Pig Husbandry in Morocco in the Nineteenth Century: A Study in the History of Taboos

Authors

  • Author

  • Basraoui Yahya

Keywords:

Morocco, European Influence, Pig Husbandry, Nineteenth Century, Makhzen

Abstract

This paper sheds light on the illicit practice of pig husbandry in nineteenth century Morocco. It examines how European influence p romoted the spread of this practice and how it transformed it from a prohibited foodstuff to an economic, revenue-generating activity. The paper also explores the various problems pig farming caused in the social fabric of Morocco, and how it damaged Moroccan property and economic interests, due to the Makhzen's inability to resist the pressure exerted by Europeans. The paper further illustrates the status of the pig in the Moroccan psyche and collective imaginary, with reference to historic testimonies that illustrate Moroccans' relationship to this animal.

References

  1. Other examples include the trade in human bones, smuggled weapons, counterfeit currency, slaves, tobacco, wine, straw, among others.
  2. Turki bin Ajlan al-Harthi, "Namādhij min al-Tajāwuzāt al-Ajnabiyya fī al-Maghrib al-Aqṣā khilāl al-Niṣf al-Thānī min al-Qarn al-Tāsiʿ ʿAshar," Majallat Jāmiʿat al-Malik ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, al-Adab wa-l-ʿUlūm al-Insāniyya , no. 6 (1993), pp. 103-134.
  3. It must be emphasized that the absence of pig husbandry in Morocco before the nineteenth century was more to do with pigs raising than pigs' meat consumption per se. The religious ban on eating pigs' meat has been prohibited over a long span of time, which means that its spread was very limited and Moroccans had eaten pork in clandestine, individual consumption of hunted wild boar; and not of husbanded pigs. Yet with the increase of foreign influence during the nineteenth century, the conditions emerged in which pork turned from a prohibited foodstuff to an economic, revenue- bearing activity (husbandry). This was due both to domestic demand (from Europeans mostly living in port cities) and export (the development of European interests due to unfair treaties). This situation was unprecedented in Moroccan history, as far as the documentary evidence shows. See: Lutfi Bu-Shantuf, "Tijārat al-Maḥẓūr fī al-Niṣf al-Thānī min al-Qarn 19m (Silʿatā al-Dukhān wa-l-Khamr Namūdhajan)," in: Aʿmāl Nadwat al-Tijāra fī ʿIlāqathā bi-l-Mujtamaʿ wa-l-Dawla ʿAbr Tārīkh al-Maghrib (al-Dār al-Baydaʾ: Manshūrāt Kulliyyat al-Ādāb wa-l-ʿUlūm al-Insāniyya, 1989), part 1, p. 118, footnote no. 4.
  4. For more on the status of the pig in the people's imagination, see: Marvin Harris, Muqaddasāt wa Muḥarramāt wa Ḥurūb: Alghāz al-Thaqāfa , Ahmad M. Ahmad (trans.) (Doha/ Beirut: Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, 2017), chapter 2: "Muḥibū al-Khanzīr wa Kārihūh," pp. 39-60.
  5. See: Deuteronomy (14:3-20).
  6. The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 15, Verse 11; the Acts of the Apostles, 10:15.
  7. Rijs is a term used to refer to abhorrent acts, listed by al-Tahir ibn Ashur as: "the dirty, the transgressive, the corrupted, the detestable in private and public". See: al-Tahir ibn Ashur, Tafsīr al-Taḥrīr wa-l-Tanwīr (Tunis: Dār Saḥnūn, 1984), vol. 8, no. 24.
  8. See: Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Ismail al-Bukhari, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (Damascus/ Beirut: Dār Ibn Kathīr lil-Ṭibāʿa wa-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzīʿ, 2002), Kitāb al-Buyūʿ , "Bayʿ al-Mayta wa-l-Aṣnām," Ḥadīth no. 2236, p. 533.
  9. Abu Dawud bin al-Ashʿath bin Ishaq bin Bashir al-Azadi al-Sajistani, Sunan Abī Dāwūd , Shuʿaib al-Arnaʾut & Muhammad Kamil Qarah Balali (eds.) (Damascus: Dār al-Risāla al-ʿĀlamiyya, 2009), Kitāb al-Buyūʿ , "Fī Thaman al-Khamr wa-l-Mayta," Ḥadīth no. 3485, part 5, p. 350.
