Two Arabs, a Berber, and a Jew: Entangled Lives in Morocco

by Lawrence Rosen

In this remarkable work by seasoned scholar Lawrence Rosen, we follow the fascinating intellectual developments of four ordinary Moroccans over the span of forty years. Walking and talking with Haj Hamed Britel, Yaghnik Driss, Hussein Qadir, and Shimon Benizri—in a country that, in a little over a century, has gone from an underdeveloped colonial outpost to a modern Arab country in the throes of economic growth and religious fervor—Rosen details a fascinating plurality of viewpoints on culture, history, and the ways both can be dramatically transformed.

Through the intellectual lives of these four men, this book explores a number of interpretative and theoretical issues that have made Arab culture distinct, especially in relationship to the how nothing is ever hard and fast, how everything is relational and always a product of negotiation. It showcases the vitality of the local in a global era, and it contrasts Arab notions of time, equality, and self with those in the West. Likewise, Rosen unveils his own entanglement in their world and the drive to keep the analysis of culture first and foremost, even as his own life enmeshes itself in those of his study. An exploration of faith, politics, history, and memory, this book highlights the world of everyday life in Arab society in ways that challenge common notions and stereotypes. 

Genres: History, Anthropology, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Morocco, Islam

400 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2015

About the author

Lawrence Rosen is the Cromwell Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University and adjunct professor of law at Columbia Law School and a 2005 Carnegie Scholar. He is both an anthropologist and a lawyer. His main interests are in the relation between cultural concepts and their implementation in social and legal relationships

He is the author of The Culture of Islam; Varieties of Muslim Experience; Bargaining For Reality; and Two Arabs, a Berber, and a Jew; all also published by the University of Chicago Press.

He teaches courses on law and anthropology, comparative religious systems, the American Indian and the law, and the theory of cultural systems. He received the Presidential Distinguished Teaching Award in 1997 and was a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar for 1997-98.

Reviews

[Bob Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Analysis of Moroccan Society through Life Stories

If you grew up in the European tradition, then very often your view of a country is that land within a certain set of borders, even if those borders were questioned or abruptly changed at times. Throughout a lot of the rest of the world, that premise is a non-starter or perhaps has been foisted onto previously-existing ideas. In this quietly brilliant book, Rosen points out that in Morocco it might have been better to say Morocco was “a more or less definable zone within which [a] game could go forth [creating] a vision of a country as a common terrain of engagement rather than of simple geographical boundaries or immutable sovereignty, a territory defined more by the people engaged than the structures applied.” (p.41) How did lives proceed in a land like this?

Isolating the significant aspects of the lives of four 20th century men, Rosen’s masterly text slowly unveils Moroccan society in its larger sense. They were all friendly, decent men who were capable of thinking about themselves and their place in the world around them. Rosen kept in touch with them for nearly 40 years, looking at them as friends as well as sources of information. All lived in or around the town of Sefrou, some miles south of Fez, the old cultural capital of Morocco. Through the first man, the Haj Hamed, we consider history. Rosen refutes the French idea of Morocco as an ancient kingdom caught in a time warp, a backwater or museum. Such a conclusion would occur to Europeans who judged nations by their own standards. Moroccans perceived their history otherwise. Through the second man, Yaghnik, Rosen discusses Islam and how people perceived it.
It is a discussion of Islam in practice, not an idealized version. The third man, the Berber (an ancient North African people with non-Arabic languages who still make up about 40% of the Moroccan population) brings a discussion of tribal organization and how people there perceive it. It’s a political discussion really. An underlying theme of all four biographies is a strong emphasis on the web of personal connections that have long tied Moroccan society together. All mention again and again how nearly every action is connected to this web. We read some very interesting ideas on the nature of tribal society and power. If in the past there was not much political, social or economic security, building a strong web of diverse ties and interconnecting obligations was the only smart way to proceed. If someone had too much power, they could cut or disrupt these ties, thus ambivalence to power was always present. The power structure was extremely fluid. Today you were somebody, tomorrow you could be nobody. Your family rose and fell with you: there was no permanent noble class.

The fourth man, Shimon, was one of the quarter million Jews that lived in Morocco up to the 1950s. The position of Jews there was ambiguous. On the one hand they were seen as “outsiders” but on the other hand they were accepted as “insiders”. They had protection from strong men, just as Muslims did, they shared the culture and the fate of everyone else. There was a general anti-Semitism and the Jews lived in ghettoes until the mid-20th century, at the same time as there wasn’t because the Jews were integrated into all those personal webs and were not cut off from society.. You have to read the book for a detailed explanation. The Sultan protected the Jews against the Vichy French government during WW II, and often tamped down anti-Semitic feelings. I myself observed in Morocco how, despite the near total disappearance of the Jews, their cultural heritage is still maintained and it is true that any Moroccan Jew who wants to return can have citizenship. When almost the entire Jewish population emigrated to Israel or the West, many Moroccans missed them. It is an interesting and unknown story. Rosen visited Shimon and his family in Israel. They missed Morocco at the same time as feeling safer in Israel.

Overall, this book is an amazing piece of anthropology. On one level it presents the life stories of the four men. Within that, you come to understand much more about several major themes in Moroccan society. The text contains many ponderings on large questions as well as, on a third level, observations about the author’s method of field work---how he got this information, what was the environment and how he came to look at things the way he did. Whether you are keen to know about Morocco per se, or would like to read a most excellent anthropological work, you ought to find this book. I have not seen it discussed much, but it should be widely known.

[Petras · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting window into Moroccan life and culture, told through the words of four interviewees from 1960s to the present day. Two arabs, a berber and a jew tell interesting stories about the Moroccan history, religion, tribal prolitics and Jewish-Muslim relationships.

[Danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unorthodox, yet excellent, account of Moroccan society and the identities that comprise Morocco. Rosen provides tremendous insights into the lives of ordinary Moroccan in the 20th century through profiling his relationships with four Moroccan men from the city of Sefrou. Rosen intersperses his conversations with history, analysis, and context for the world view of each man. I found this book to be insightful and entertaining.