Pirates of Salé, Morocco

Last Updated on June 28, 2019 by PowersToTravel

City Walls Salé

Salé City Walls

View of Salé medina from the top of the Bab Mrisa

Bab Dar Assinaa at Salé

Salé Fort

Fort at Salé

Mohamed Krounbi, Historian

Canons at the Fort at Salé

Cemetery at Salé

The Bab Mrisa

Our guide Mohamed Krounbi led us from the quiet of medersa to the Bab Mrisa.  We stood within the medina and looked at what appeared to be an ordinary gate.  In fact, we took no picture of it.   But this was not just any gate, as we shortly learned.  While at the moment we stood on land facing the gate, it had originally protected (or enabled) a waterway leading directly to the sea.    Ships would sail directly to the gate, and be allowed to sail into the medina, the gates closing behind it.   The harbor at Salé had since filled in and little remained of the gate’s original function.

What kind of ships needed this kind of protection?  The ships were the ships of the Corsairs, the Pirates of Salé, the Salé Rovers, all names for a lawless force which plundered the Mediterranean and Atlantic mercilessly in 17th century.

Mohamed asked if we were afraid of heights.  Well… Turns out he was truly the historian of Salé and possessed a key to the city walls.  He opened a small door near the Bab El Mrisa and led us through a garbage-strewn, shrub-filled path, up broken stairs, across a very narrow ledge (not the time to look down), to stand upon the Gates.

What a tremendous view!  We could see how the harbor had filled in, over the years.  We could see over the medina.

What lessons Mohamed taught us as we stood above the city.  How the Jewish quarter had developed and flourished, a symbiotic relationship between the Moroccan merchants and craftsmen who according to religious law could neither lend nor borrow, and the Jewish merchants, who had no such constraints, and indeed were part of an entire network of trade throughout Europe and the Middle East.

We learned how so many residents of Salé can trace their history to the Moors of Spain, who once controlled Spain for hundreds of years and finally were forced out by King Philip II.

Sal

We learned that the word Salary comes from Sal, from salt, from the city of Salé.  Salt was a very valuable commodity there was a time when men were paid in salt.

Borj Edoumoue

From the Bab we wandered the medina, exiting through the Bab Dar Assinaa, where our driver picked us up to take us to the fort by the sea, Borj Edoumoue (Bastion of Tears)

The fort perched by the sea, with a large swath of sand below it.  From a single inside  chamber we could peer down through the low archways to see the entire length of the fort.  We gazed through arched windows out to the sea.  We visited the prison cells where the captives would await their ransom.  Canons on the upper walls were poised to protect the pirates at Salé from the legitimate and angry European powers.

As we left the fort, we looked to our right and viewed the huge cemetery reaching to the sea.   The graves were tightly packed row by row.  Mohamed taught us that Muslims do not believe in ornate gravestones, since in Islamic belief men are equal in death.   All are laid to rest laying on their sides, on their shoulders, facing east to Mecca.

So much knowledge learned in such a short afternoon, and so surprisingly retained!

Related Links

Wikipedia history of the Republic of Salé

Entertaining account of a visit to the Pirate Fort

A Google-book snippet of the history

Check out this article of mine too:

Morocco Travel Blog – Itinerary, Reviews and Diabetic Travel Tips

Map