Destination: Morocco

Book: The Caliph’s House: A Year in Casablanca by Tahir Shah

Morocco? Troubled? Yes, even though the king has been voluntarily introducing reforms, just a few days ago, Moroccan students marched in a peaceful demonstration demanding more change. We may yet hear from Morocco during the Arab Spring (which is fast fading into the heat of summer). So let’s read about Morocco.

Periodically, I swear off ever again reading a book about someone who remodels a house in a foreign land.  The smugly superior Brit or American dreams of an idyllic existence in France or Italy or Spain…buys a run down but promising hulk and struggles with the incompetent, quirky, amusing workmen who show up to do the remodeling.  The author is language challenged, a romantic spirit, believes him/herself to be adventurous and broad minded, but gerts outsmarted times after time or spends too much on a project that takes too long and then blames it on the lazy, or superstitous or conniving natives.

Once again, I have broken my vow.  After all, The Caliph’s House is set in a land that sounds like pure magic to me: Morocco. And the author, Tahir Shah comes highly recommended by a writer I admire, Judith Fein.  Perhaps the author’s ancestor will be the saving grace, I tell myself.  Shah is Afghan by birth, so surely he will deal with Moroccans as cousins and treat their religion and culture with sympathy. After all his web site talks about his many ancestors who wrote works meant to explain East to West and vice versa.

Alas, Tahir Shah is much more Brit than Afghan, and regards the Muslim religion with as much curiosity as anyone raised in a majority Christian country.

Much is made in this book of Djinns. The mischievous or malicious spirits apparently inhabit the long-empty house in droves.  Shah wavers between skeptical disdain of the superstition that infects even people he considers to be too smart for such primitive beliefs and his mixture of fear and curiosity that suggest it might be wise after all to do an exorcism.

The Djinns provide a handy excuse for everything that goes wrong and for work that remains undone.  They also provide a handy plot device for Shah.  Because of the prevalence of the presence (or belief–take your pick) of Djinns, the author focuses on the unfortunate primitive superstitions of the workers instead of labeling those workers as incompetent.

The Caliph’s House is an enjoyable read, because Shah has a winning style and he explores many of the quirks of culture and glories of craft that he finds in Casablanca.  On another level, though, the thought of pouring a small fortune into the rennovation of an extravagant mansion that stands on the edge of a slum, bothers me.

The taxi drove a little further, crossed an invisible boundary of some kind and entered a sprawling shantytown.  There were donky carts, chickens, cattle wandering aimlessly about, and a herd of goats blocking the way.  The afternoon muezzin, the call to prayer, was raining down from a modest white-washed mosque at the side of the rutted track.  A group of boys were kicking a homemade soccer ball about in the dusty alleys that ran between the low cinder-block shacks roofed in rusting tin…At the far end of the shantytown, the taxi halted near a plain doorway set in a filthy stone wall.

He had arrived at his house.  And what a house.

There were arched doorways with cedarwood doors, octagonal windows glazed with fragments of colored glass, mosaic friezes and stucco moldings, secluded courtyards, and so many rooms–saloons, studies, laundry rooms and kitchens, staff quarters, pantries, and at least a dozen bedrooms.

But…

“Its walls were discolored with algae, its tiled floors were grimy and in need of repair. Alarming damp patches had taken hold on every surface, and a number of celings had caved in” …..etc., etc.

We get blow by blow descriptions of the destruction and rebuilding of walls, the cutting of tiles, the blooming of the garden, but we learn little about the slums surrounding the Caliph’s house, after the author’s first approach to his house, as if it is invisible.  Except that the 3 main servants live there and their homes are frequently threatened by bulldozers. And oh, yeah, there are those recruiters for religious radicals who set up shop form time to time.

Obviously Shah is a magnetic writer, drawing us into his story by piling on  details and appropriately ornate descriptions of the rococo decor of Morocco. We also gets tastes of the reality of  this Muslim world, with its remnants of the French influence in Casablanca through a varied cast of characters.

