Ifrane Atlas-Saghir Explained

Ifrane Atlas-Saghir
Other Name:Ifrane, Anti-Atlas
Oufrane
Settlement Type:Village and rural commune
Pushpin Map:Morocco
Pushpin Label Position:bottom
Pushpin Mapsize:300
Pushpin Map Caption:Location in Morocco
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name: Morocco
Subdivision Type1:Region
Subdivision Name1:Guelmim-Oued Noun
Subdivision Type2:Province
Subdivision Name2:Guelmim
Population As Of:2004
Population Total:11,950[1]
Utc Offset:+0
Timezone Dst:WEST
Utc Offset Dst:+1
Coordinates:29.2106°N -9.4929°W

Ifrane Atlas-Saghir or Ifrane, Anti-Atlas (Arabic: إفران الأطلس الصغير, meaning cave), is a village and commune in southern Morocco populated by some 12,000 inhabitants.[1] The town, its arid valley, oasis and surrounding mountains attract some tourism, from hikers and Jewish pilgrims. Ifrane Arlas-Saghir was also known by the former local Jewish community as Oufrane.

History

Ifrane Atlas-Saghir was an important trading post and market for the caravan trade moving across the Sahara to the sea-coast, until the trade faded away in the late 1800s. The area is now populated by the Chleuh (Amazighen Berbers) group, who today generally maintain their traditional way of life.

Jewish community

Ifrane Atlas-Saghir was an ancient home to a 2,000-year-old Jewish population, the oldest in Morocco, until 1958 when they left as a group to settle in Israel.[2] Today an important Jewish pilgrimage site is located there, being the site of a mass suicide of the 1700s, undertaken in the face of a brutal persecution by a local sorcerer. The remains of Jewish cemeteries are also known today... "in the gorges of the Oufrane, there are ancient cemeteries with headstones that have inscriptions in Hebrew."[3] The descendants of Maklouf have maintained an oral history of their family's fate following the massacre, which their great-great-great-great grandmother managed to escape.[4] Due to the importance of Ifrane's Jewish heritage, a synagogue has been restored in the abandoned mellah there, by the Foundation for Jewish-Moroccan Cultural Heritage. The district's long-standing Jewish culture has left another lasting legacy, in the form of the continuing observance of some aspects of Jewish folklore among the local Berbers.

Notable people

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Recensement général de la population et de l'habitat 2004. Haut Commissariat au Plan. 15 June 2012. 19 June 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180619163929/https://www.hcp.ma/Recensement-general-de-la-population-et-de-l-habitat-2004_a633.html. dead.
  2. Nabil Boudraa, Joseph Krause (eds.), North African Mosaic: A Cultural Reappraisal of Ethnic and Religious Minorities, Cambridge Scholars, 2007, p. 166.
  3. Sacheverell Sitwell, Mauretania: warrior, man, and woman, 1940, p. 121.
  4. Knafo . Saki . On a Family Journey to Morocco's Southern Coast, a Writer Reckons with His Homeland's Religious History . Conde Nast Traveler . January 19, 2023 . January/February 2023 . 29 January 2023.