Author(s): Tahir Shah

Travel

Steeped in history, Morocco is a kingdom of rich textures, aromatic spices and magical beliefs set against a canvas of vibrant cultural colour - a bridge between the Orient and the Occident, separated from Europe by only 8 miles of water. Arriving there can be like stepping into the world of A Thousand and One Nights: a place ruled by ancient codes of honour, duty, chivalry, respect - values that have been handed down, over the millennia, from generation to generation through the telling of stories. Long fascinated by this, Tahir Shah explores his adoptive country in a way that has never been done before: observing it from the inside out, through its ancient use of stories as a teaching tool.Journeying from Casablanca to the tourist hot spot of Marrakech and the holy city of Fez, from Tangier in the north to Ouarzazate and on south into the Sahara, the author goes in search of Morocco's stories and along the way meets a host of remarkable characters and is left wondering whether we in the West might yet be able to reconnect with the wisdom this tradition and these tales have to offer.