Introduction
Azdean: Morocco is a different destination, is a unique destination. It's not like going to Paris. It's not going to Italy or Rome or Milan. It's a bucket list destination. So that means, you have one chance, and one chance only, [00:01:00] to do it right. And this is doing it right.
We move from city to city. We have to show you this. This is what makes us different.
This is the reason why we are different. We are a small local owned business, a family owned business. So we are here today in Fes for four days. we're gonna immerse ourselves in the culture with the locals.
We are staying at Riad Ghita, by the way, which is incredible. The staff, the management has been beyond hospitable to us, beyond incredible and good to us. And we're very happy. The reason why? Because we send them our clients. They are one of the major riads that we work with. We do the homework for you, we do the legwork for you, we look for properties, and it's just us doing this for you. The reason why we're doing this for you is because of everybody that booked with us in the past.
The list is really long to mention the names, but we're very [00:02:00] grateful. We're very grateful for all of them. We're very grateful for the listeners. If you want somebody to do everything for you from A to Z, that's what we do.
And we do it well.
Fes, you know, said it time and again, is the center, is ground zero for Morocco. If you have one day to spend in Morocco, this is why you need to come to Fes. If you have, you know, more than days, spend it in Fes. I mean, for us, we're very lucky we have four days, during this tour.
Four days because we want to give Fes the time that it really deserves. And also we don't wanna be rushing and he's rushing us, but I'm, it's all good. So thank you. Thank you, thank you...
Start of tour
Moulay Hafid Alami: I'm native from Fes, I'm a Fessie. Fessie. Not Fezzie, Fessie. For us, "fez" with the Z, is the red hat with tussles. People put it on their heads. Okay, we call it "fez" - you are in Fes. If we try to translate the word fes in English means "pick axe," the tool with which we do dig the [00:03:00] ground. You might wonder what is the relationship between the pick axe and the name of the town.
They said, the legend says, that while putting the first foundations of the Medina, when I say Medina, I'm referring to the old part. Medina in classical Arabic means a "city." By Moroccan that means "old city." So we're putting the first foundation of the Medina and that was exactly in 789. At that time there was lack of pick axe to all the workers.
Building the Medina, we're asking for fes, "give me fes, take the fes." Always repeating the word "fes." When they finished building the Medina in 808, they said "Let's call the city Fes." This Medina we're going to discover today is from the beginning of the 9th century. Over 1200 years old. 12 centuries old. The oldest, the biggest, and the most authentic Medina in Africa. Once inside the Medina, it's like stepping back into the 14th, 15th century. Like a voyage back in time. It's the only Medina that was not affected by the loss of time. I mean [00:04:00] by that, despite all these centuries, this Medina still stays intact, as it used to be centuries ago.
As I said, we still have as means of transportation, donkeys and mules, and handcarts. People living in Medina are leading a very simple life. People do not care about time in the Medina. They're not called people in a hurry or people in a rush. In Morocco, we say "people in a hurry are in the cemetery."
People are in their life very smoothly and very simply. To prove the value, to prove the importance that Medina has, it was declared by UNESCO since 1980, that Medina was declared by UNESCO as a world heritage. Or what we call Universal Patrimony, that UNESCO has to preserve for all humankind. And one year later, I think in 81, UNESCO has created a program called the Safeguard of Fes Medina.
By the way, look, that big wall behind you, look. That is the King's Palace walls, okay? You can see that?
Azdean: Yes.
Moulay Hafid Alami: See how long the wall? See, admire the length of the wall. And just ahead we have the main door of the [00:05:00] King's Palace. Okay, so now we are in the 14th century quarter. Because in Fes, we have three different agglomerations.
The 20th century, 14th century, and the 9th century, which is the Medina. We're going to stop here in front of the King's Palace, so to explain about the handcuffs there, and also, look at that beautiful door on the right side. Bab al Millah, the door that used to lead to the Jewish quarter in the past time.
There's a graveyard that's behind the door. That is a Jewish graveyard. Yes. If you saw the movie that we call Indiana Jones #5, it was shooted here, the last six months of COVID in this building here, it's called Atlantic Hotel.
