Jemaa el-Fna — literally "assembly of the dead", a name whose etymological hypotheses vary — is the great oval square of the Marrakech medina. Since at least the 12th century, it has been a daily theatre where storytellers (hlaqi), musicians, snake charmers, herbalists, acrobats, monkey trainers, public scribes and fortune-tellers gather. It is not a monument: it is a practice, a thousand-year-old habit of Moroccan public space.
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Video · The gesture in motion
to be replacedi. History
First mentioned in the Almoravid chronicles of the 12th century, the square has alternated between commercial, military and festive functions. Under the Almohads, it sometimes hosted public executions (hence one of the etymological hypotheses); under the Saadians and the Alawites, it again became a place of trade and spectacle. Under the Protectorate, it was inscribed in the conservative urban plan of Marrakech, which protects it.
ii. Daily life
The square works in two daily regimes: diurnal (orange-juice stalls, medicinal herbs, henna artists, scribes, fortune-tellers) and nocturnal (street kitchens, Gnawa and Amazigh music ensembles, storytellers, halqas — circles of listeners around a narrator). The pivotal moment of sunset, around 6–7 pm, sees the square transform within minutes.
iii. Hlaqi — the storytellers
The square is one of the last places in the world where the tradition of the tale is transmitted orally. The hlaqi recite the Thousand and One Nights, the lives of the saints, Moroccan picaresque tales. Their audience, standing in a circle, gives what it wishes at the end. The transmission of this practice is now critical: only a few active storytellers remain, including Abderrahim Makouri, trained by Mohamed Bariz, who died in 2003.
iv. Safeguarding
The UNESCO inscription enabled the establishment of the Jemaa el-Fna Management Plan, which regulates the occupation of the square, protects traditional artists and limits commercial invasion. The Jemaa el-Fna Foundation, created in 2002, documents the practice and runs a programme of transmission to young hlaqi. The 2023 earthquake relatively spared the square.