Ma Fahemtsh [I Didn’t Understand]: First Days in Fes

Arriving in Fes, I was hit with a wall of heat when I walked off the train from Casablanca. While Casa was certainly warm, Fes is pretty hot — during the day it hovers around 38/39 C (that’s about 100-102 F), although it can go down to a balmy 30 C (86 F) at night.

I hopped in a cab and headed straight for le Centre Americain [the American Centre] — the local name for the Arabic Language Institute in Fes where I am studying Colloquial Arabic Moroccan, aka Darija. I checked in and filled out some paperwork, and then my host family came to meet me and take me to the apartment where I’m staying for the rest of my time here.

My host family is lovely! It includes my host mother, A—, her 20-year-old daughter F—, her sister N—, and N’s adorable 3-year-old son K—. They live in a lovely small apartment in the medina [old city] right next to a big palatial residence called Dar Tazi with gorgeous gardens.

My host brother/cousin! I understand about 5% of what
he says... I'll be lucky if I can leave Morocco with the
vocabulary of a 3-year-old.

"The Land of the Moors" — I'm Off to Morocco!

Tomorrow, I leave for Morocco, to participate in a six-week immersion program in colloquial Moroccan Arabic (also known as Darija). The program is hosted by ALIF, an Arabic language centre in Fes, where I will be staying with a host family. I should also note that my trip was funded by a generous grant from the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto.

I am very excited, even though there is still so much I don't know: what will my host family be like? Who else is in my program? Will I get hopelessly lost in the cobblestoned medina [old quarter]? Will I be able to understand a single word I hear in the streets? 

And of course, I hope that I'll be able to learn more about Moroccan henna while I'm there. Fes is renowned for its henna artists (the origin of the "Fessi style" we know and love) and I would love to be able to watch a local neqasha [henna artist] at work and even ask some questions. I don't know how much time I'll have outside of class, but at the very least I'm sure there will be plenty of beautiful henna around, and I'll make sure to grab pictures inchaAllah [G!d-willing].

My work in the Fessi style, 2014.

I'm also hoping to meet some of the local Jewish community. While Fes was once a centre for Jewish culture and life (the great rabbi Maimonides studied there, among other notable figures), unfortunately only a hundred or so Jews remain and there is almost no Jewish presence in the 'old city' of the Fes Medina. There are still beautiful synagogues and other historical buildings, and I'm looking forward to discovering more of Jewish Fes.

I'll try to post as often as I can, although I don't know how reliable my internet access will be and I don't know how much time I'll have to write posts. But I will certainly try my best to make sure that there's a picture and a brief update here at least once a week. Follow along by subscribing to this blog so that you don't miss a post!

The student manual that the program sent us included Budgett-Meakin's 1901 travelogue "The Land of the Moors" on the list of recommended introductory reading. And since I am a conscientious student, of course, I went straight to the library (or internet, as the case might be). Meakin writes that Fez is "the true metropolis of Morocco... rich in the richest gifts to the Eastern taste" (pg. 235), and concludes (pg. 274):

So much for the Fez of to-day, by far the most interesting town in Morocco, both as to its history and its contents, well worth a visit from the intelligent explorer able to appreciate and study things Moorish. What it may become in a generation it would be bootless to guess. There is just a possibility that it may still be the rambling city it now is, but the chances are all in favour of its seeing many alterations ere that, in its inhabitants, if not in its stones. It is by no means improbable that by that time the proud Fasis may have to own a different master from the easy-going shareefs of the present dynasty. Who can say?

A view of Fez, from Budgett-Meakin's The Land of the Moors, 1901

I do hope I qualify as an "intelligent explorer" and I certainly aim to study as much as I can and appreciate my time in "the most interesting town in Morocco." I look forward to the visit — whether I will succeed in navigating the streets of the medina, well, who can say?

Henna in the Academy: Upcoming Presentation Schedule

I'm very grateful and excited to have the opportunity to present papers at three academic conferences this spring, so I thought it might interest people to know where I'll be and to get a glimpse of what my more formal academic work looks like. It's one thing for me to write blogposts and teach at henna conferences, which is certainly lots of fun, and another thing altogether to be able to frame my work as a productive area of research in current academic discourse — still fun, but challenging in a different way. I am, and have always been, so grateful to have the opportunity to research henna formally, and I hope that my work proves to be of benefit to all — henna artists, the academy, the Jewish community, and anyone interested in how religion, history, bodies, and art intersect. 

I don't know if the conferences are open to the public (I doubt it), but of course, if I'll be in your town, I'd be happy to meet up! I should also note that in between these conferences I will also be teaching at the Henna Gathering, March 28-30, in Hartford, CT!

I've copied the titles and abstracts below... I hope this gives you a little taste of what an academic analysis of henna looks like. If you're particularly interested in one of the papers, the conference proceedings might be published, and there may be another way to get it to you.

February 20-21: University of Indiana-Bloomington

“Not a Single Memory Left”: 

Jewish henna and the malleability of memory

Many Jewish weddings, in Israel as well as North America, include a ceremony known as the “henna night” (leil haḥinna). These ceremonies today are largely practiced by Jews of non-European origin — the Jewish communities of North Africa, the Levant and Mediterranean basin, and Western, Central and Southern Asia — although they have spread to Ashkenazi communities as well. The discourse around (and during) henna ceremonies appeals to memory as a crucial factor in their continued importance. Participants are instructed to ‘remember the traditions’ and applauded for their work in ‘keeping the memories alive.’ At the same time, it is clear that the form of these ceremonies has undergone a process of evolution, modification and reinterpretation over time, especially in the past six decades since the ‘aliya of these communities. This paper explores what is being remembered, what is being forgotten, and what it means for young Jews to remember places they have never seen.

Moroccan henna night, Israel, 2010

In this paper I argue that these ceremonies demonstrate how memory is not so much a telling of ‘the past as it was,’ as it is a telling of ‘the past as it might have been’ — that is, the effect of memory constructs its truth through cultural serviceability rather than historical accuracy. This paper will probe the nature of Jewish cultural memory, and the relationship between memory and cultural change, through a close reading of data collected in research on contemporary henna ceremonies, including observations at henna ceremonies in Israel and North America, conversations with the participants and hosts, and interviews with henna organizers. A comparison between historical records of Jewish henna ceremonies in texts and pictures, and henna ceremonies as currently performed, shows that the contemporary ceremony differs significantly from its predecessors in both material and theoretical aspects. The narratives of participants and organizers alike acknowledge their own role in reshaping and recreating new traditions while at the same time insisting on their role in preserving and passing on the importance of ethnic and cultural memory.