Indiana Jones #5 was shooted here during the last six months of COVID. I think in Fes and Tangier as well. So let's, I'm gonna stop in front of the main door, see you in Bab al Hajj.
This palace was built by the 4th Moroccan dynasty by the Marinids, okay?
And the Marinids is the 4th dynasty that reigned in Morocco in the 13th and 14th century, and Fes city was their capital. So this is the time when Fes knew its apogee, [00:06:00] it was the golden time of Fes, because all the Marinid kings and monarchs were builders and founders. This palace was built by a king I think called Abu Yusuf Yaakob al Marini in the 14th century, and the palace has been used by different dynasties,
and by the last dynasty, the Alawite dynasty. So the king of Morocco is considered like the 23rd king of his dynasty, who lives in this palace, okay? His dynasty started living here from the middle of 17th century. So the Alawite dynasty been in power for over 400 years. So like the White House in America, person can't get in.
So, the King of Morocco lives in the palace here. So the palace, the oldest and the largest, 14th century palace. It contains area of 80 hectares. I think 80 hectares equals more or less 205 acres. The largest king's palace in Morocco. Despite the fact that the king of Morocco lives in Rabat, the royal palace in Rabat is about half of the surface area.
This is the largest before, and these doors were built in 1968. You can see these numbers just [00:07:00] above the two door knockers up to the ceiling. Under the roof, 1968, the year in which they built the seven doors. Why seven? Seven's like a number, seven heaven.
But we have a reason why we have seven doors. King Hassan II, His Majesty late Hassan II, who passed away in 1999. He became King of Morocco in 1961, and he built the doors in 1968. And from 61 to 68, you have seven years. For Hassan II, at that time, to commemorate his seven years of reign, he built seven doors.
So each door representing one year of his reign. And it took the craftsmen of Fes to design these doors three years. From 68 till 1971. Why three years? Because all was done by hand. We have a lot of craftsmen who are now working in the Middle East countries, in Qatar, in Sukhoi, they're making palaces and swimming pools and hammams for the emirs and kings there.
So they take them for a contract for five, six years.
So all this by hand.
You might wonder what there were before [00:08:00] 1968. There was a big wall here. Oh, okay. But King Hassan built these doors as the main entrance to his palace, So this is a place where the ceremony of allegiance takes place normally. Yeah, this is, okay, when everybody pays their allegiance to the king. The king comes here, all the sculptures carved on the carpet, members of the local authorities are lined here with the jalabas, with the binus, with the fezes, to show allegiance to the king and to welcome him inside this palace.
Okay. You have a question, Baba? Go ahead. It's a private residence of the king, nobody's allowed inside, even once a year we cannot visit!
Unlike in England, you can go visit, but this is something unique.
When the king is here, you'll find a lot of security everywhere. You can tell that from the first entrance. A lot of guards, police, everything. So we are in Fes el-Jdid Quarter.
Behind the fountain there is the new part, the 20th century. Ville Nouvelle. Here we are in the 14th century, Fes el-Jdid. And what's special we have in Fes el-Jdid, we have the Jewish cemetery over there, we have the king's palace, and the [00:09:00] Jewish Quarter we're going to visit soon.
Move to Jewish Quarter (transition)
Moulay Hafid Alami: And the Jewish Quarter,
the first Jewish quarter in Morocco is this part here, with this beautiful Moorish architecture. The names of the Jewish quarter in all Morocco are called the Millahs, like the ghettos in Europe, okay? Millah, the first Jewish quarter in Morocco, is this here, close to King's Palace. Millah comes from the word in Arabic, milh.
Milh means salt. Melh means salt, and that's because most of the Jewish people who used to live here were monopolizing the commerce of salt. They used to have their salt trading here in this shop and live above, okay? Salt business in the past time was so precious, so expensive. For example, in France, they paid what we call La Gabelle as tax on salt.
