| 1. Hassan II died in July 1999 and
was succeeded by his son, Mohammed ibn al-Hassan who took the throne as Sultan Mohammed
VI. At the time of my visit to the Maghreb, Hassan Deux was still on the throne, in
indifferent health.2. The Koutubia or Qutubia
mosque was build by the Almohads in the 12th century, next to the souq that
sold books (kitabs). Its amazingly contemporary-looking minaret, one of the earliest to
exhibit the rectangular cross-section and clean lines characterizing Andalusian
architecture, is not only a symbol for Marrakech or Morocco, but for the achievement of
Andalus in general.
3. The Glaoua tribal chief Thami, made Pasha of
Marrakech by the French in 1918, regularly horrified his European patrons by hanging the
heads of his enemies from the gates of Marrakech – a practice that he apparently
continued with impunity well into the 1940s.
4. From
Ibn Abd-el-Hakem, History of the Conquest of Spain, trans. by John Harris Jones
(Gottingen, W. Fr. Kaestner, 1858), pp. 18-22 . This text is part of the Internet Medieval
Source Book.
5. Sylvie Kennedy has written an eponymous mocking and
vaguely patronizing book, based on her travels to Morocco around the time of the Gulf War.
6. Ibn Khaldûn, The Muqaddimah, An Introduction to
History, Trans. By Franz Rosenthal, Ed. by NJ Dawood, Bollinger Series/Pinceton, 1967, 9th
printing 1989, p ix.
7. Ibid, p 13. Khaldun’s tendency to scoff at
‘Israelite stories’ of the Old Testament does not, however, seem to extend to
Quranic stories; he subscribes to the miracle of the revelation, and his treatment of
Muhammad and his companions is that of a deeply pious man. Of course, it is also possible
he was cautious enough to stay on the right side of Islamic theocracy.
8. In Roman times, Polybius,
influenced by Aristotle, spoke of a similar cycle: from monarchy to tyranny to aristocracy
to democracy to aristocracy and back again.
9. Ibn Khaldûn, The Muqaddimah, An Introduction to
History, Trans. By Franz Rosenthal, Ed. by NJ Dawood, Bollinger Series/Pinceton, 1967, 9th
printing 1989, p 105.
10. To focus only on Runnymede and the subsequent
English parliamentary tradition in this regard would be guilty of two mistakes, one of
fact and the other of perspective. First, the Poles and the Lithuanians developed
important legal and parliamentary traditions that, in several aspects such as taxation
only with representation as well as habeas corpus, precede English ones. Second, the
English parliamentarism permitted no universal adult suffrage, no independence for judges,
no immunity for jurors, no freedom of speech till fairly late. Even in the late nineteenth
century, the Ilbert Bill, which would have made it possible for Indian magistrates to try
Englishmen in India, failed to pass – something that Ibn Khaldûn would have
recognized as a result of English asabiya.
Similarly, the liberté, egalité, fraternité of the
French Revolution gave rise, not to the brotherhood of men in communes, but to Napoleon.
The rise of the individual follows a tortuous path, and the industrial revolution helped
more than a little in speeding up Europe along it.
11. Ibn Khaldûn, The Muqaddimah, An Introduction to
History, Trans. By Franz Rosenthal, Ed. by NJ Dawood, Bollinger Series/Pinceton, 1967, 9th
printing 1989, p 105. p 49.
12. Resolution 3292 of December 13, 1974.
13. Since the Alawite Sultans claim descent from
Mohammed’s daughter Fatima, they are Sharifs, of the Prophet’s family.
14. ‘Western Sahara: Where the women still wait
for the chance to go home’ -- Lara Marlowe; carried in the Irish Times, 01/05/97.
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