The Path Of Rectitude
Al- Andalus

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Foreword Foreword


After failing several times to concentrate on the book I was reading during a stop-over at the Madrid airport, waiting to board the airplane that will take me to Casablanca, Morocco, I realized that for the preceding hour or so, my imagination was actually starting a journey that has lasted to this day. It was over thirty years ago since as a ten year old child, my family and I emigrated from the country of my ancestors - Morocco. My unrest during the flight was an insignificant prelude to what I was to experience upon my arrival to Sidi Mohamed V airport. I arrived at night and the car trip from the airport to my aunt’s house lasted no more than half an hour, stimulated by the strong fragrance of that April, 1993 night, I began to reconstruct a past from the memories of my childhood.

The following seven days were more than just a "pilgrimage", every day began with a


careful plan for things to see, touch and smell. The urge for seeing the house were I grew up was so intense that not only did I decide to visit the place I once called Home, but to actually relive one of my daily childhood activities. At seven o’clock of my first morning in Casablanca, I stood near the house at 20 Rue Jean Jacques Rousseau and began to walk towards my school - École de Garçons Y. D. SÉMACH foolishly expecting to relive a moment in time by simply going back to the place where that moment occurred. I nevertheless, continued and visited souks, synagogues and neighborhoods where I once played. At the Old Medina I met Chabaane Mohamed - an Ud maker who talked about Andalusian music I also met people who talked about the past, there were some such as "Omar le Cyclist" who genuinely worried about those of us who left Morocco during that monumental exodus, they still wonder why we left - I did not have a convincing explanation.

 

AVRAHAM ELHARAR | June 1997
The mission of this website is to bring together people who are interested in the historical cross fertilization of the various cultures that crossed path with each other during the early part of this millenium in "Al-Andalus" - and the Maghreb.

 

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Revised: July 14, 2010.
July 24, 2006