TANGER
Tangier or Tangiers [pronounce] (Tanja in Berber and Arabic, Tánger in Spanish, Tânger in Portuguese, and Tanger in French) is a city of northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 (2008 census). It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. It is the capital of the Tangier-Tétouan Region.
The history of Tangier is very rich due to the historical presence of many civilizations and cultures starting from the 5th century BC. Between the period of being a Phoenician town to the independence era around the 1950s, Tangier was a place —and, sometimes a refuge— for many cultural diversities. However, it wasn't until 1923 that Tangier was attributed an international status by foreign colonial powers, thus becoming a destination for many Europeans and non-Europeans alike such as Americans and Indians.
Nowadays, the city is undergoing rapid development and modernization. Projects include new 5-star hotels along the bay, a modern business district called Tangier City Center, a new airport terminal and a new soccer stadium. Tangier's economy will also benefit greatly from the new Tanger-med port.
History
The modern Tanjah (Anglicised as Tangier) is an ancient Berber and Phoenician town, founded by Carthaginian colonists in the early 5th century BC. Its name is possibly derived from the Berber goddess Tinjis (or Tinga), and it remains an important city for the Berbers. Ancient coins call it Tenga, Tinga, and Titga with Greek and Latin authors giving numerous variations of the name. According to Berber mythology, the town was built by Sufax, son of Tinjis, the wife of the Berber hero Änti (Greek Antaios, Latin Antaeus). The Greeks ascribed its foundation to the giant Antaios, whose tomb and skeleton are pointed out in the vicinity, calling Sufax the son of Hercules by the widow of Antaeus. The cave of Hercules, a few miles from the city, is a major tourist attraction. It is believed that Hercules slept there before attempting one of his twelve labours.
The commercial town of Tingis came under Roman rule in the course of the 1st century BC, first as a free city and then, under Augustus, a colony (Colonia Julia, under Claudius), capital of Mauritania Tingitana of Hispania. It was the scene of the martyrdoms of Saint Marcellus of Tangier. In the 5th century AD, Vandals conquered and occupied "Tingi" and from here swept across North Africa. A century later (between 534 and 682), Tangier fell back into Roman empire, before coming under Arab (Umayyad) control in 702. Due to its Christian past it is still a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church.
Tangier was ruled by Umayyads, Abbasids, Idrisids, Fatimids, Caliphate of Cordoba, Maghrawa Emirate, Almoravids, Almohads, Marinids and Kingdom of Fez before Portuguese conquest. When the Portuguese started their expansion in Morocco, by taking Ceuta in 1415, Tangier was always a primary goal. They failed to capture the city in 1437 but finally occupied it in 1471. The Portuguese rule (including Spanish rule between 1580–1640) lasted until 1661, when it was given to Charles II of England as part of the dowry from the Portuguese Infanta Catherine of Braganza. The English gave the city a garrison and a charter which made it equal to English towns. The English planned to improve the harbour by building a mole. With an improved harbour the town would have played the same role that Gibraltar later played in British naval strategy. The mole cost £340,000 and reached 1436 feet long, before being blown up during the evacuation.
In 1679, Sultan Moulay Ismail of Morocco made an unsuccessful attempt to seize the town but imposed a crippling blockade which ultimately forced the English to withdraw. The English destroyed the town and its port facilities prior to their departure in 1684. Under Moulay Ismail the city was reconstructed to some extent, but it gradually declined until, by 1810, the population was no more than 5,000.
The United States dedicated its first consulate in Tangier during the George Washington administration. In 1821, the Legation Building in Tangier became the first piece of property acquired abroad by the U.S. government—a gift to the U.S. from Sultan Moulay Suliman. It was bombarded by the French Prince de Joinville in 1844.
Garibaldi lived in exile at Tangier in late 1849 and the first half of 1850, following the fall of the revolutionary Roman Republic.
Tangier's geographic location made it a centre for European diplomatic and commercial rivalry in Morocco in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the opening of the 20th century it had a population of about 40,000, including 20,000 Muslims (with Berbers predominating over Arabs), 10,000 Jews, and 9,000 Europeans (of whom 7,500 were Spanish). The city was increasingly coming under French influence, and it was here in 1905 that Kaiser Wilhelm II triggered an international crisis that almost led to war between his country and France by pronouncing himself in favour of Morocco's continued independence.
In 1912, Morocco was effectively partitioned between France and Spain, the latter occupying the country's far north (called Spanish Morocco) and a part of Moroccan territory in the south, while France declared a protectorate over the remainder. The last Sultan of independent Morocco, Moulay Hafid, was exiled to the Sultanate Palace in the Tangier Kasbah after his forced abdication in favour of his brother Moulay Yusef. Tangier was made an international zone in 1923 under the joint administration of France, Spain, and Britain, joined by Italy, Portugal and Belgium in 1928. The International zone of Tangiers had a surface of 373 square kilometers and, by 1939, a population of about 60,000 inhabitants. After a period of effective Spanish control from 1940 to 1945 during World War II, the statute of 1923 was officially restored on August 31, 1945. Tangier joined with the rest of Morocco following the restoration of full sovereignty in 1956.
