Architecture & Stories
Joined April 2023
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To highlight the scale once again - if you look closely (top right image), you will notice two men standing. They barely surpass the height of that tiny detail in that small corner of the roof.
King Hassan II didn’t just commission a monumental mosque - he intentionally used the project to revive, preserve, and modernize Morocco’s traditional crafts which were endangered in the 80’s.
This project revived traditional apprenticeship chains and centuries old technical methods/knowledge. All while advancing and adapting it to modern engineering and unprecedented scales.
Some also suggest he tackled rampant unemployment, while reviving domestic supply chains and industries.
Completed in 1993 as king Hassan II’s monumental gift to Casablanca. A city he thought was lacking in spiritual essence.
He said, “I wish Casablanca to be endowed with a large, fine building of which it can be proud until the end of time ... I want to build this mosque on the water, because God's throne is on the water. Therefore, the faithful who go there to pray, to praise the creator on firm soil, can contemplate God's sky and ocean.”
It took 6,000 traditional craftsmen 5 years to complete the Zellige tiling all over the mosque. And the effort of 35,000 men totalling 50 million hours of labour to complete the mosque.
The ceiling of the great hall sits at a height of 60 meters with 40 meter high arches below. To help visualize, you can basically fit a 20 story building beneath the carved ceiling. That also means it’s tricky to notice people standing inside. If you look to the bottom left of this image, you’ll notice a man in white standing there.
This is in fact one of the finest examples of savagery subdued and tamed.
There’s a reason great men from Alexander to Napoleon were depicted riding a horse.
While the horse represents instinct, nature, and the untamed, the rider represents reason, willpower, and the commanding force that subdues savagery to direct it an ordered synchronous way.
Details from the Koutoubia Mosque’s minbar.
It was commissioned in the early 12th century by the Almoravids. When the Almohads conquered Marrakech, it served as the pulpit in the city’s main mosque.
It stood there all those centuries until 1962.
“Goodness does not consist in turning your face towards East or West. The truly good are those who believe in God and the Last Day, in the angels, the Scripture, and the prophets; who give away some of their wealth, however much they cherish it, to their relatives, to orphans, the needy, travellers and beggars, and to liberate those in bondage; those who keep up the prayer and pay the prescribed alms; who keep pledges whenever they make them; who are steadfast in misfortune, adversity, and times of danger. These are the ones who are true, and it is they who are aware of God.”
Quran 2:177
In 1958 when you were French West Africa and nothing more than a potential future concept drafted on paper, tribal leaders from from the region were pledging allegiance to his majesty King Muhammad V.
إلى إخوتنا المغاربة 🇲🇦 الذين يرددون شعار «من طنجة إلى الگويرة»، نقول بكل وضوح: ابحثوا عن شعارٍ آخر، فمن طنجة إلى جهةٍ أخرى، أمّا لگويرة فموريتانية! 🇲🇷
إن انتهاء نزاع الصحراء الغربية 🇪🇭 سواء لصالح المغرب 🇲🇦 أو لصالح الجمهورية الصحراوية، لا ينبغي أن يكون مبررًا لتجاهل المصالح والحقوق الموريتانية. ومطالبة موريتانيا بترسيم الحدود في الامم المتحدة لا تعني أن الگويرة خارج سيادتها، فقط لكي يفهم البعض ان الجيش الموريتاني لن يخرج من لكويرة مهما كان ،
لگويرة ليست مجرد اسمٍ يُضاف إلى الشعارات، بل أرضٌ لها مكانتها في الذاكرة الموريتانية، وارتباطٌ بأهلها الذين هم اليوم موريتانيين من أبناء نواذيبو.
نحن نحترم المغرب وشعبه كما نحترم أشقائنا الصحراويين ونعتز بأواصر الأخوّة معهم لكن الأخوّة لا تعني الصمت عن الحقوق، والاحترام لا يعني التنازل عن الثوابت.
من طنجة إلى ما شئتم، أمّا الگويرة فلها شأنها الموريتاني؛ موريتانيا أولًا، وحقوقها ليست محلّ مزايدة أو مساومة، وستظل الگويرة موريتانية إلى أن يرث الله الأرض ومن عليها .
Dar L’Bacha is my go to in Marrakech.
Pro tip:
1) Go early ~9:00 am
2) Get tickets for the Museum + Cafe
3) Assume anyone in front of you from the entrance to the cafe, is headed to put their name on the cafe waitlist (can be up 1hr+ long).
4) Fast walk all the way to the cafe reception desk.
5) add your name to the waitlist + get your buzzer. (insist they give you an idea of how long the wait is)
6) Checkout the palace rooms with buzzer in hand. Don’t wonder too far or else it won’t buzz when your table is ready.
7) once you’re seated - Enjoy. You’re now in the company of great coffee, great pastries, great music, great service.
While they desperately attempt to connect this to Islam, so much of the song is actually about how the rapper has distanced himself from God and the values his parents raised him with.
The line that mentions Allah has nothing to with shooting people and everything to do with the fact that only (Allah) God can stop him from the pact he’s made with devil.
Lyrics are publicly available and obvious:
“I’m not afraid, I’m not afraid of hell, the pact is intact, only God can stop me”
He then goes on to describe how his Dad calls him out for his shameful lyrics (munkar):
“I shocked my God and my old man, fuck you, my words are true.
Munkar, Munkar, tell me, tell me, are these words worth it?”
He then goes on to describe his connection with Satan as electric and admits to distributing haram (forbidden) lyrics.
Long story short this whole affair is wholly unIslamic.
Try again at the next moment of outrage.
