CHAPTER TH E S IX T E E N TH
IMPERIAL' CITIES — 3
MARRAKESH (MOROCCO CITY)
MA R R A K E SH * the R e d ! ” What a picture the
name conjures up! Near the edge of the great
red plain-llBiad el Hamra,:—of Central Morocco, north of
the principal Great Atlas group, Yusef bin Tashfin built
him a city nine hundred years ago. f Histo-
Orig,
rians talk of Bocanum Hemerum, a Roman
station, as having existed near here,1 perhaps on the
spot, but who knows? Traces there certainly are not,
and the native story runs that in 1062 Yusef purchased
the virgin soil for his camp, erecting thereon a town
which A li III., his son, enclosed with a wall in 1132.
Probably little remains of those walls, for many have
been the sieges through which the Red City has passed,
and its circumvallation has never been more substantial
than hard-rammed mud concrete, dug close by. t
* There is no record as to the origin of this word, but the ingenious
Louis Rinn derives it from ar or ur zz sons, and the name Kush, with
an M prefixed. 2
■f Its immediate predecessor as the capital of the kingdom was Aghmat,
some hours’ ride to the south on the slopes of the Atlas, which has since
been abandoned, and is now little more; than a name, though still a place
of pilgrimage in 1765*3 It is commonly' pronounced by the Moors
Ghomat. See The Moorish .'Empire^ pp. 47,. 58. and 71.
X The Moorish Empire contains the following historical allusions to
Marrdkesh: building, p. 535 Ibn Tumart defeated there, 705 taken by
1 C h e n i e r , v o l . i., p . 5 5 ; G r a b e r g p . 2 9 1 .
2 O r i g i n e s B e r b e r e s , p . 3 32 . 3 E z - Z a i a n i , p . 1 4 1 .