Sefrou
33.85 - 4.8666666666667Koordinaten: 33 ° 51 'N, 4 ° 52 ' W
Sefrou (Arabic صفرو, DMG Şafrū / Sifrū ) is a town in the region of Fez -Boulemane in northern Morocco in the foothills of the Middle Atlas. In the old town surrounded by a wall survived until the mid-20th century, one of the largest Jewish minorities in the country. Today, the picturesque mountain town is a popular tourist destination near Fez. In the anthropological literature Sefrou is through the field research of Clifford Geertz and others a term.
Location
Sefrou is the capital of the eponymous province, and lies at an altitude of about 850 meters, 30 kilometers south of Fez in the rolling foothills of the Middle Atlas. The side road R 503 continues south over a nearly 1,800 -meter-high pass into the central Atlas mountains to Boulemane and to Midelt. The National Highway 8 of Fes to the south via Azrou and Khénifra runs 20 km west past the town. In between the Kandar Mountains with the Jebel Abad, from its 1768 meter high summit, the irrigated fields of the fertile plain of Sais and houses of Fez are seeing rises.
The city is nestled between orchards on the southern edge of the Sais - level at the transition to the deforested, with little vegetation on their crests Atlas Mountains. At the localnear slopes mainly thrive cherries and strawberries. After the cherry harvest in June, therefore, is a three-day Cherry Festival with rider competitions ( Fantasias ) and a large market held. In the surrounding area also olive trees are planted; leads west, a 1.5 -kilometer walk through the densely overgrown with cedars and deciduous trees brook valley of the Oued Aggai up to a waterfall. Without its own water sources, the ecological niche of Sefrou would be as dry as the hills and rocky plateaus to the south; only several kilometers southeast begins the natural Forest Forêt de Jabla.
History
A first storage location or a settlement was established in the 7th century in pre-Islamic times by the Jewish Berber tribe of Ahel Sefrou, whose memory has been preserved in place names. Until the 9th century Jews and Christians in the area Sefrou be mentioned. After the local, unconfirmed legend, the city Sefrou to have been founded in the 8th century before Fes. Plans for the installation of Fez come from 789, as Idris I. to build a new capital for later Idrisids Dynasty, the first Arab rule sequence in Morocco announced. Idris I. had conquered the Jewish and Christian tribes of the area, but not until his successor Idris II is considered the real founder of the independent Idrisids State, of the 809 shifted his seat of Walila ( Volubilis ) to Fez and Fez had converted to the capital. On him the Islamization of the region goes back. Also Sefrou, a town probably at the same time. Under Idris ibn Muhammad (r. 828-836 ) led to the dispute over the dominion and to the fragmentation of the empire. His son Ali ibn Idris ibn Idris (reigned 836-848 ) Sefrou used as the basis for an attack on Fez.
In the 11th century Sefrou was a walled city with a certain meaning. During the 13th century, Jewish immigrants from Tafilet men went. According to the local tradition, it was in the 15th century to Merinidenzeit a special Jewish quarter ( Mellah ) within the Old Town. A defined Mellah presupposes that there was a ban on Jews to settle outside. If the Mellah have been introduced under Abdalhaqq II (r. 1421-1465 ), this would be about the same time happen in Fes with its establishment in 1438. The local Mellah is the oldest Jewish quarter in Morocco.
Sefrou developed as a walled city with specific areas for markets ( souks ), Mellah, a Muslim neighborhood ( Medina ), a fort (kasbah ) and an outlying market. The kasbah was built by Moulay Ismail Alawites -Sultan (r. 1672-1727 ), who saw threatening the eastern border of his kingdom of unrest and uprisings of the Berbers. He participated in several military expeditions against the rebels and his Sultan power to secure permanent, he was in the 1680s a series of fortifications of Taza in the northeast of the edge of the Atlas Mountains via Sefrou, Azrou, Kasba Tadla build up to Beni - Mellal. Moulay Ismail had set up special troops from black African slaves to guard the Kasbahs and smaller fortifications. The prosperity Sefrous stirred at least partially from the caravan trade here, who went on Tafilet on the edge of the Sahara to the north. As the caravans in the 19th century further shifted their route to Fez to the east, they no longer came through Sefrou and the place lost some of its economic power.
The number of Jewish inhabitants in the 17th and 18th century less than in Fes or Meknes, Sefrou still was a center for Jewish education. This was particularly the jurists R. Moses 'm Hamo owed , who ran a religious school in the 17th century. From his correspondence shows that he had in the morning the students taught the Hulin tractate of the Talmud and given a course for more than 20 graduate students in the afternoon. Among his students there were some who were recognized later in the 18th century as a spiritual leader.
