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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Fez, the Setting Sun of Islam: A Study of the Politics of Colonial Ethnography |
Author: | Burke, Edmund |
Year: | 1977 |
Periodical: | Maghreb Review |
Volume: | 2 |
Issue: | 4 |
Period: | July-August |
Pages: | 1-7 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Morocco France |
Subjects: | images colonization anthropology History and Exploration colonialism Religion and Witchcraft Politics and Government Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
Abstract: | After considering French policy toward Morocco and French colonial stereotypes about Morocco, a re-examination of French ethnography towards Morocco shows that the assumptions made by the ethnographers of Fez examined here can be seen as entirely consonant with the Moroccan Vulgate, and the series of stereotypes about the Moroccan society which it comprised. Emphasis on the intolerance and fanaticism of Islam displaced attention from the intellectual dynamism of Fez during this period, and explains why there is so little exploration of the ulama as a social category, or of intellectual change. The secure hold of the stereotypes of the Moroccan Vulgate is revealed notably on the response of the French ethnographers of Fez to the various popular revolts which occurred in 1907-1908, and 1912. Overwhelming French military superiority largely made up for the deficiencies of analysis, and re-secured French dominance after the mutiny and rebellion of 1912. The ethnographers' view of the pre-protectorate Fez survived unchallenged until the end of the protectorate. Notes. |