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

I know so little of that part of the world. My grandson is there with the peacecorps and I want to know more about the people there and their way of living. I am only in the beginning of the book, will certainly read more. It is hard to believe that all this happened only 50+ years ago.

Lords of the Atlas: The Rise And Fall of the House of Glaoua 1893-1956 I ordered this book and was please that it did not take very much time to arrive. I had actually read the book several years ago and purchased this copy for a friend who was going to travel to Morocco and spend a part of his vacation in the Atlas Mountains. I recommend it to anyone who is traveling to Morocco.

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.

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.

The fact that the first half of this book draws extensively and almost exclusively from the work of Harris, should in no way detract from the achievement of Maxwell. He has presented a very complex period of history, in an accessible and entertaining format. At times it is necessary to remind yourself that not only is this a true story, but that most of the events portrayed took place this century. It is a fantastic account of the power behind the French Protectorate, and a reminder that politics has always been a filthy business. Anyone planning a visit, or who has been to Morocco, especially the Glaoui kasbahs of the High Atlas, should read this book, as should fans of bloody, political intrigue.