  10. Abu al-Abbas Ahmad bin Yahya al-Wansharisi, al-Miʿyār al-Muʿrab wa-l-Jamiʿ al-Mughrab ʿan Fatāwā al-Andalus wa-l-Maghrib (Rabat: Manshūrāt Wizārat al-Awqāf wa-l-Shuʾūn al-Islāmiyya lil-Mamlaka al-Maghribiyya, 1981), part 6, pp. 219-220.
  11. Abdullah Muqbil Ali, "Naẓariyyat Bayʿ al-Muḥarramāt fī al-Fiqh al-Islāmī: Dirāsa Muqārana," PhD diss., Kulliyyat al-Ādāb wa-l-ʿUlūm al- Insāniyya says, Fes, 2009, pp. 154, 156-157.
  12. Khalid bin al-Sagheer, al-Maghrib fī al-Arshīf al-Biriṭānī: Murāsalāt John Drummond Hay maʿ al-Makhzan 1846-1886 (al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ: al-Shirka al-Maghribiyya lil-Nashr – Wallāda, 1992), p. 216.
  13. The term " Ḥallūf " (pl. Ḥalalīf) is found in dialects of Arabic across North Africa.
  14. Muhammad Ramadani, "Ḥalūf," in: Muʿallimat al-Maghrib (al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ: al-Jamʿiyya al-Maghribiyya lil-Taʾlīf wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Nashr, 2000), part 11, p. 3550.
  15. Karmūs" is Moroccan dialect for "fig".
  16. al-Hussein bin Ali bin Abdullah, Qiṣaṣ wa-Amthāl min al-Maghrib (Rabat: Dār Abī Raqrāq lil-Ṭibāʿa wa-l-Nashr, 2012), part 2, p. 145.
  17. John Drummond Hay, "Reminiscences of Boar-hunting in Morocco," Murray's Magazine: A Home and colonial Periodical for the General Reader , vol 3, no. 15 (January-June 1888), p. 333.
  18. Edmond Doutté, Marrākish , Abdurrahim Hazal (trans.) (Rabat: Manshūrāt Marsam, 2011), p. 49. Source: Prepared by author based on observation.
  19. This term is also found in a number of historical sources, including the writings of Mármol Caravajal who described ʿAyn al-Ḥallūf, a ruined Roman city. See: Mármol Carvajal, Ifrīqyā , Muhammad Hajji et al. (trans.) (Casablanca: al-Jamʿiyya al-Maghribiyya lil-Tarjama wa-l-Nashr; Rabat: Maktabat al-Maʿārif, 1984), part 2, p, 129.
  20. Auguste Mouliéras, al-Maghrib al-Majhūl: Iktishāf al-Rīf , Izz al-Din al-Khatabi (trans.) (Rabat: Manshūrāt Tifrāznārīf; Maṭbaʿat al-Najāḥ al-Jadīda, 2007), part 1, p. 63.
  21. Muhammad al-Daʿeef al-Rabati, Tarīkh al-Ḍaʿīf (Tārīkh al-Dawla al-Saʿda) , Ahmad Amari (ed.) (Rabat: Dār al-Maʾthūrāt, 1986), p. 168. de Torres also mentions Moroccan's optimism when seeing a pig. See: Diego de Torres, Tārīkh al-Shurafāʾ , Muhammad Hajji and Muhammad al-Akhdar (trans.) (Casablanca: al-Jamʿiyya al-Maghribiyya lil-Taʾlīf wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Nashr, 1988), p. 185.
  22. Doutté, p. 50. See also: August Mouliéras, " Le Maroc inconnu: Exploration des DJEBALA " (Paris: Éditions Augustin Challamel, 1986), Tome II, pp. 492-493.
  23. Doutté's work, as is often the case with colonial writing directed at serving imperialist goals, was highly subjective and full of unacademic generalizations. Source: Gallica , accessed on 22/2/2023, at: http://bit.ly/3m2jQyt
  24. Mouliéras, pp. 63-64.
  25. Doutté, pp. 49-51.
  26. Document 127, Portfolio 56, Tetouan public records office.
  27. See, for example: Document 8, Portfolio 52, Tetouan public records office; Document 24, Portfolio 80, Tetouan public records office.
  28. al-Saghee , p. 216.
  29. In 1868, Sultan Mohammed IV ordered Abdulsalem Bin Mohammed Bin Al-Cherif Al-Saloui, whom he was charging with captaining the Bazarkan (a ship), "not to transgress the laws between us [the Makzhen] and the Christians, and not to carry on his ship such things as wine and pork [or he risked] being exposed to God's wrath and our punishment." See: Abdulrahman bin Zidan, Itḥāf Aʿlām al-Nās bi-Jamāl Ḥāḍirat Miknās , Abdulhadi al-Tazi (ed.), 2nd ed. (al-Dār al-Baydāʾ: Maṭābiʿ Idyāl, 1990), part 5, p. 151.
  30. See: Muhammad Nahleel, Rasāʾil Arshīfiyya , al-Jilali al-ʿAdnani & Abderrahim binhadda (intro.) (Rabat: Manshūrāt Kulliyyat al-Ādāb wa-l- ʿUlūm al-Insāniyya, 2013), p. 57.
  31. The word "Iyala" is a politically or administrative entity with set frontiers. The term can refer to an entire country or a small geographical area and its ruler. Until recently, Morocco was referred to as "al-Iyāla al-Sharīfa". See: Naeema Haraj al-Tuzani, al-Umanāʾ bil-Maghrib fī ʿAhd al-Sulṭān Mūlāy al-Ḥasan 1290-1311h/ 1873-1894: Musāhama fī Dirāsat al-Niẓām al-Mālī bil-Maghrib (Rabat: Manshūrāt Kulliyyat al-Ādāb wa-l-ʿUlūm al- Insāniyya, 1979), p. 57.
