Morocco – Willem Blaeu, ca. 1640

“Fezzae et Marocchi Regna Africae Celeberrima.” Copper engraving published by Willem Blaeu around 1640. Original hand colouring. Size: 38.5 × 50 cm.

In the mid-seventeenth century, Morocco was an extensive and varied realm, enclosed between the Atlantic Ocean, the Atlas Mountains, and the southern desert regions. (Blaeu divided the country into the “Kingdom of Morocco” and the “Kingdom of Fez”. Fez, however, was not a permanently independent realm, but rather the northern power base within Morocco.)

The name of the realm derives from Marrakech, often simply called “Morocco”: an immense city that was said to have counted more than one hundred thousand hearths and was regarded by contemporaries as one of the largest cities in the known world. Although wars and internal unrest had diminished its splendour, it remained the administrative and economic heart of the kingdom.

The country was divided into a number of provinces, each with a distinct character. Haha, bordering the ocean and the Atlas Mountains, is rugged, mountainous, and densely wooded. Agriculture is limited, but the region is known for its abundance of honey, on which the inhabitants largely depend. Souss forms a sharp contrast: a fertile, prosperous agricultural area producing generous quantities of wheat, barley, vegetables, and sugar, and yielding figs, grapes, peaches, and dates in great abundance. Its capital, Taroudant, is a substantial town with active trading communities of French and English merchants.

The land of Morocco, around Marrakech, was considered the best cultivated and most densely populated region of the realm. It consists largely of a broad, open plain that contemporaries compared to the Lombard lowlands. The surrounding mountains are cool and fertile, but yield chiefly barley. The region is rich in livestock and game and is traversed by important rivers such as the Tensift and the Oum Er-Rbia, both rising in the Atlas Mountains and supplying the royal city with water.

Other provinces are smaller or less densely populated yet economically significant. Iguzula, in the north, contains iron and copper mines and encompasses many large villages, although most settlements lack defensive walls. Doukkala stretches along the Atlantic coast and is bounded by the rivers Tensift and El-Abid. Ahssoura, situated between Doukkala and Tadla, contains mountain valleys with fortified settlements such as El-Meden and Tagoudast. The land of Tadla, a triangular region between the rivers Cherrat and Oum Er-Rbia, is smaller in extent but includes several well-situated towns.

Price: Euro 450,-