Cab Driver in Fez

So Fez is my absolute favorite city in the Middle East. I have not yet visited Jerusalem, so if I ever have the chance, it will likely move to #1. However, for now at least, Fez is my favorite. Why?

Courtyard of the Qarawiyyin Mosque, founded in 859 AD

• It is the only intact medieval walled city in the Arab world, and I've heard in the whole world.
• Fez has been a center of learning for over a thousand years.
• At its center is a mosque called the Qarawiyyin, founded by a woman named Fatimah in 859 AD. It later expanded into a great university. It attracted students and scholars from afar. That university continues to operate; it's the oldest continually running university in the entire world.
• In the medina (old walled city) itself, no motorized vehicles are allowed. You either walk or ride a horse, donkey or mule.
• Most of Morocco's legendary handcrafts are made in the Fez medina.
• You can speak real full-bodied classical and modern standard Arabic, and they understand you.
• The people are hard-working, and know that what they have, do and are has great worth.
• The city is full of mysteries. 
• The city is beautiful.

During my first visit to Fez in the fall of 2005, my friends and I took a 'petit taxi' cab from our hotel in the new part of Fez to one of the gates of the medina.

A 'petit taxi' outside one of the gates of the Fez medina.

I sat in front since I was the Arabic speaker. We got to chatting, the cabbie and me. He was not white haired, so I'd say he was in his late 40's. Yet he seemed older and wiser. He asked where we were from, I explained we were on a tour of Morocco and studying its culture and folk music and folk dance. When he then said he really liked America, I asked why.

"Simple," he said. "On your coins, it says, 'In God We Trust'." 

That conversation has stayed with me for  a long time. Our founding fathers were men of strong principles and beliefs, but they recognized everyone's right to believe what he or she wanted and there was no talk of imposing beliefs on others. Yet that doesn't mean we have to be godless. There were other times in history when this kind of openness and respect was the order of the day, and some of those times took place in Fez. Scholars from Europe, Africa and all over the Arab World - Muslims, Christians and Jews - studied together there and shared knowledge. It was an example to the world. I think we have to hold fast to that openness and make it our banner for the next millenium. We can't survive with religious groups claiming the sole divine correctness. It's just not going to work. Our founding fathers figured that out, and before them, the good people of Fez - and many other places through history. It's not a new idea; it's a very old one that would help us all.

In Apricot Season

The Arabs have thousands of wise sayings and proverbs. I studied Arabic in college and lived in the Middle East for several years and have come across lots of them. Here are some of my favorites.

Bukra Fi Mishmish – “Tomorrow, in apricot season” – This is the equivalent of westerners saying ‘when hell freezes over,’ in other words, ‘never’. Apricots ripen in summer but their season lasts only about a week. So when you want to put something off to an unlikely time, you can say, ‘in apricot season.’

Ibn al-Batt `Awaam – “The son of a duck is a floater” This one, from the Gulf country of Bahrain is akin to ‘the acorn never falls far from the tree.” A British resident in Bahrain wrote a book of Bahraini sayings using this one as its title.

Al-Jaar Qabl ad-Daar – “Choose your neighbor before your house.”  The Arabic version of ‘location, location, location,’ it’s a wise view of how any dwelling place is enhanced by good neighbors.

Misr Umm ad-Dunya ­– “Egypt is the Mother of the World.”  Yes, Egyptians really do think that, and they say it too. 

‘Ala khashmi - “On My Nose” You say this in the United Arab Emirates when someone has asked you to do something, and you want to say, ‘With pleasure, I’ll do what you ask.’

Laa shukr ila waajib – “There is no thanks for doing one’s duty” You hear this across the Arab world from merchants, from friends and in the workplace.

Fawg in-Nakhl – “Above the Palms”. A way of saying, ‘I feel great’. There’s a famous song of that title, popular in the Eastern part of the Arab world. I’ve heard that it’s originally from Iraq.

In Morocco, you say Waakha for ‘OK’. Baghdadi’s say Aku Maku for ‘How ya doin’. (I confess I’ve never been to Baghdad, but an acquaintance from there told me this.) Literally, it means, ‘there was, there wasn’t’. it reminds me of the Lebanese greeting Shoo Fee Maa Fee, or ‘what’s up, nothing much’. In Morocco they greet each other saying, La ba’as, or ‘not bad.’ You can say this both to greet someone and to respond to their greeting. Kuwaiti’s and others from the Gulf say hello with Ya halaa.  All over the Arab world, the expression ya’ani means ‘means’. Confused? OK, it also means, ‘in other words’, and ‘um…ahhh.’, as well as ‘like’ (Valley Girl style). You often hear it stretched out in a sentence while the speaker is stranded mid-thought.  It also has another meaning ---- ‘sort of’ or ‘not exactly’.

My friend Addi Ouadderrou, who owns Moroccan Caravan in Somerville, (http://www.moroccancaravan.com/) taught me a great one last year. Here it is in English. “You’ll find different things when you search in the river than when you search in the ocean.” (The words for river and ocean rhyme in Arabic). Do we have an equivalent of this? I don’t think so.

And last but not least, Abla, a Palestinian friend, told me, “Time is like a sword. If you don’t cut with it, it will cut you.”

Doing Zaghareed on Skype

Dr. Mary Kertzman of DePauw University invited me to do a presentation over Skype for a group of students she is leading on an intercession tour to Morocco. This is what it took to get me up to speed on Skype. The whole experience was amazing in terms of what we could do. With Dr. Mary being willing to run my powerpoint and cue up Youtube music video clips, it worked like a charm. She aimed the video camera on her end toward the class, so I could see them, and they could see me too. If she wasn't so fantastic with the audio visuals, no way would this have worked!

The topic was an introduction to music of the Arab world, and to the music of Morocco. All this was to help them prepare for what they were about to hear on their trip. I was even able to teach them how to do zaghareed (women's trilling cry of high emotion) over Skype, and I could hear them doing it back!

I'm grateful to my friend Mary for the opportunity to try out this new (to me anyway) way of speaking to a group, and to use video clips to bring things to life. Youtube really has revolutionized this kind of lecture - rather than talking too much about a given music tradition, you can show the musicians playing and hear them.  For example, below is a clip of an Andalusian ensemble from Tetouan, Morocco. They are seated in a half-circle, knees touching, wearing traditional costumes. Very distinctive - the way they play the violins and rebec and the way the percussionist holds the little tambourine.

So enjoy the video clip. And thank you, Dr. Mary for kicking me into the Skype age!