains several memorable scenes shot in the labyrinthine streets and alleys of the medina. The opening shot of the film pans the full length of the Scala, the great sea bastion running along the northern cliffs of the town. He stayed at Hotel des Iles (built in 1948 by Antoine Marchisio) and in this hotel there is a bar and a suite named after him. It is said that he met Winston Churchill there, who aslo was a guest at the hotel at that time.
In 1952, the film won the Palme d´Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Othello (1952 film)

Orson Welles's bust is located in a small square just outside the medina walls close to the sea.
It is in a neglected state being covered in bird poop, graffiti and with a broken nose. In addition, the dedication plaques has been stolen.

Several other film directors, have utilised Essaouira's photogenic and atmospheric qualities.
For example Billie Augusts: "Jerusalem" (1966),

Streetart

Eid al-Adha

Pictures from the market of sheep in Scala.

Eid al-Adha ( عيد الأضحى‎ ‘Īdu l-’Aḍḥā) "Festival of Sacrifice" or Eid el kebir "Greater Eid" is a holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ismael as an act of obedience to God.
It is the most important feast of the Muslim calendar. It concludes the Pilgrimmage to Mecca. Eid al-Adha lasts for three days.
Muslims who can afford to do so sacrifice their best domestic animals (usually sheep, but also camels, cows and goats) as a symbol of Ibrahim's sacrifice. The sacrificed animals, called uḍiyyah ( أضحية‎, also known as "al-qurbāni"), have to meet certain age and quality standards or else the animal is considered an unacceptable sacrifice. Generally, these must be at least a year old.

The regular charitable practices of the Muslim community are demonstrated during Eid al-Adha by the concerted effort to see that no impoverished person is left without sacrificial food during these days.

1430 (Islamic Calendar): November 28, 2009

Jewish historical sites

Essaouira is the site of an annual pilgrimage to the grave of Rabbi Chaim Pinto, whose home and synagogue are preserved as an historic and religious site. It is situated in the Mellah. The hiloula of Chaim Pinto is held in September. The entrance to the Chaim Pinto Synagogue can be seen on the picture.
In Rue Laalouj in the Kasbah, we find another Jewish historical site. It is the Simon Attias synagogue. The synagogue was built in 1882. Today the door is locked and the windows covered with bluepainted boards. Unknown for most, hopefully waiting for restauration.
The Jewish cemetery, just outside the city gates, is extremely well kept.

"Essaouira's mellah covers over 10 percent of the town, but Jews constituted almost 40 percent of the population in the late 1880's. Jewish stars on the doors to the mellah show the degree to which Jews were accepted in Essaouira, to the point that some of the richer Jews did not even live in the mellah. Commemorative plaques indicate the buildings in which synagogues were located. Former inhabitants of Essaouira, most of them Jewish, formed a committee to rehabilitate the town. An important member of the committee is King Hassan II's Economic Advisor, Andre Azoulay. " http://rickgold.home.mindspring.com/page21.html


Essaouira - Mogador Cemeteries
Searchable database of names and other identifying information from the cemeteries of Essaouira (Mogador)

Essaouira was founded in 1765. The oldest tombs date from 1776. These tombs are interesting. Contrary to Jewish tradition and Mosaic Law, they are sculptured with very marked human forms. These anthropomorphic tombstones sometimes bear epigraphic inscriptions and sometimes none. These monolithic tombstones are carved out of marine sandstone. http://www.iajgs.org/cemetery/morocco/essaouira-aka-mogador.html

Mellah

Pictures from Essaouira today. The houses in the Mellah near the remparts decomposes.
The painting is: Delacroix Jewish weddings in the Mellah of Mogador.

What is the meaning of the word Mellah ?
There is a judeo-arabic letter from 1541 in which the word “mellah” has the meaning " place where the Jews lived". Another more recognized explanation is that the word " mallâh " means "salt", in arabic.
When muslim soldiers and warriors came back from battle, they would bring back the severed heads of their ennemies as trophies. A task forced upon the Jews was to salt those heads so that they would be preserved impaled.

Mellah is a walled Jewish quarter of a town, a ghetto. Jewish population were confined to mellahs in Morocco beginning from the 15th century and especially since the early 19th century.
The term mellah connotes not just the physical space where jews lived but also the communal space of the Jews.
The mellah was usually walled with a fortified gateway. Frequently, the mellah was located to a corner of the city, having its own gates, allowing full segration between Jews and Muslims.
The system of isolating the Jews was both discriminatory as well as a method of protecting them from Muslim violence. The rule was that the gates to the mellah were closed during night.
In many places around Morocco, the Jews lived in Muslim quarters. Still, Jews did not enjoy the freedom of Muslims. In and around Fez, the rule was that no Jew could ride or wear shoes outside the Mellah, and could only travel the country after applying for a permit.
http://i-cias.com/e.o/mellah.htm

"We could see them take off their black shoes /outside mellah/ as a distinction with the muslims who alone were allowed to wear yellow shoes..."

