Moulay Idriss

30 kilometres from Meknes, two hills suddenly emerge from the landscape, forming the first slopes of the Zerhoun massif. There, firmly clinging to its rocks, spreads out Moulay Idriss, a holy city steeped in spirituality, whose charming white houses form a kind of rampart around the zaouia located at the bottom of the valley, sheltering the tomb of Idriss I, the first sultan of Morocco.

Moulay Idriss and its role in northern Morocco

Great-grandson of Imam Ali and Fatima, daughter of the prophet Mohammad, Idriss I, an Arab prince in conflict with the Abbasids of Baghdad, was part of the Ahlul Bayt (the House of the Prophet). In 788, in order to prevent the massacre of his family, he took refuge with the Berber tribe of the Awraba, established around the city of Walili, better known as Volubilis, built on rich cereal-growing plateaus. Declared king, he laid the foundations of the Moroccan state by unifying the north of the country. Thus, at the head of the third small independent state from the Baghdad caliphate — after Cordoba and that of the Rustamid dynasty in the central Maghreb — Idriss I seized Tlemcen in Algeria, thereby provoking the wrath of Caliph Haroun Al Rachid, who sent his servant Souleiman to kill him. In 791, Souleiman managed to poison the young king, who left behind a pregnant wife. Two months later, Idriss II, the future founder of the city of Fez, was born. He ascended to the throne at the age of 11, supported by Rachid, his father’s faithful servant, and the Berbers. Under his reign, the kingdom of Morocco’s first dynasty jealously preserved its independence, and the city of Fez earned its first letters of nobility.

Moulay Idriss celebrated in August

Just as steeped in history as the kingdom’s first imperial city, Moulay Idriss, despite its small size, is the setting every last Thursday of August for a great moussem: fantasias, shows, processions and prayers are indeed organised in honour of the father of the Moroccan nation… A must-see!