One of the more wonderfully unexpected things I’ve done recently was to sit at Evensong in King’s College chapel with a group of Moroccan historians on a visit to Cambridge. We wandered in almost by chance last Thursday evening, and found ourselves swept happily by vergers and sacristans through the choir-screen.  As we listened to the … More Evensong at the Bou Inania

Tahir Shah says somewhere that a souq is not a real souq unless it sells men’s underpants, and I’m sure he’s right. I spent this morning in Fes, wandering the medina on both sides of the oued, noting that on the Underpants Index the Andalus quarter, at least as far as its main streets go, … More Mrs Ravoon and la condition marocaine

Walk along a Moroccan beach, and you often come upon groups of young men doing the most amazing acrobatics. One day last autumn on Salé beach I stood and watched in wonder as half a dozen youths, apparently under the eye of a coach, performed a series of huge running vaults, turning once, twice, even … More Le Jeu Arabe