Salt was taxed. The word salary comes from [00:10:00] salt. The Mela, also we call the Andalusian Quarter, thanks to the style of architecture inspired from Andalusia. If you go out to southern Spain, like Sevilla, Granada, Cordoba, you have the same style of architecture over there. And this style was brought here by the Jewish people who expelled from southern Spain, just after the fall of Granada in 1492.
You know, this day, 1492, the same year America was discovered, Guest of Columbus, the same year the Jewish people came from Spain. So all the Jewish people, and even Muslims, were expelled by Isabella the Catholic. Isabella, after the fall of Granada, told them, if you want to be a Christian, you're welcome.
You don't want to be Christians, out. So many Jews and Muslims were out from Spain. The Jews came here because Fez was the capital, and they built a quarter next to King's Palace. Why that? When the Jewish people came after 1492, Muslim people here, some of them were not happy to welcome them. Well, most of them were Jewish, you know. Yes. But most of the Jewish people who came to Spain were intellectual, [00:11:00] okay? So they served, they were very close to the royal family. There were people speaking different languages, so they helped the royal family.
Doctors, engineers, whatever. Even ambassadors, they speak, okay. So they were very close. They were family. That's why they told them to be the quarter next to the King's palace. It was for their protection and also to serve the royal family, to be very close.
No more Jewish people are living here. Most of them left in the forties, the fifties, either within the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, after Morocco's independence in '56, that most of them left. Yeah. We still have Jewish people in the first, but not any longer in the Jewish quarter. Doesn't mean they were cheated from it, no. The Jewish people have beautiful villas, and beautiful apartments, in the new part, in the Ville Nouvelle. It's only for poor middle class families. Okay, you understand? We still have a Jewish graveyard here, at first. Okay, the biggest one, the most preserved one, we still bury. Even Jews from the city of Sephora, from other, they bring their [00:12:00] corpse to be buried here.
So, the Moorish architecture has balconies that give on the street. It's The Islamic style has balconies that give on the patios or the courtyard of houses. The difference between Moorish and Islam, So in the past time, a Muslim lady has nothing to do with outside world. If you were here like 40, 50 years, you would see ladies veiled or covered, you know?
Today the ladies are more westernized and more modernized than before. Because Morocco has a very moderate Islam, we're Sunni Maliki, it's very moderate. You understand? Yeah. So just to know, Kings of Morocco, the father and the grandfather of his majesty Mohammed VI, used to be a great protectors of Jews.
We were occupied by France. During the Second World War, there the Holocaust. the Nazis came here and they want to kill all the Sephardic Jews of Morocco. But the king of Morocco said, no way, these are my, our citizens. We don't care about their faith. They can be Jew, Christian, or Muslims, for us they are Moroccan citizens.
So all the Sephardic Jews were all protected by the king. That's why we have a very good relationship with [00:13:00] Israel. They love Morocco because Morocco treated them well, and nobody touched them during the Holocaust, Statistics done by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. Talking nowadays, almost 2 million Jews in Israel, Almost one million in Canada, but in the French side, in Quebec and Montreal, okay?
Because it was the French, the language made things easy for the Jews to move to Canada, to the French side.
Many of them. Many. took many of them groups. I took them to their houses where they were born. Sometimes you have touching moments, they start crying, you know? They have that nostalgia, they've thought of the past time, where their families were, the father was, the mother was, grandma.
They were crying, some of them, yeah. There are many flights now from Tel Aviv to Casablanca.
Yes.
Moulay Hafid Alami: Almost every day. even not Moroccan Jews. even as Canada come to see this country, yeah. It's a country of tolerance, it's a country of peace, uh, and, you know, moderate Islam and all this, you know.
Azdean: That's amazing. So,
Moulay Hafid Alami: this is the outside, I would like to take you to the inside of it, okay? Inside, of course. [00:14:00] Yalla, this way. Okay. Guys, this is not the Medina. This is not the old city, we are in the Jewish Quarter, inside the Jewish Quarter built after 1492. All these balconies used to be inhabited by Jewish families. Most of them are Israel now. The Mellah, we are inside the Mellah Quarter.
