Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
recently experimented by doing the call to prayer in Turkish, but they switched back to
the traditional Arabic.
The Quran teaches that Abraham was a good submitter (to the will of God). The word
for submitter is “Muslim”—derived from
Islam
(“submit”) with a
Mu-
(“one who”). So a
Muslim is, literally, “one who submits.”
Wherever I travel, having just a basic grasp of the dominant local religion makes
the people and traditions I encounter more meaningful and enjoyable. Exploring Muslim
countries leaves me with memories of the charming conviviality of neighborhoods spilling
into the streets. Like Christmas is a fun time to enjoy the people energy of a Christian
culture, Ramadan is a particularly fun and vibrant time to be among Muslims. My visits
to places like Turkey, Morocco, Iran (described in Chapter 8), and Palestine (described in
Chapter 9) have shown me how travel takes the fear out of foreign ways.
Islam is as culturally varied as Christendom. Turkey is unique among Muslim states be-
cause of its European orientation and because of its alliance with the US (important during
the Cold War, Gulf War, and Iraq War). Morocco, another Muslim country, offers a differ-
ent insight into Islam.
On my last visit to Morocco, what I found pleased me: a Muslim nation succeeding,
stable, and becoming more affluent with no apparent regard for the US.
Artists, writers, and musicians have always loved the coastal Moroccan city of Tangi-
er. Delacroix and Matisse were drawn by its evocative light. The Beat generation, led by
William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, sought the city's multicultural, otherworldly feel.
Paul Bowles found his sheltering sky here. From the 1920s through the 1950s, Tangier
was an “international zone,” too strategic to give to any one nation, and jointly governed
by as many as nine different powers, including France, Spain, Britain, Italy, Belgium, the
Netherlands…and Morocco. The city was a tax-free zone (since there was no single au-
thority to collect taxes), which created a booming free-for-all atmosphere, attracting play-
boy millionaires, bon vivants, globetrotting scoundrels, con artists, and expat romantics.
Tangier enjoyed a cosmopolitan golden age that, in many ways, shaped the city visitors
see today.
