Morocco: The Traveller's Companion

Book info: Morocco: The Traveller's Companion (Paperback, 300 pages) – I B Tauris & Co Ltd, 1993. Language: English.

This work looks at Morocco through the eyes of past travellers to the country. In its pages, the reader will find portraits of past Sultans, of notables and townsmen, of women of the harem and of Morocco's proud tribal peoples. There are sketches of sumptuous entertainment, of religious festivals, of saints and their shrines, of dervishes and snake charmers. There is an account of an encounter between European sailors and the infamous pirates of the Barbary coast, and there are descriptions of childhood, marriage and the practice of medicine in old Morocco. Favourite Moroccan folk-tales and recipes have also been included and the book offers today's traveller a unique glimpse of this rich and flourishing country. Among the diverse writings collected together in this book are pieces by Pepys, Defoe, Twain, Orwell and Wharton, famous Muslim travellers like Leo Africanus, plus a fascinating array of merchants, sailors, consuls and scholars.