I looked at all the decorations. And look, look, the names of the streets. Der Blach. Haibar. Al Kharba, you know Al Kharba, like a trash, you know. And it's been restored, that's why they put the Bentin over it to embellish it. So beautiful, okay.
You have the three languages there, Arabic and Berber, which is very new for us. In the past time there were only two languages, Arabic and French. Now they add the middle one, which is the Berber Tamazight.
These bars, uh, they put that to support the building not to fall down, you know, so many buildings are strong enough.
That's why awaiting the restoration that they put that bars.
Azdean: Okay. So now we're walking towards. A little bit further down to the Mellah, I see the narrow streets. [00:15:00] Yeah.
This does remind me of old Medina in Marrakech, where I used to go and visit my aunt back in the 80s. I see. So this is very, very similar in a way. Yeah, of course. Also looking at the ceilings, again, the craftsmanship, and this is just, the way that it's been preserved, it's very nice. Wow, Marrakech is the same
Moulay Hafid Alami: thing, it's an old city as well.
Exactly, yes. A very beautiful city, yeah.
Azdean: So Mr. Hafid, we are inside the synagogue, one of the oldest in the city. Can you tell us a little bit about where we're at and explain to the audience how important this site to Fes, and how important it is to our community?
Moulay Hafid Alami: You know, the Mela, OK, we are a Muslim country, so not too many synagogues, but in the Mela. This synagogue was rebuilt in the 17th century. Jewish people came after 1492.
But we used to have Jewish people before. Even before the Islamic conquest, there were Jews here. Even now, it proves with the name we have. We have some Kohens in Morocco that are Muslim. We have some Kohens that are Israeli, Jewish, in Israel. [00:16:00] All, mostly all the Benz. BenHayun, BenMakhlouf, those are Jewish names.
They also exist in Muslim families here. And since they were Jewish, they were converted to Islam after that. So, in Fes, which is the first imperial city, we have many Jews who came here. We have a big Jewish philosopher and doctor called Maimonides.
Most Jewish people know him all over. Can you say
Azdean: the name again slowly?
Moulay Hafid Alami: Maimonides. My,
Azdean: my,
Moulay Hafid Alami: I will show you the name in the university. He was there as a student. His name is Ram Ba Moses, he's a big scholar. from, uh, Cordoba. Okay. He came in the 11th century. So the synagogue It's been restored. It was not like this. There have been pictures of the way how it was restored. Even the other one was a boxing club now turned to a, it was an old synagogue. Somebody took it, but nobody took care of it. And he turned it into a boxing club.
But Simon Levy, who is in the picture, So he's the one who took care of it and the Jewish community. You have a view of the, of the cemetery. Jewish cemetery you have.
Azdean: It's very [00:17:00] steep stairs. Assalamu alaikum.
Moulay Hafid Alami: As you can see. Watch your head here, please.
Azdean: Watch your head, Okay.
Moulay Hafid Alami: Oh, wow. This is the ladies quarter. This is the ladies quarter? Like a mosque. You have part for men, part for women. I see.
I see the cemetery. One of the most preserved ones. I took many Jewish people from Israel here, looking for the grave there. And we found it very easily. They have old, you see, they have squares named A, B, C, see? They have the little pen with all the squares. And all in the square they have names of people buried there.
You just give the name, the date of where he passed away, whatever. And you can find the tomb. So we are in the Jewish Quarter, under the Jewish Cemetery. One of the most preserved in Morocco, I think.
No, no cremation in Islam. In Islam and Judaism, no cremation at all. They are buried. No, no, no, only one, one in a tomb. So, you can see, this grave is still in use. [00:18:00] I think the last person passed was a Jewish doctor in Fes, Mr. Gigi. And I saw his funeral. There were over, I think, 80 Jewish, but more than three or four or five hundred Moroccan Muslim people.
Why they followed his funeral? Because he was very good to them. He was so generous. Even give money to people to buy the medicines. So he helped a lot of poor people. So that's why people, when they heard that he passed away, they came to see.
So he felt their respect. Yeah.
