Введение The Old Mellah and the Tnaker of Casablanca

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Let's embark on a journey to explore the Old Medina of Casablanca, and more specifically, the Old Mellah and the Tnaker.

The origin of the modern city of Casablanca is the Old Medina. It is from this historical heart that the economic capital of Morocco developed. As early as the 10th century, the city was marked on maps as a small port town in the province of Tamesna, open to foreign trade with Spain, Portugal, and Italy. It was then known by the Berber name Anfa, which refers to a "small hill" and was administered by the powerful heretical tribe of the Berghwatas. In 1068, the Almoravid conqueror Youssef Ben Tachfine besieged and destroyed the city.

Three centuries later, in 1468, the city was attacked and destroyed again, this time by the Portuguese, in retaliation for the danger the local pirates posed to their merchant ships. Casablanca then underwent a long eclipse of three centuries. It was not until the reign of the Alaouite Sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah (1747-1789) that the ruined city was rebuilt and fortified.

He equipped it with ramparts, a military bastion (the Sqala), a large mosque (Jemaa Kebir), schools, ovens, and hammams. The Sultan then wished to endow the country with a large modern port and, to this end, opened a customs office in Casablanca and granted two Spanish houses the monopoly of trade in the region. Between the 18th and the end of the 19th century, the port of Casablanca became Morocco's leading export port for wool, cereals, and tea. It was also under the reign of Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah that the city began to be known by the name of "Dar Al Beida."

The city was booming and thus massively attracted a population from all regions of Morocco, but also from Southern Europe. From 700 inhabitants in 1836, it grew to 25,000 in 1907.

The intensity of trade and population growth forced Sultan Moulay Hassan I (1836-1894) to implement a new spatial organization in the Medina. A true onset of urban planning. The Medina was then divided into three distinct districts:

First, the Medina, to the east and northeast of the city, along the coast. This district hosts the most valuable buildings among the city's oldest.
Next, the Mellah or "Jewish quarter" located on the opposite side to the shore, to the south and southwest of the city. It was partly destroyed in the 1930s during the development of the current Place des Nations Unies.
Finally, to the west, a vast tract of land accessible through the Bab Marrakech gate. It was quickly occupied by the population from the rural exodus, known as the Tnaker.
Together, let's discover the neighborhood of the old Mellah and the Tnaker with CitizOn. Let's go!