IN T A F IL A L T .
Drawn by Herr Romberg.
From a photograph by Walter B . Harris, Esq.
TA F ILA L T
as far back as the time of Yûsef bin Tâshfîn1 at the
end of the eleventh century, but its ruins still extend
five miles along the river bank. Since it fell the people
have lived entirely in the fortresses called k ’sûr (pi. of
k ’sar) with which the oasis is dotted, and which form
its distinguishing feature. In these the pugnacious Fîlàlîs
entrench themselves and live at war, each tribe with its
neighbour, some of them being Arabs and some of them
Berbers, between whom no love is lost.
But thé world-wide fame of Tafilalt comes from its
exquisite dates, the finest of which that will bear transport
find their way to our tables in England. ^
Xo an improvement of the date crop subse- Shareef s.
quent to the settlement there of Hilali Arabs,
the country owes its modern name, * and Morocco its
present dynasty, for it was the ascription of the improvement
to Mulai A li Shareef f that gave him power, and
set his son on the throne of Morocco in 1648. Since
that time it has been the custom for Moorish sultans to
despatch superfluous sons and daughters to this distant
province, in which every other man is therefore more or less
a shareef, or descendant of Mohammed on the male side, t
This state of things does not induce the Fîlàlîs to
extend a welcome to Europeans, and the few who have
visited it, except in the sultan’s service, name- Explorers.
ly Caillé, § Rohlfs, || Delbel, «] and Harris, * *
* First recorded by Marmol in 1573-
J Mouette tells now the arrival of a Spanish slave in the disguise of a
shareef proved equally beneficial. i
J The local sanctity is such that Jews have often to go bare-foot, and
all may be made to loosen their ¡Sandals before a shareef.
§ Journal d'un Voyage, etc., French and English editions, 1830.
|| Reise durch Marokko, Bremen, 1867; Sigilmassa und Tafilet, Norden,
1887. Adventures in Morocco, London, 1874, and Uebersteigung des Atlas,
2nd ed.; a l s o Petermann’s Mittheilungen, 1865.
Çl Joum. Soc. Ge'og. de Paris.
* * Tafilet, London, 1895.
1 L e o , ed . R am ., p . 13 3 . 2 P- * 94*