Azdean: That's amazing. Yeah, I've been here four years ago and the site is, I mean, it's, it is a cemetery, but it's, it's very impressive. The way that it's labeled and organized. Organized.
Moulay Hafid Alami: Yeah. Yeah.
Azdean: you also said earlier that a lot of people, Jewish people, when they pass away and they are not living in Fes, they're living in a different city, one of their will is to come here and be buried in the Jewish cemetery. The view is
Moulay Hafid Alami: incredible. So
Azdean: what's, what are we going to do next?
Moulay Hafid Alami:We have the new part there. We have, we are in the 14th century and the Medina down. So the Medina to the left. Yeah, we'll go down, [00:19:00] we'll go to the, after that, we still walk in the Jewish Quarter inside, the other side of it.
We go to the door, Bab Samarine, that used to separate the Muslim from the Jewish, and we go to the view of the city first. Okay, can you say that again? Bab, Bab what? Bab Semmarin. Bab Semmarin, because we have
Azdean: the same
Moulay Hafid Alami: in Marrakech with this. Bab Semmarin, Bab Ftouh, Bab Ftouh in Marrakech. Almost the same name.
Yeah, yeah.
Transition to Borj Sud
Azdean: ah, a lot of fun.
Azdean: Instead of Mr. Hafez just walking us down the street, he actually took us inside the Jewish Quarter. The things that a lot of people don't see, don't even notice.
Especially the tourists, especially when you're traveling by yourself. These things you're not gonna see. Especially when you're doing cities like Fes, like Marrakech, you really, really have to have a local guide.
The importance of a local guide, tremendous. What they bring to the table, again, the knowledge, the wisdom, the experience is second to [00:20:00] none. So, I always recommend having a local city tour in Fes and Marrakech, minimum at least for these two cities.
and with us today, Hafid, we're very grateful. I, I, I cannot emphasize it enough. Thank you, thank you very much.
Arrival at Burj Sud
Azdean: We're moving to another site and he's going to explain to us. What are we going to be doing for our
Moulay Hafid Alami: next stop?
Our next stop will be in the Fortress, the burj of the south. I see. The burj, which will have an awesome view of the city. I see. From that, we'll have a sense of location. We'll see the three cities. And next we're going to see what we're going to see inside of Medina. Okay. Because the medina, it's huge, you know.
Okay, quick question. You
Azdean: said, when we get to the Burj, we're going to see the three cities. I
Moulay Hafid Alami: yes.
Azdean: Can you explain to
Moulay Hafid Alami: us what the three cities are? Yeah. The three cities, uh, the first one is the Medina. Medina. From the 9th century. 9th century. The second, the one we just visited, the 14th with the King's Palace in the 14th century.
And the third one is the Ville Nouvelle that we're going to visit. Ville Nouvelle, which is the European Quarter, or ex European Quarter. Ville Nouvelle, which means the New [00:21:00] Town in the 20th century. So that's
Azdean: basically what he means by the three cities within the city of Fes.
Obviously, yes. So, again, just a quick question, Mr. Hafid, if you would. how many streets? I know the numbers vary from person to person. How many streets are in the old Medina? The guide's
Moulay Hafid Alami: book took about 9, 000. In the guide's book? In the guide's book. I think it's more than that. Okay. And not simple ones.
A lot of twisted alleys and streets. Yes. A lot of zigzags. That's what makes that Medina very labyrinthic, you know? I see. I was born in the Medina. I lived there for 28 years of my life. I got lost many times when I was a little boy. Oh wow. And all the time my parents found me at the the police station crying, looking for
Azdean: them. So just to elaborate on what Mr. Hafid just said, in the guidebook there are about 9, 000 streets in old Medina, but he said there are definitely more than that. And he was saying as a kid, he gets lost and everybody gets lost. So for us, when somebody gets [00:22:00] lost, if you find somebody who's lost Take them to the police station. That's where the
Moulay Hafid Alami: family or Yeah. When they got get anxious, they like where the, we go to police. Say We have a boy. Yes. One police station. Call the other one. See we have a boy. Yes. Wear T-shirt. Uh, he hair come because
Azdean: Yes.
