Morocco: A Photographic Journey
Photos by Lauren Crew. Originally published in AphroChic magazine Issue 1, Fall 2019.
The story of Marrakech begins in the year 475 AH (1062 AD), as two men walked together in the Sahara desert. Cousins by blood, brothers in arms and ideology, they had spent years at war and were touring the desert in search of a future.
Abu Bakr ibn Umar, leader of the Almoravids, and his top lieutenant Yusuf ibn Tashfin were continuing a fight begun by Abu Bakr’s brother Yahya ibn Umar and their teacher, the Maliki jurist and preacher Abdullah ibn Yasin. Both had fallen in battle, leaving it to Abu Bakr and Yusef to continue to expand their dominion, and with it their vision of Islam.
Unrivaled in combat, the Almora- vids were unbeaten on the field and were, at that moment, suffering the consequences of their success. They had conquered and occupied Aghmat, a wealthy and sophisticated city, but the courtly life of a crowded city was proving impossible for an army of hardened desert nomads.
Abu Bakr and Yusef had gone into the desert seeking a solution - a place where the Almoravids could build the type of military encampment their ranks were used to, defensible and efficient, with lots of open space. When they found what they had been looking for, work on the new encampment began.
From that time on, the city of Marrakech has stood for more than 900 years. It has been the capital of an empire that stretched from pres- ent-day Senegal up through much of Spain and across most of North Africa. It has been a center of learning and philosophy, a hotbed of sedition, and the seat of rulers, rebels, and tyrants alike. It has been besieged, sacked, restored, colonized, and liberated. Today, from the Koutoubia mosque to the Almoravid koubba (bathhouse), through the maze-like passages of the souks, to the open plaza of the Medina, Marrakech - like all ancient places - carries the weight of its history. In every moment there is an almost tangible sense of all that has come before.
But Marrakech is not simply a
place of the past. Its arts, architec- ture and culture continue to touch the world, influencing everything from the fashion of Yves Saint-Laurent to modern interior design. Few places on earth bridge the gap between the old world and the new so well. This is Marrakech, a city in pictures.
Explore the Aesthetic