In 1900 lived in Sefrou about 6000 inhabitants, of whom half Jews and Muslims. With the agreement of March 30, 1912, the Sultan Moulay Abd al - Hafiz signed in Fes, Morocco became a French protectorate and French troops occupied the region Meknes- Fez. The Sais level became a heartland of agricultural development during the colonial period. In the 1920s there taught French peasants of fences surrounded Homesteads an accommodation of the local farm workers. Until the 1950s, the investment increased in the agriculture of the plane over the landscaped buildings with tile roofs were the poor Lehmziegelbehausungen the native population in the hills around Sefrou a social contrast. The economic neglect of the hinterland to Sefrou during the colonial period led to a migration movement in the city.
According to the general French colonial policy a European Ville Nouvelle was separated from the old planned. However, the proportion of French did not came out in Sefrou about one percent of the residents.
In 1950, the normally flowing across as a little stream running through the city Oued Aggai entered into a spring tide on the shore. 30 people were killed and great damage was caused to the buildings. Then, the stream bed was excavated several meters deep, with the old washing place of Jewish women disappeared.
The French Neustadt extends southwest of the old town on the slopes that were originally irrigated gardens. The local population was in the 1960s, half of a wealthy Moroccan layer of former landowners, who had moved with their families from the old town to the outside, and Europe-oriented city dwellers. The other half belonged to the lower class. No later than 1970, most Jews had left the city for political reasons, the few who remained have moved into new neighborhoods.
Sefrou is one of the social science most studied cities in Morocco. Between 1965 and 1971, the anthropologist Clifford Geertz U.S., his wife Hildred Geertz and some of his students held for a longer time in Sefrou to do field research in the city and its surroundings. The compact, traditionally structured Old Town - for Geertz " a small Fes " - was suitable because of the numerous Sufi brotherhoods ( Sufi brotherhoods ) particularly for the study of an Islamic society. His younger colleague was Paul Rabinow, of 1968-69 in the nearby village of Sidi Lahcen Lyusi examined the Sufi brotherhood of the eponymous saint from the 17th century. Dale F. Eickelmann whose thesis is based on field research in 1968-70 Boujad, stand with Geertz also in relationship. Geertz came to 1986 over and over again for different lengths of working visits by Sefrou back, the last time he was in May 2000 at a conference in the city.
Between 1960 and 1986 a rapid population shift from rural to urban areas was observed. Sefrou, with an area of 10 square kilometers, the only city in around 2000 square kilometer district. The ratio of urban to rural population changed from one to four in 1960 to one -to-one in 1986, it resulted in a split in long-time residents and newcomers population.; both are dissatisfied with their fate. In September 2007, it came in Sefrou to a so-called " bread riot ". The riots began as a women's organization called for the demonstration against the rise in food prices, and degenerated quickly into violent protests after had appeared in large numbers police forces of the provincial governor. The images were documented photographically and with video cameras and posted in Youtube.
Cityscape
In the 1982 census, the city had 38,833 inhabitants at the 2004 census, their number had risen to 64 006. For 2010 70.413 inhabitants were calculated.
The completely surrounded by an oval ramparts old town is traversed in its length from west to east in the middle of the Oued Aggai. The river divides the old town in the two approximately equal-sized residential areas of the Muslim Medina in the north and the Jewish Mellah in the south. Especially the streets in the Mellah are relatively straight, but very narrow, so that an orientation is difficult. The main additions are the Bab el- Maqam in the north and Bab Merba, near which outside the city walls, the closed today synagogue is located in the south. Five mosques spread within the wall. The most famous Sufi pilgrimage is in the Mellah, the Zawiya of Sidi Lahcen Ben Ahmed, a saint from the 17th century. His mausoleum ( Qubba ) is the largest in the mountains of the region, in August every year a pilgrimage festival ( moussem ) is organized. Members of this fraternity tend to steer clear of the Aissaouas in the city. Their Islamic folklore includes healing rituals and incantations snake.
Bus station and taxi rank are located on the large square, Place Moulay Hassan northwest of the old town on the main road to Fes. The French Neustadt extends beyond the Boulevard Mohammed V spacious as quiet garden city south-west up the hill; all of today's urban extension to the north and east covered a multiple of the walled Old City. Market day is Thursday, the rest of the week Sefrou seem particularly busy.
The following Bach leads west a curvy road after half a kilometer to al - Qala (Ksar el Kelaa ) over, a fortified village with today impoverished inhabitants, and on to the already -mentioned waterfall. Two kilometers outside is the sanctuary of Sidi Bou Ali Serghin marabouts, there near the source of the female saints Lalla Rekia, the sooner animals were sacrificed so that she may cure mental illness.
Another path leads from the city after a few kilometers to the earlier important Jewish pilgrimage Kef el Yehudi ( " Jews cave " ), to the Jew the grave of St. Daniel or four Kwahnas ( sacred Jewish Berbers ) revered. Here was the cave of the seven companions who are known in the Seven Sleepers legend for Muslims. The seven young men slept very long, and when they woke up, they wanted to buy in Sefrou bread. Since money was not accepted - it was outdated in the meantime - they went back to sleep, what they do to this day. Followers of both religions sacrificed earlier candles and incense.