Moulay Hafid Alami: I
Azdean: do have a question. Your accent is a little different. English. I know, I know. Yeah, have a British accent. Yeah, yeah. So. I can't believe. Yeah. I can't believe. So can you tell us the story behind it?
Moulay Hafid Alami: I'm a BA degree student. I was in University of Fes, okay? And my teachers were English.
Okay. I they're all English people, not Americans. Okay. I see. Yes. So for how long you are a local tour guide? 33 years. 33 years. 33. As a local guy, I was student guide.
That's when I was student, I went with tourists, so I love the job. Oh, I see. I was working in a hotel, four stars. Oh, wow. I want to share my ideas, my experiences, all this, so.
Medina overview(transition)
Moulay Hafid Alami: the Medina was built, look, in a [00:23:00] valley between that round of mountain we call the Rif and the Middle Atlas.
Why the Medina was built in a valley? In order to have water. We are very close to the Middle Atlas, and the Middle Atlas is considered the biggest reservoir of water. So Moulay Idriss was so clever to build the Medina in the valley to have water. There's a river that crosses the Medina, where the taxis are, but the river underneath was buried. And the river supplied the city with the water, but not anymore, because that river got polluted with all these modern industries now. But you still have springs, fountain, you see that fountain in the Medina, where water ran from the mountain. So this is the Medina of Fez, the first intellectual capital, thanks to the university over there.
Religious capital and capital of handicraft is this Medina of Fez. All surrounded by wall. It is built in a valley and put the wall to protect it, okay? There are walls around.
Azdean: I see. Oh, wow.
Medina size, restoration
Moulay Hafid Alami: The Medina is a fortified area. There are 15 kilometers around the whole Medina, what you see in the hole, there's a wall in it, all fortified. So 100, 000 people, this was a statistic done in [00:24:00] 1999. I don't think we'll have more people there, because that Medina is limited in space, there's a wall. If you want to have more people, you have to destroy the wall, the Medina is full.
Moulay Hafid Alami: And UNESCO would like to have this Medina with less people so as to allow them to innovate and restore peacefully. Oh, I see. There's a huge number of people who can't do anything. That's why in the Medina, we see some buildings having scaffoldings. They're still under renovation or just they wooden bars to support them not to fall down.
Oh, I see. People have no where to go. Before COVID, there was a project to build economical apartment with people to move in, while the houses will be under renovation. But COVID came and the project stopped. That's why they put the wood bars to support the building not to fall down. There's money here, there's money.
Let's go pay for that, the World Bank. But we still, that's a question of time.
Tannery (transition)
Azdean: So, the next stop we have is the famous Tannery. Let's do it.
Moulay Hafid Alami:That's the highlight of [00:25:00] this Medina. I can't tell you according to my experiences, over 95 percent of tourists, they come to see the tanneries.
But the biggest one, the Chouara, they go to a terrace that has a view overlooking the colours. Yes, exactly, yes. Yeah. Old Fes is this place.
Azdean: Right here.
Mr. Mushor: Yes. This is the beating heart of the city. And it's, the tannery. The tannery, yes. For tanning leather. Of course, we do have a couple other tanneries like that in Morocco.
Different cities and different places. But this is still the biggest one and the famous one from the 13th century. Never be changed. like heritage international of Morocco, Governments and UNESCO Helps them, advise them, they restore for them. If you see the building many times for free, sometimes renovations to keep some fashion of centuries ago.
I mean, those people never think to use chemical products, machines, or to change something. So,
Azdean: Mr. Mushhor, everything is natural.
Mr. Mushor: Like centuries ago.
Azdean: Okay. So [00:26:00] since the 13th century, now I see just like everybody does. I see different colors, different dyes, different sections.
Can you explain to me the process that the leather goes through from the moment it gets here, step one or phase one, phase two, phase three, phase four, phase five, until laying the leather, to the manufacturers. Exactly. On the sun. Let it dry and stuff like that.
So walk us through that process please, Mr. Mushor.