But I swear, I’m not going to read any more remodeling books.

———————————

If you have always wanted to see Casablanca, don’t miss this video tour of Casablanca by Tahir Shah.

Have you been to Morocco? Marrakesh is the most popular place to visit right now. Where would you like to go? Marrakesh? Casablanca? Fes? Elsewhere?

The top photo is from Flickr and you can click on it to learn more about the photographer. I suggest  a wonderful book blog, Biblio Junkie. Take a look at her review of The Caliph’s House. And please notice that I wrote a whole post about Casablanca without mentioning Humphrey Bogart! (whoops!)

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Author: Tahir Shah

A GUEST POST by Travel Writer JUDITH FEIN

Travel Literature that Inspires Me

When I sit down to read a good travel yarn, I want to be swept away by an author who is a mystic, humorist, analyst, adventurer, stylist, fabulist and information nerd. I want to get caught up in someone’s crazy quest to find the ancient gold mines of King Solomon in Ethiopia, the secrets of Indian magicians, the way jinns can take over a person’s life in north Africa. I like to finish a book and burn with desire to hit the road again so I can experience the deep brilliance, fascination and craziness of cultures that are not my own.

That’s where Tahir Shah comes in. He’s that once-in-a-generation writer who makes it impossible not to travel, not to dive in where others fear to swim. He actually did go to Ethiopia, running through an obstacle course of hyenas, deceit and physical misery, to find the source of the gold that the Queen of Sheba supposedly brought King Solomon. That book is called  In Search of King Solomon’s Mines.

And he really did become the apprentice of a sadistic magician in India, who initiated him into a hyper-intense world of sleights of hand and sleights of heart. That book is Sorcerer’s Apprentice (out of print, but available used).

Casablanca Great Mosque

More recently, he bought a dilapidated house in Morocco, The Caliph’s House, peopled with jinns, wacko workmen and more mysticism than a book can contain, so the rich content spilled over into a second book, In Arabian Nights, where Shah set off the find the story in his heart. It’s a kind of Sufi Wizard of Oz, with adventures that are puzzling, intriguing, funny, wild, and eventually bring him home to himself.

When I read Shah’s books, I want him to actually find King Solomon’s mines and the story in his heart. But, most of all, I get caught up in the adventure, in the process, and I’m not attached to the outcome. For me, that’s what great travel reading and great travel is about.

Judith Fein

Judith Fein is an award-winning travel journalist who has contributed to more than 85 magazines, newspapers and internet sites. She is the co-founder and editor of Your Life Is a Trip and her website is Global Adventure.    Her book, LIFE IS A TRIP, will be coming out soon. It takes the reader along on l5 trips into other worlds and other cultures where a different way of dealing with life can enrich any reader’s existence.

I first met Judie Fein on a press trip in non-exotic, but very interesting Richmond Virginia. Ever since then, I have been in awe of her fine writing and her accomplishments, and am pleased to be a contributor to My Life is a Trip. I can’t thank Judie enough for sharing this author with us. Believe me, his books are being added to my wish list post haste. (Photo is used courtesy of Creative Commons license. To learn more about the photographer, click on the photo.)

Judie focused on her go-to author for travel inspiration.  Do you have an author that you trust–that you find yourself returning to again and again? I will read anything written by Patrick Leigh Fermor or Norman Lewis

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

A Traveler’s Library has the great good fortune to talk to Peter West Carey who writes The Carey Adventures, about his People, Places, and Patterns Project. He will be traveling to Africa (including Spain and  Morocco; and then Kenya and Tanzania) and Nepal, photographing and learning about cultures along the way. And how can YOU be involved? Here goes:

Me: I  read your interview at The Mother of All Trips about PPP Project, and you talked about travel with your daughter. How old is your daughter and how will she be involved in this trip?

