We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2014
A MOROCCAN IN PARIS
On Saturday, 17 January 1846, an official party of Moroccans stood solemnly on the Champs-de-Mars in Paris. They were reviewing a display of the French military forces put on by King Louis-Philippe to honor a special mission of the Moroccan ambassador. A member of the party was Muhammad al-Saffar. Born in Tetuan, he was educated there and in the highly respected university-mosque of Qarawiyin in Fez, where he acquired the traditional knowledge of a Muslim scholar. He returned to Tetuan to work as a notary in the law court and to teach Traditions and jurisprudence in the city's main mosque. Owing to his abilities and character, he was later appointed to the service of the governor of Tetuan. The sultan of Morocco chose this governor, ʿAbd al-Qadir Ashʿath, as his ambassador extraordinary to France, and Muhammad al-Saffar joined his entourage as the one in charge of religious matters, conducting prayers and reading from the Qurʾan. His self-appointed task was to write an account of their travels to France, which, including the sea voyage to and from Marseilles, lasted eighty-five days.
The spectacle of the French cavalry, artillery, and infantry parading past in splendid order stunned the Moroccan visitors.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
