The Imilchil Betrothal Moussem is not a simple wedding festival. It is the official moment when the Aït Hadiddou tribe — a Berber branch of the eastern High Atlas — allows the marriageable young women and young men to meet, to choose one another, and sometimes to conclude a marriage the same week.

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The tradition is rooted in a founding legend: two young people from two rival clans, separated by their families, are said to have wept to the point that their tears formed the two lakes near Imilchil, Isli (the betrothed man) and Tislit (the betrothed woman). The moussem perpetuates this memory by offering, once a year, the social institution they were denied.

I. The rite

The marriageable young women present themselves in ceremonial dress: a red-bordered black haïk, a tafziwt (necklace), tizerzaï (silver fibulae). The young men in a white djellaba and turban. The encounters are mediated by the elders. The marriage contract can be concluded on the spot, before the adoul (traditional notaries).

II. The market and the fantasia

Around the sanctuary of Sidi Hmad Oulmghani, the temporary market gathers the Amazigh nomads of all eastern Morocco. The sale of carpets, livestock, jewellery; tbourida demonstrations; a nocturnal ahidous in concentric circles of hundreds of dancers.

III. Today

The moussem has opened to tourism since the 1990s — at the cost of a staging criticised by some anthropologists, but hailed by the local authorities as an economic engine of the province. The Aït Hadiddou themselves remain masters of the central ceremony.

∗ Sources

1. Hammoudi, A. — Sayyid et son maître. Pouvoir et lien personnel dans le Maghreb, Seuil, 1997.
2. Moroccan National Tourism Office — visitmorocco.com
3. Maison de l'Artisan — maisondelartisan.ma