As the first English language general history of modern Morocco, this book examines the tactics used by Moroccan rulers to deal with European domination, colonialism, and, since the 1950s, independence. The battle between the royal family and its opponents is discussed, and the text explores the ways by which both sides use the religion of Islam to justify their opposing positions. The book also follows the changing social landscape in the country as relationships between the sexes, linguistic groups and classes have morphed in the last two centuries. Pennell teaches Middle Eastern history at the U. of Melbourne. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

As the first English language general history of modern Morocco, this book examines the tactics used by Moroccan rulers to deal with European domination, colonialism, and, since the 1950s, independence. The battle between the royal family and its opponents is discussed, and the text explores the ways by which both sides use the religion of Islam to justify their opposing positions. The book also follows the changing social landscape in the country as relationships between the sexes, linguistic groups and classes have morphed in the last two centuries. Pennell teaches Middle Eastern history at the U. of Melbourne. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

A richly documented survey of modern Moroccan history that will enthral those searching for the background to present-day events in the region.

The colonial encounter between France and Morocco in the late nineteenth century took place not only in the political realm but also in the realm of medicine. Because the body politic and the physical body are intimately linked, French efforts to colonize Morocco took place in and through the body. Starting from this original premise, Medicine and the Saints traces a history of colonial embodiment in Morocco through a series of medical encounters between the Islamic sultanate of Morocco and the Republic of France from 1877 to 1956. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources in both French and Arabic, Ellen Amster investigates the positivist ambitions of French colonial doctors, sociologists, philologists, and historians; the social history of the encounters and transformations occasioned by French medical interventions; and the ways in which Moroccan nationalists ultimately appropriated a French model of modernity to invent the independent nation-state. Each chapter of the book addresses a different problem in the history of medicine: international espionage and a doctor's murder; disease and revolt in Moroccan cities; a battle for authority between doctors and Muslim midwives; and the search for national identity in the welfare state. This research reveals how Moroccans ingested and digested French science and used it to create a nationalist movement and Islamist politics, and to understand disease and health. In the colonial encounter, the Muslim body became a seat of subjectivity, the place from which individuals contested and redefined the political.

Morocco is notable for its stable and durable monarchy, its close ties with the West, its vibrant cultural life and its centrality to regional politics. This book, by distinguished historian Susan Gilson Miller, offers a richly documented survey of modern Moroccan history. Arguing that pragmatism rather than ideology has shaped the monarchy's response to crisis, the book begins with the French invasion of Algeria in 1830 and Morocco's abortive efforts at reform, the duel with colonial powers and the loss of independence in 1912, the burdens and benefits of France's forty-four year dominion and the stunning success of the nationalist movement leading to independence in 1956. In the post-independence era, the book traces the monarchy's gradual monopolization of power and the resulting political paralysis, with a postscript bringing events up to 2012. This concise, readable book will inform and enthral students and all those searching for the background to present-day events in the region.

The encounter of Europe, Asia and Africa in the Mediterranean basin has given rise to a culturally rich world - a world created by two millennia of warfare and conquest, trading and cultural diffusion, confrontation and accommodation. Combining a historical with a social-anthropological approach, this study of Melilla, a Spanish enclave in Eastern Morocco, offers a remarkable insight into these processes on the local, microscopic level, and shows Melilla's transformation into a trading post and base for colonial penetration and, finally, into a multi-ethnic enclave.