The Sultan Sidi Ben Abdallah (1757-1790) also settled a large number of Jewish merchant families (the tujjâr al-sultân , or “sultan's traders”) in Mogador in order to take better advantage of their business connections with Jewish merchants in European cities such as Livorno, Liverpool, and Amsterdam. By the late 18th and early 19th centuries Mogador was the only port (outside of Tangier) that was open to European trade. This protected trade status attracted British merchants, who settled in the Kasbah and a large Jewish community. 40% of the city's population was Jewish. When the city's first mallâh , Mellah Kedim, became too small, a new Mellah was built. See map of the old medina of Mogador. http://www.aui.ma/personal/~E.Ross/essaouira.htm

Essaouira's economy was dealt another major blow between 1948 and 1967 when most of its remaining Jewish population emigrated to Israel, France and Canada. Space in former Jewish neighborhoods was then filled with rural migrants.
Abandonned houses now slowly fall apart in the mellah, caused by the weather and the sea or the theft of wooden floorboards. Perhaps in part because of its neglected state—its failure to develop—the city and its vicinity have preserved a distinct charm which has now emerged as a major asset for tourism and the filmindustry.

Essaouira used to be an example of a small Arab town in which Muslims and Jews lived side by side in both rich and poor districts, working together but socially segregated - and in peace.
It was unique because there were almost as many Jews as there were Muslims, so the term "minority" did not really apply, as it did in every other town and city in Morocco and everywhere in the Arab world.
http://www.moroccoboard.com/news/34-news-release/559-the-last-jews-of-essaouira

History
1438: The first mellah is established in Fez.
1465: A majority of the Jews of Fez are massacred by Muslim thugs.
Mid 16th century: A mellah is established in Marrakech
1682: A mellah is established in Meknes.
Early 19th century: Across Morocco, Jews are forced to settle in mellahs, many newly established.
Mid 20th century: Large-scale emigrations of Jews from Morocco to Israel; houses and property are abandoned, usually without compensation, and left for the Muslim locals. The mellahs become Muslim neighbourhoods
http://i-cias.com/e.o/mellah.htm

The Portuguese church

In the medina near the south entrance of the Scala Kasbah, in a small dead end street, Rue Ibn Zohr, there is an old church just door to door with the old Portuguese consulat. Now the old wooden doors are padlocked but from a terrace on a nearby hotel we can see the ruins of the church tower. Unfortunately abandoned and neglected as many other historical monuments in this town,
The street is named from the famous Arab muslim Ibn Zuhr, who was physician in Sevilla where he was born and where he died in 1161.

The portuguese
In the 15th century the Portuguese were among other various travellers and merchants who invaded the moroccan coast.
In 1506, the king of Portugal, Manuel I, ordered a fortress to be built there, named "Castelo Real de Mogador". The fortress fell to the local resistance of the Regraga fraternity four years later.
Later, in the 18th century, merchants from Europe also arrived and the city began to enjoy its golden age. The sultan of that time, Sidi Mohamed ben Abdallah, decided to make it the most important port of the kingdom. He permitted different tribes to inhabit the city and consulates to be established: Denmark first, then France, Brasil and Portugal. This intelligent and tolerant sultan even welcomed an important Jewish community, which contributed greatly to the development of the city.
Mogador became the first Moroccan port to trade with the non-islamic world. It also became the destination for caravans bringing African riches from Timbuctu.


Portuguese Empire
Morocco

15th century 1415-1640 Ceuta
1458-1550 Alcácer Ceguer (El Qsar es Seghir)
1471-1550 Arzila (Asilah)
1471-1662 Tangier
1485-1550 Mazagan (El Jadida)
1487- middle 16th century Ouadane
1488-1541 Safim (Safi)

16th century 1505-1769 Santa Cruz do Cabo de Gué (Agadir)
1506-1525 Mogador (Essaouira)
1506-1525 Aguz (Souira Guedima)
1506-1769 Mazagan (El Jadida)
1513-1541 Azamor (Azemmour)
1577-1589 Arzila (Asilah)

Sidi Magdoul

The tomb of Sidi Magdoul


During the Middle Ages, a muslim saint ( marabout) named Sidi Mogdoul was buried in Essaouira.
It is said that he belonged to the Regraga brotherhood.
Also that he carried out twenty times the pilgrimage to holy places of islam , that he for 40 years fighted the infidels and died at the age of 140.
(Guide tourisitiqe Essaou ira- La seductrice 2005-2007 Sefrioui Editions)

A common understanding is that name Mogador , likely is a deformation of the name Sidi Mogdoul.

It is also said he was a Scottish mariner with name MacDougal who got wrecked on the coast some centuries ago and acquired the status—and pronunciation of his name—by which he is now respected. And from Mogdoul to Mogador is justone step!
(http://www.econ-pol.unisi.it/~afriat/Sultan%20and%20Q%20Victoria.pdf)