Morocco’s popular legends represent a cultural heritage passed down from generation to generation, often orally. And in many cases, they carry a moral lesson to teach children some life lessons or even support their spiritual development. In this post we explore why, give you some examples, and provide guidance on where you can learn more about them.
Where Morocco’s Popular Legends Come From
As we mentioned in the post about the evil eye, Moroccans are people who largely believe in supernatural elements. That is the cause, or perhaps the consequence, of why numerous popular legends still exist and endure today. Remember that Islam expressly forbids superstitions, but in this country, tales and stories inspired by inexplicable phenomena have been perpetuated, often associated with religion, but not only.
Some Examples of Legends
Morocco’s popular legends are so numerous that they naturally go beyond the scope of a simple post. But it’s worth mentioning some of them to understand what they’re like and be aware of them, in case they come up during your next trip to the country.
Without a doubt, one of the most famous, known by everyone in Morocco, is that of Aisha Kandisha. This female character continues to cause terror among the local population, both children and adults. According to belief, she is a malevolent djinn with the appearance of a beautiful young woman from the waist up, but with goat or camel legs. She lives in water (sea, rivers, wells), from where she emerges at night to seduce her prey with her beauty, then kill them or drive them to suicide.
These popular legends not only instill fear, but also hope, as is the case with the one related to Sidi Ahmed, the wise man of the mountain, who managed to make the djinn Zahra return water to the springs and sources she had dried up. Or that of Sidi Chamharouch, with the appearance of a black dog by day and a human being by night, capable of curing illnesses and mental disorders, making him a highly venerated figure in the area around Jbel Toubkal.
How to Connect with These Legends
Although these legends have been told orally through the centuries, some good books have compiled them to make them available to anyone curious. One of the authors who did this, who traveled to the country in pre-digital times, is Edith Wharton: she traveled to many corners of the country and left us the travel literature classic, In Morocco, from 1920.
But another interesting way to immerse yourself in these popular legends of Morocco is to walk through the places where they are set. For example, the legend of Aisha Kandisha is very present in El-Jadida, where she is believed to have stalked Portuguese soldiers in the 16th century, and also in northern Morocco, as other versions identify her as the daughter of Count Don Julián (governor of Ceuta and ally of Arab conquerors), ‘lying’ on Jbel Musa, also called the Mountain of the Dead Woman.
Or even visit the shrines of Sidi Ahmed and Sidi Chamharouch in the High Atlas, which once a year are the object of large pilgrimages of believers, some to be blessed with abundant water for their crops and others to be cured of health problems, including infertility.
Our guides will be able to tell you more stories about them, especially those related to each city or destination to visit, as their monuments hide much more than their facades tell us.