Mr. Mushor: First, we do have couple slaughter houses in the new town. Okay. Long time ago when I was like four or five years old, mm-Hmm, . it was only Medina. Oh, I see. It was one slaughter house just behind the tannery. Behind the tannery, there's a slaughter house.
That's the only one. But, Fes city becomes very huge.
Azdean: Mm-Hmm.
Mr. Mushor: There is no more slaughter house in Medina. Okay. Now we do have couple ones in the new town. They receive every week, couple hundred animal to kill for meats. Meats goes to different market, different area. Mm-Hmm. And all the [00:27:00] hides of the slaughterhouse comes to here.
Come to here. Okay. When they arrive, of course they comes slightly dirty. Yes, of course. Dust and blood. We clean them just with pure water, down under this building in front of, in the shade. So we
Azdean: cannot see it. In the shade. In the shade they get cleaned, that's where they get, right there.
Mr. Mushor: There is two or three large vats.
Azdean: Okay, and that's where they get cleaned. Yes. So, after they are cleaned, what happens with that? We
Mr. Mushor: put them directly in the white square vats. In the white square, I see. There are these liquids, they look gray, light gray, greenish.
Azdean: Okay. Can you tell us what those liquids are and what they
Mr. Mushor:do? There is water, limestone, and the pigeon droppings.
Azdean: Pigeon droppings, so three ingredients.
Mr. Mushor:Yes, all are centuries ago by experience. Lime in there helps to take off the wool and the fur.
Pigeon droopping, it's ammonia, it's acidic, ammonia natural to make them [00:28:00] soft.
Azdean: To make them, to make the leather soft?
Mr. Mushor: Soft, yes. Okay, so then, this liquid of water with the ammoniacs and also time, time opens the pools of leathers.
Azdean: I see.
Mr. Mushor:And it comes in the end. Of a week or 10 days, it comes easy to pull the wool and the fur and easy after to absorb the colors, the stage coming after.
Azdean: So basically what you're saying is, the third thing that happens is, that product that it's used, it opens the pores of the skin.
So it's easier to peel and clean it and make it ready for the second process. From
Mr. Mushor: there, we take them. The wash machine. If you see this building front of, the big first door, the second, the third one, inside there is a small door. If you see more down, some wheel. Yes, yes, yes.
Yes, yes, yes. This wheel, when it works, when it works, turns and serves like a wash machine. I see. To clean them with [00:29:00] water coming from the top.
Azdean: So the water comes from the top, I see it, and it pours down to the wheel. To the wheel, and then the wheel turns, spins slowly, and it cleans all the leathers. And rinsing them, rinsing them and cleaning them.
And cleaning them at the same time. Okay.
Mr. Mushor: So that's The sun and the air, it becomes really very, very hard.
Azdean: Very hard.
Mr. Mushor: Stiff. Okay. In these rooms around the vats, all those rooms, they are like workshops, and this is really the hardest and the hardest operation. When you be professional, you have to do this, uh, this operation.
They scrape the back side. They have to scrape it? With some special knife. They scrape the backside with some special knife, long time till this leather becomes very, very soft. Okay. I did not know this, but this is amazing. This is the hardest and the last operation of the process work. And, and, and why do they do that with knives? And why do, why do- The same fashion of long time ago. And they don't like to change. There is no machine, no machine. Everything is done by hand.
This, this thickness, [00:30:00] it was much thicker than that before. When they scrap each time, they take a little by little by little. It's thinner.
Azdean: So that's why we see the thickness of the leather in the back.
Yeah. I mean, it's not as thick as it normally would, but the reason why it's a little bit thinner is because of that. Yeah. The knife, the scraping. The scraping and the chipping of whatever the material, the, the dead skin, just to give it this look. So, how much time does it take from start to finish?
Everything that you just have explained to us, step by step by step by step.
Mr. Mushor: All the process time, of course, according to the weather. Okay. Summer, like now, two and a half weeks. I take one week in there, one more week in here with washing machine, drying them, scraping them, two and a half weeks.
Azdean: Two and a half weeks to get something from the slaughterhouse to what we're looking at right now.
