Marrakech Noir

Mahi Binebine, Mohammed Achaari, Fouad Laroui, Halima Zine El Abidine, Taha Adnan, Yasin Adnan, Lahcen Bakour, Abdelkader Benali, Allal Bourqia, Hanane Derkaoui, Fatiha Morchid, Karima Nadir, Mohamed Nedali, My Seddik Rabbaj, Mohamed Zouhair

Серия: Akashic Noir

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When I agreed to edit Marrakech Noir, I didn’t realize that I had just stepped into a well-laid trap. Marrakech — al-Hamra, the Red City, as Moroccans call it — has been linked to the color red since the Almoravid ruler Yusuf Ibn Tashfin founded the city in 1062. How could I change its color today? And to black, of all colors! For the city is red, and the people of Marrakech pray night and day to protect it from darkness, despair, and moodiness.

No one but palm trees remember that remote past, when bandits hid behind their slender trunks, waiting to ambush passing caravans. Whenever the convoys of al-Massamida tribes reached the place now known as Marrakech, they would whisper morkosh to each other in muffled fear, which meant walk fast in their language. According to some stories, this is where the city’s name came from. But over the centuries the name has lost much of these dark connotations.

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