At a time when we are talking about heritage in all its forms, between attempts at appropriation, rehabilitation projects and neglect, what about the fate reserved for our kasbahs and fortresses?
Beyond the indignation, the pious wishes and the announcements, we like to dream of a deep multidisciplinary reflection and an essential rehabilitation, followed by a carefree stroll between architectural legacy and natural panoramas.
Let’s imagine a unique tour route and a large regional circuit, linking several Ismaili kasbahs, in which historical discoveries, fun visits, highlighting local products and authentic stopover lodges with rustic charm, adapted to this form of roaming, combine. far from flashy megastructures!
Given the exceptional density of the heritage of Sultan Moulay Ismaïl, whose reign continues to ignite the imagination, I chose to focus this week on some of his kasbahs in the Middle Atlas.
With the help of his professional army, the powerful Alawite monarch, whose capital was the grandiose Meknes, had built more than 76 fortresses, built from scratch or renovated, strategically placed throughout the kingdom.
Built of stone, adobe and rubble, they are typical with their crenellated rectangular enclosure, reinforced by a set of bastions, ensuring a defense and residence function with their various infrastructures from the mosque and the hammam to the residential accommodation, passing by military buildings.
Since then, some have served as the nucleus of considerable cities, while others served as barracks during the colonial era, with the destruction that one imagines of these places of memory. When they have not sunk into the agonies of abandonment, victims of neglect or the irremediable after-effects of wars such as Ighrem Laâlam, where the great chief Moha Ou Saïd, caid, later set up his base and flew the white standard of Aït Serri under the reign of Sultan Moulay Hassan I.
Our starting point could begin at the foot of the Middle Atlas with Beni Mellal, on whose territory were located ancient prestigious cities, now disappeared: Day, emptied of its inhabitants in the middle of the 12th century following a plague; Tagrart, named after the fortress founded by the Almoravid Youssef ben Tachfine, also called Mahallat Daoud, in reference to the governor of the reign Daoud ben Aïcha; Tagzirt or Tagrourart, called Afza by Leo Africanus and Tebza by Luis del Mármol Carvajal, today a simple village…
Later, during his expedition against the rebellious tribes of the Middle Atlas and his installation in 1688 for almost a year in the region, Sultan Moulay Ismaïl built or rebuilt a set of fortresses including that of Béni Mellal, called Kasbat Bel- Kouch, overlooking the city, near the Aïn Asserdoun spring.
As with Aïn Leuh or Guigou, the Kasbah, later restored by Sultan Moulay Slimane, had received a garrison of horsemen, exactly five hundred.
However, it was only one ring in this vast system set up to monitor the mountain, prevent the movement of tribes towards the plain, secure travel and trade, by protecting the vast network of tracks, the trade route and the Royal Way or Soltane Street.
The historian Zayani reports, in terms of this legendary security of the roads during this reign, that a non-Muslim or a woman could travel without being worried or questioned from Oujda to Oued Noun.
To stay in the Middle Atlas, it is impossible not to mention Kasbat Tadla, founded on the right bank of Oued Oum-Rbia on the site of a much older fortress, dating from the Almoravid reign, probably disappeared under the Marinid reign. following its devastation by the Beni Hilal Bedouins.
Fulfilling military, judicial and administrative roles, Kasbat Tadla was built as a citadel, first and foremost to maintain security and ensure control of the newly built ten-arch bridge, linking the two banks of the river; and thus, the communication route between the North and the South.
Prince Ahmed Dahabi later established himself there as his father’s governor in the region, in turn building a new fortress, equipped with a garrison and some infrastructure, of which the remains of a remarkable mosque remain.
From there, our steps lead us to Adekhsan, located on the site of an old Almoravid kasbah, itself linked to the citadel of Fazaz, named Qal’at al-Mahdinamed after its founder, Mahdi ben Tawala, leader of the Zenete Beni Ifren tribes who had dominated the region in the 10th century.
It was provided with a garrison of 1,500 horsemen and soldiers from Doukkala by Sultan Moulay Ismaïl, who still gathered his forces there during his expedition of 1692-93.
Adekhsan was to distinguish itself more recently as the seat of resistance in the Middle Atlas against the French occupation, after having been the home of the national hero Moha Ou Hammou Zayani, for whom the Kasbah of Adekhsan also bears the name.
In August 1888, he received Sultan Moulay Hassan, who had appointed him caïd in 1883 and had concluded this political alliance with a matrimonial alliance by marrying the daughter of the chief of the Zayane.
With the rise of Khenifra, formerly a simple lodge on the road to Tadla, promoted at the end of the 19th century with this charismatic leader, Adekhsan, located just 8 km to the south-east, will be relegated to the rank of a small suburban douar , while its citadel still resists, as best it can, abandonment and forgetting in an advanced state of ruin.
We can continue our journey for a long time, from discovery to discovery: in Azrou, already cited as a fortress by the historiographer of the Almohads al-Baydaq as a stopover for Abd-el-Moumen during his clashes against the Almoravids.
What can we say about Agourai, nestled in the middle of gardens and orchards, surrounded by bastioned ramparts, the work of Christian captives according to the stories?
Equally essential: El Hajeb, with its core as a kasbah built during the Almohad reign, known as Jâma’ el-Ḥammâmdestroyed at the beginning of the 15th century during the wars that occurred during the period of Marinid decadence!
The list is very long and is only matched by the magnitude of the responsibility we have to restore this inestimable heritage to its true value.