Mr. Mushor: But in winter, of course, when it rain, colors deleted and we leave them more days and days to get the right color and takes more time.
Azdean: Okay.
Mr. Mushor:It's like three, four, five weeks sometimes.
Azdean: Okay. It [00:31:00] makes sense.
You know, um, as I'm just, you know, just brushing my hand, just, if I'm not looking, I can tell, and I can feel the difference in the texture between this color right here and this color right here. It's just, it's awesome.
Azdean: Anything else you want to add, Mr. Mushor?
Mr. Mushor: I tell you about the guys working, they are happy for this job. They earn, fortunately, good money. Otherwise, you'll find maybe nobody accepts to do it. They earn good money if we compare them with the other handicraft jobs of Medina.
Okay. Let's compare them with the business. Yes, yes. Because they sell big things. Yes. So,
Azdean: if you can explain to the audience, I know most of them know, what becomes of this leather? And where does it go from here?
Mr. Mushor: First, Medina is very narrow. We don't have big factory where are many people together working.
We have only rooms in different places and in the caravanserai, like old funduqs.
Azdean: Can you make shoes, slippers, [00:32:00] Moroccan slippers, baboush, from here, uh, women handbags, men handbags, leather, suede, all of that stuff is made from this leather that we see, and also it's internationally shipped, so this, all the leather that is processed here, all the goods that are processed, a lot of them are shipped overseas.
A lot of them are sold in Milan, are sold in Paris, New York. Yeah,
Mr. Mushor: it's local of Morocco and of course international, different countries. Europe, States, Australians, also they buy a lot of items from this factory. That's
Azdean: exactly.
Mr. Mushor: Big quantity of people, of Morocco, they buy from us, but really the tourist, they see this stuff, they feel like, crazy. They like to buy and to buy and to buy. And when we have good turnover, I mean, more people come in, for sure. We meet every day some that like to buy lots by shipping, door to door.
Azdean: By shipping, exactly, yes. So, if you want to ship some goods, for example to Australia, to the U. S., to Canada, to [00:33:00] Mexico, Brazil. How much time does it normally take? For
Mr. Mushor:the price, depends on the weights, the weight. So it basically depends to the weights or the weights, the
Azdean: weight of the, the goods.
Mr. Mushor: I tell you from beginning my English, it's a little because I never been in school.
I born in this building and I learn my English, French, Spanish in here . There's nothing wrong with your English! Your English is perfect, just the way it is. The shipping depend, the weights, the weight, more heavy, less money. So for example, one poof to States, United States, to New York, for example, 800 Dirham, $80 or 800 Dirham.
That's not bad. The same poof, three times, maybe 1000 or 1100 Dirham.
Azdean: Okay, I see.
More you ship, less you pay. So basically, it's better to actually have a f ew items shipped at once versus one piece because the cost yes If you compare them to the pieces you're sending or shipping, is actually less. So the [00:34:00] more you send the less money you pay.
Yes. Okay, I understand. Anything else you want to add Mr. Mushor?
Mr. Mushor:We wish only peace and good business for all this family to get good life.
Azdean: Thank you This has been amazing. It's been a wonderful experience Peace is the best. Yes, of course. We wish peace to everybody as well.
Mr. Mushor:And, uh, money for living.
Azdean: Yeah, yeah, just a little bit.
Mr. Mushor: Money for living.
Azdean: Okay.
Mr. Mushor: You will tell that when you be like me, five kids.
I know, I know. When you have five kids,
Azdean: This has been amazing. What a day. Good to see you again.
Conclusion
Mr. Mushor:: I know you don't remember me, but I do remember you. I do remember well your face, for sure.
I had a little bit of hair back then. No, no. I do remember you. I do remember you. Okay. From beginning, I tell you that I do remember you.
Azdean: This has been amazing. And, um, I think this concludes the visit for today. It's been a really long day. Incredible, incredible day. A lot of information. And we're [00:35:00] very grateful for everybody involved. and thank you.
So we're going to move to a new part. We're still exploring Fes, and, uh, stay tuned! Thank you.