Peter West Carey: My daughter Sabrina, who is 8, will be joining me on the Africa leg of the trips.  Taking her to Africa was really the origin on this trip.  While the trip has some certain idyllic aspects (riding camels, going on safari) I also want to expose her to vastly different lifestyles, while showing her some of the commonality we all share.  And she finally had enough frequent flyer miles to make the trip less expensive. [Ed. Note: That is one Well-traveled little girl!]
Just tonight I started talking to her about doing the presentation at her school.  Her eyes lit up.   She sounded rather excited about being able to tell all the other kids about what she saw–even before she sees it!  While she won’t be with me for the 50 school, 10 library and 20 community group presentations I have planned before the end of 2010, I’d love to have her share the experience from her perspective as well.

PWK: It’s actually three locations but two trips.  Africa will be one trip, combining Spain (still not part of Africa, but close) and Morocco as one section and Kenya and Tanzania as the other.  Nepal is a separate trip about a month after getting back from Africa.   I had previously been to Nepal and the offer to climb a 20,000′ peak was intriguing.

After making these general plans… I knew I was going to take my camera gear…  But then the question came: why?  Sure, I have plans to sell some photos and write some stories to help pay the rent. I don’t believe all travel needs to have lofty reason (I very much enjoy sitting on a beach for a week at a time) but I wanted this trip to have a bit more life to it. That’s when I came up with the concept of a slideshow/presentation.

I had previously noted on my blog that I’d be concentrating on people photography in future travels.  So that was one.  Places seemed obvious as I wanted to give [conext to their lives].  And patterns have been a facination of mine for the past year, but I’ve never concentrated on them in a meaningful way.  Natural, man-made, symmetric…they all catch my eye…  Combining all three, I’d like to show how life, .. is the same in these distant locations  as well as how it differs from life back home.  I hope exposure to those threads and how they weave through vastly different cultures can bring about some understanding and tolerance in the view. [and some curiosity leading to travel].

Me: At A Traveler’s Library, we always would like to know–are there good travel books (or movies) that inspired you to travel?

PWK: I loved [amazonify]1570610835::text::::Voyage of a Summer Sun: Canoeing the Columbia River[/amazonify].  It hit close to home and has put “Kayak the Columbia River” on my list of life goals.

[also loved] [amazonify]078670621::text::::Endurance,Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage[/amazonify] defines how you lead, take risks and bring all your men home safely.

Right now I’m reading [amazonify]0217718817::text::::Farthest North[/amazonify] (the version edited by John Krakauer) about Nansen’s attempt to reach the North Pole.  Those types of books show me a lot of what it takes to really preserver in difficult situations and what type of character is needed for certain types of travel.  While I don’t plan on going on …a multi-year sledging trip to either pole, they do inspire me to learn more about those cold, distant, and often forgotten places on Earth.

PWK: There are three things I need help with for this trip:

1. Make a pledge to the People, Places and Patterns Project. The funding for this project[through kickstarter.com] works on the principle that a project must receive pledges for the entire goal or no funds are dispersed.  [Peter is over 27% of the way to his goal of raising $10,000 by February 16.] Any help is appreciated and pledges start as low as $1.

2. [Suggest]… connections at schools and community groups, starting in my local Puget Sound region and then expanding out from there.  I already have invites from schools in Utah, Oregon and California and I’d love to make the presentations as widely available as possible.

3. Spread the word!  This project is backed by no large corporation or media outlet (yet!) so word of mouth is key to its success.  As the date gets closer I’ve had some amazing response from complete strangers offering to help… It’s a wonderful use of the internet and interviews like this are greatly appreciated!!

Thanks so much for dropping by, Peter. We’ll try out your books, and perhaps you will come back with more complete reviews of a favorite of yours once this project is complete. And readers, do take a look at Peter’s web site and consider supporting his trip in one of the three ways he suggests. After all, we can’t have too much mutual understanding in this world. [If you make a purchase at Amazon by following the link from one of the books suggested here, I'll donate the income to Peter.]

This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library. We'll leave a light on for you.

©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.