Quay Colloquy, Harbor scene at Essaouira, Morocco
I don't know when the bicycle was introduced to Morocco. But it may well have been in the nineteenth century in Tangiers or Essaouira. Essaouira on Morocco's Atlantic coast was then one of the most important Moroccan harbors for merchant trade with Europe. Among the countries with a consulate within the walled city was Holland where cycling for other than sporting reasons was becoming popular.
Today Essaouira is no longer a bustling mercantile city. Its once famous international harbor has been diverted to the use of the large fishing fleet. It's a must-do to walk the quays early in the morning when the catch of fish and other wondrous sea-creatures is brought in and displayed.
This photo was taken a couple of hours later as people were preparing to go home... a final chat for the day with one's companions.
No, I doubt they were discussing the history of Moroccan-Dutch relations and they're probably not aware of the derelict doorway in town of what was once the Dutch consulate here. But Holland and Morocco once formed - in the early seventeenth century - a strong allegiance against their mutual enemy, King Philip II and III's Spain.
More than that, there was also a vivid and exotic exchange of ideas. Central figures in that last area are Aḥmad ibn Qāsim Al-Ḥajarī (c.1570-c.1640) and Dutchman Thomas Erpenius (1584-1624). They got to know each other in the context of a Treaty of Friendship and Free Commerce (1610) between Morocco and Holland. Apparently this is the first treaty between a Christian European nation and a non-Christian non-European one. Interesting ideologically is that the Dutch Protestants and the Moroccan Muslims discussed between themselves their joint revulsion against (Roman) Catholic 'idolatry'. Both Muslims and Protestants, of course, are much against 'graven images' certainly in religious or devotional contexts. Al-Ḥajarī went on the become a translator of theological texts for the community of Moriscos to which he belonged; he died at Tunis. Erpenius became one of the most well-known and influential orientalists of Western Europe at the time. He'd been appointed to the chair of Arabic and Oriental Languages at the university of Leiden (1613), but he was also the official translator of the Dutch States-General (for Arabic but also Turkish; incidentally, this year celebrates 400 years of diplomatic relations between The Netherlands and Turkey).
Al-Ḥajarī and Erpenius during their discussions at Paris and in The Hague wouldn't likely have talked and debated on a quay. But their colloquies certainly furthered greatly Oriental Studies in early-modern Europe.
Quay Colloquy, Harbor scene at Essaouira, Morocco
I don't know when the bicycle was introduced to Morocco. But it may well have been in the nineteenth century in Tangiers or Essaouira. Essaouira on Morocco's Atlantic coast was then one of the most important Moroccan harbors for merchant trade with Europe. Among the countries with a consulate within the walled city was Holland where cycling for other than sporting reasons was becoming popular.
Today Essaouira is no longer a bustling mercantile city. Its once famous international harbor has been diverted to the use of the large fishing fleet. It's a must-do to walk the quays early in the morning when the catch of fish and other wondrous sea-creatures is brought in and displayed.
This photo was taken a couple of hours later as people were preparing to go home... a final chat for the day with one's companions.
No, I doubt they were discussing the history of Moroccan-Dutch relations and they're probably not aware of the derelict doorway in town of what was once the Dutch consulate here. But Holland and Morocco once formed - in the early seventeenth century - a strong allegiance against their mutual enemy, King Philip II and III's Spain.
More than that, there was also a vivid and exotic exchange of ideas. Central figures in that last area are Aḥmad ibn Qāsim Al-Ḥajarī (c.1570-c.1640) and Dutchman Thomas Erpenius (1584-1624). They got to know each other in the context of a Treaty of Friendship and Free Commerce (1610) between Morocco and Holland. Apparently this is the first treaty between a Christian European nation and a non-Christian non-European one. Interesting ideologically is that the Dutch Protestants and the Moroccan Muslims discussed between themselves their joint revulsion against (Roman) Catholic 'idolatry'. Both Muslims and Protestants, of course, are much against 'graven images' certainly in religious or devotional contexts. Al-Ḥajarī went on the become a translator of theological texts for the community of Moriscos to which he belonged; he died at Tunis. Erpenius became one of the most well-known and influential orientalists of Western Europe at the time. He'd been appointed to the chair of Arabic and Oriental Languages at the university of Leiden (1613), but he was also the official translator of the Dutch States-General (for Arabic but also Turkish; incidentally, this year celebrates 400 years of diplomatic relations between The Netherlands and Turkey).
Al-Ḥajarī and Erpenius during their discussions at Paris and in The Hague wouldn't likely have talked and debated on a quay. But their colloquies certainly furthered greatly Oriental Studies in early-modern Europe.