As the first English language general history of modern Morocco, this book examines the tactics used by Moroccan rulers to deal with European domination, colonialism, and, since the 1950s, independence. The battle between the royal family and its opponents is discussed, and the text explores the ways by which both sides use the religion of Islam to justify their opposing positions. The book also follows the changing social landscape in the country as relationships between the sexes, linguistic groups and classes have morphed in the last two centuries. Pennell teaches Middle Eastern history at the U. of Melbourne. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

A richly documented survey of modern Moroccan history that will enthral those searching for the background to present-day events in the region.

The colonial encounter between France and Morocco in the late nineteenth century took place not only in the political realm but also in the realm of medicine. Because the body politic and the physical body are intimately linked, French efforts to colonize Morocco took place in and through the body. Starting from this original premise, Medicine and the Saints traces a history of colonial embodiment in Morocco through a series of medical encounters between the Islamic sultanate of Morocco and the Republic of France from 1877 to 1956. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources in both French and Arabic, Ellen Amster investigates the positivist ambitions of French colonial doctors, sociologists, philologists, and historians; the social history of the encounters and transformations occasioned by French medical interventions; and the ways in which Moroccan nationalists ultimately appropriated a French model of modernity to invent the independent nation-state. Each chapter of the book addresses a different problem in the history of medicine: international espionage and a doctor's murder; disease and revolt in Moroccan cities; a battle for authority between doctors and Muslim midwives; and the search for national identity in the welfare state. This research reveals how Moroccans ingested and digested French science and used it to create a nationalist movement and Islamist politics, and to understand disease and health. In the colonial encounter, the Muslim body became a seat of subjectivity, the place from which individuals contested and redefined the political.

Black Morocco: A History of Slavery, Race, and Islam chronicles the experiences, identity and achievements of enslaved black people in Morocco from the sixteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century. Chouki El Hamel argues that we cannot rely solely on Islamic ideology as the key to explain social relations and particularly the history of black slavery in the Muslim world, for this viewpoint yields an inaccurate historical record of the people, institutions and social practices of slavery in Northwest Africa. El Hamel focuses on black Moroccans' collective experience beginning with their enslavement to serve as the loyal army of the Sultan Isma'il. By the time the Sultan died in 1727, they had become a political force, making and unmaking rulers well into the nineteenth century. The emphasis on the political history of the black army is augmented by a close examination of the continuity of black Moroccan identity through the musical and cultural practices of the Gnawa.

The encounter of Europe, Asia and Africa in the Mediterranean basin has given rise to a culturally rich world - a world created by two millennia of warfare and conquest, trading and cultural diffusion, confrontation and accommodation. Combining a historical with a social-anthropological approach, this study of Melilla, a Spanish enclave in Eastern Morocco, offers a remarkable insight into these processes on the local, microscopic level, and shows Melilla's transformation into a trading post and base for colonial penetration and, finally, into a multi-ethnic enclave.

'The Rise of Respectable Society' offers a new map of this territory as revealed by close empirical studies of marriage, the family, domestic life, work, leisure and entertainment in 19th century Britain.

For many contemporary observers and analysts, Morocco remains a mystery. So close to Europe, Morocco simultaneously represents a similarly open political culture and its complete antithesis: Human rights associations openly challenge authoritarian rule, while an emphasis on Moroccan singularity and authenticity prevents the establishment of a real democracy. Widespread poverty and illiteracy co-exist with a flourishing entrepreneurial class and the display of conspicuous wealth in its cities; electoral institutions and political parties pay allegiance to a traditional monarch; disgruntled youth and inhabitants of shantytowns are receptive to the rhetoric of Islamic inspired violence and terror. This book provides an introductory overview of contemporary politics and international relations in Morocco, and gives an up to date assessment of the economy and recent history. Drawing on key academic texts, the author provides a detailed analysis of Morocco, focusing on issues such as: Morocco’s role within the region trade policies with Europe Morocco’s Western Sahara policy ways of dealing with Political Islam the extent to which European influence has affected Moroccan society. Easily accessible to non-specialists, practitioners, and upper level undergraduate students, the book will be essential reading for those working in the fields of Comparative Politics, International Relations and Middle East Studies.