  32. Letter from Sultan Mohammed IV to Mohammed Khadr El-Saloui on 14 April 1868. Document 2, Portfolio 96, Tetouan Public Records Office.
  33. Letter from Molay Abdulaziz to Mohammed Bin Laarbi Al-Taris on 5 March 1892. Document 113, Portfolio 10, Tetouan Public Records Office.
  34. Qanāṣī " was a term in Moroccan dialect for consuls. See: Abdullatif al-Shazli, Muʿjam al-Muṣṭalaḥāt al-Idāriyya wa-l-Alfāḍ al-ʿĀmiyya wa-l-Ajnabiyya al-Wārida fī Baʿḍ al-Wathāʾiq wa-l-Muʾallafāt al-Maghribiyya (Rabat: al-Maṭbaʿa al-Malakiyya, 2007), p. 102.
  35. Letter from Sultan Mohammed IV to Mohammed Khadr El-Saloui.
  36. Karanṭīna " referred to a quarantine that European countries had urged the Makhzen to impose during epidemics and plagues, so that pilgrims and others were isolated until they could be confirmed as not carrying the infections in question.
  37. A letter from the Italian commissioner to Larbi al-Taris on 28 April 1885, in Document 56, Portfolio 11, Tetouan public record office.
  38. Document 114, Portfolio 37, Tetouan Public Record Office.
  39. Document 163, Portfolio 36, Tetouan Public Record Office.
  40. Ramadani, p. 3549. Source: Prepared by author based on the documents cited throughout this study
  41. In the context of his translation of the Wālī Yahya bin Makhlouf. See: Abdulhaq al-Badsi, al-Maqṣad al-Sharīf wa-l-Manzaʿ al-Laṭīf fī
  42. Ahmad Busharb, Dakalah wa-l-Istiʿmār al-Burtughālī Ilā Sanat Ikhlāʾ Āsfī wa-Azmūr (al-Dār al-Baydāʾ: Dār al-Thaqāfa, 1984), p. 74. al-Jamʿiyya al-Maghribiyya lil-Taʾlīf wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Nashr; Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī, 1983), part 1, p. 105.
  43. al-Hassan bin Muhammad al-Wazzan, Waṣf Afrīqiyā , Muhammad Hajji & Muhammad al-Akhdar (trans.), 2nd ed. (al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ: al-Taʿrīf bi-Ṣulaḥāʾ al-Rīf , Saeed Aʿrab, 2nd ed. (Rabat: al-Maṭbaʿa al-Malakiyya, 1993), p. 123.
  44. Carvajal, vol. 2, p. 9.
  45. Charles de Foucauld, al-Taʿarruf ʿAlā al-Maghrib , al-Mukhtar bilarbi (trans.) (Casablanca: Dār al-Thaqāfa, 1999), part 1, p. 79.
  46. See, for example: Document 127.
  47. Document 83, Portfolio 37, Tetouan Public Record Office.
  48. Based on 20 primary documents reviewed in this study, categorised by the nation they concerned then calculated as percentages.
  49. Spanish diplomats strongly defended their countrymen and used all tactics to cover up for them. See: Document 158, Portfolio 36, Tetouan Public Record Office.
  50. Document 140, Portfolio 36, Tetouan Public Record Office.
  51. Documents 163 & 114.
  52. Document 11, Portfolio 56, Tetouan public record office.
  53. A notable from a prominent Tetouan family, who worked for Dār Al-Niyāba in Tetouan in 1862 and was nominated by Minister Muhammad Barkash as his deputy before he appointed Muhammad al-Taris. See: Mustafa Boushaara, "Settlement and the Protectorate in Morocco" (Rabat: The Royal Press, 1984), vol. 1, p. 417.
  54. Document 163, Portfolio 32, Tetouan public records office.
  55. See, for example: Document 8, Portfolio 79, Tetouan public records office.
  56. See, for example: Document 24, Portfolio 42, Tetouan Public Record Office.
  57. Document 90, Portfolio 42, Tetouan Public Record Office.
  58. Document 24, Portfolio 42.
  59. Muhammad bin Abdelsalam al-Sayeh, Usbūʿ fī barīs 1922 , Sulayman al-Qurashi (ed.) (Abu Dhabi: Dār al-Suwaydi lil-Nashr wa-l-Tawzīʿ; Beirut: al-Muʾassasa al-ʿArabiyya lil-Dirāsāt wa-l-Nashr, 2004), p. 92.
  60. Bin Abdulsalem ruled that lard was ḥarām as the term "meat" included lard both linguistically and legally.
  61. Document 154, Portfolio 42, Tetouan Public Record Office.
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