Lords of the Atlas : The Rise and Fall of the House of Glaoua, 1893-1956

Rating:
Summary: An epic story of Moroccan history
Review: Lay readers and any with a general interest in history will relish this survey of the rise and fall of the house of Glaoua from 1893-1956: Lords Of The Atlas provides an epic story of Moroccan history which reads almost like fiction but which is packed with facts. Add the unusual attribute of modern color photos of the region throughout and you have an unusually inviting coverage of a little-covered area.

Rating:
Summary: Not your usual history
Review: This curious book is a cross between a coffee-table book and a real book meant for reading. It is visually stunning -- beautiful layout and magnificent photographs, both historical and current. As a history, the book is patchy. Sometimes it seems pieced together from bits of disconnected information. Large portions are quotations from a 1912 book by Walter Harris, who lived in Morocco and was a friend to sultans. The book relates the rise and fall of the Glaoui family. Two brothers, Madani and T'hami, ruled Marrakesh and southern Morocco as warlords from the early 1900's until 1956. Eventually, T'hami El Glaoui became a tool of the reactionary French colonial powers, until they abandoned him in the face of the inevitable movement toward independence. The book is full of fascinating and odd facts. You'll be able to amaze your friends with little known facts -- why the Jewish quarters of Fez and Marrakesh are called "mellahs," which means "salt;" what anatomical tidbit showed up in a restaurant stew during the massacres in Casablanca in the early 1950s; what Moroccan prostitutes sometimes have tattooed in special places. One negative comment -- the book is very badly proofread -- there are numerous typos from the dust jacket throughout the book. I highly recommend this book -- it's not your usual dry narrative of events.