Ecclesiastical history
Tangier was a Roman Catholic titular see of former Mauretania Tingitana. Originally the city was part of the larger province of Mauretania Caesariensis, which included much of Northern Africa. Later the area was subdivided, with the eastern part keeping the former name and the newer part receiving the name of Mauretania Tingitana.(Thus one official list of the Roman Curia places it in Mauretania Caesarea).
Towards the end of the third century, Tangier was the scene of the martyrdom of Saint Marcellus of Tangier, mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on 30 October, and of St. Cassian, mentioned on 3 December. It is not known whether it was a diocese in ancient times.
Under the Portuguese domination, it was a suffragan of Lisbon and, in 1570, was united to the diocese of Ceuta. Six of its bishops are known, the first, who did not reside in his see, in 1468. In the protectorate era of Morocco Tangier was the residence of the prefect Apostolic of Morocco, which mission was in charge of the Friars Minor. It had a Catholic church, several chapels, schools, and a hospital. The city is a host of the Anglican church of Saint Andrew.
Espionage history
Tangier has been reputed as a safe house for international spying activities. Its position during the Cold War and other spying periods of the 19th and 20th century is legendary.
Tangier acquired the reputation of a spying and smuggling centre and attracted foreign capital due to political neutrality and commercial liberty at that time. It was via a British bank in Tangiers that the Bank of England in 1943 for the first time obtained samples of the high-quality forged British currency produced by the Nazis in "Operation Bernhard".
The city has also been a subject for many spy fiction books and films. (See Tangier in popular culture below).
Culture
The multicultural placement of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities and the foreign immigrants attracted writers like Paul Bowles, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Tennessee Williams, Brion Gysin and the music group the Rolling Stones, who all lived in or visited Tangier during different periods of the 20th century.
It was after Delacroix that Tangier became an obligatory stop for artists seeking to experience the colors and light he spoke of for themselves - with varying results. Matisse made several sojourns in Tangier, always staying at the Hotel Villa de France. "I have found landscapes in Morocco," he claimed, "exactly as they are described in Delacroix's paintings." The Californian artist Richard Diebenkorn was directly influenced by the haunting colors and rhythmic patterns of Matisse’s Morocco paintings. In the 1940s and until 1956 when the city was an International Zone, the city served as a playground for eccentric millionaires, a meeting place for secret agents and all kinds of crooks, and a mecca for speculators and gamblers, an Eldorado for the fun-loving "Haute Volée". During World War II the Office of Strategic Services operated out of Tangier for various operations in North Africa.
Around the same time, a circle of writers emerged which was to have a profound and lasting literary influence. This included Paul Bowles, Tennessee Williams and Jean Genet as well as Mohamed Choukri (one of North Africa's most controversial and widely read authors), Abdeslam Boulaich, Larbi Layachi, Mohammed Mrabet and Ahmed Yacoubi. Among the best known works from this period is Choukri's For Bread Alone. Originally written in Classical Arabic, the English edition was the result of close collaboration with Bowles (who worked with Choukri to provide the translation and supplied the introduction). Tennessee Williams described it as 'a true document of human desperation, shattering in its impact.' Independently, William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch was written in Tangier and the book's locale of Interzone is an allusion to the city.
After several years' gradual disentanglement from Spanish and French colonial control, Morocco reintegrated the city of Tangier at the signing of the Tangier Protocol on October 29, 1956. Tangier remains a very popular tourist destination for cruise ships and day visitors from Spain and Gibraltar.
Economy
Tangier is Morocco's second most important industrial center after Casablanca. The industrial sectors are diversified: textile, chemical, mechanical, metallurgical and naval. Currently, the city has four industrial parks of which two have the status of free economic zone (see Tangier Free Zone).
Tangier's economy relies heavily on tourism. Seaside resorts have been increasing with projects funded by foreign investments. Real estate and construction companies have been investing heavily in tourist infrastructures. A bay delimiting the city center extends for more than seven kilometers. The years 2007 and 2008 will be particularly important for the city because of the completion of large construction projects currently being built. These include the Tangier-Mediterranean port ("Tanger-med") and its industrial parks, a 45,000-seat sports stadium, an expanded business district, and a renovated tourist infrastructure.
Agriculture in the area of Tangier is tertiary and mainly cereal. The infrastructure of this city of the strait of Gibraltar consists of a port that manages flows of goods and travellers (more than one million travelers per annum) and integrates a marina with a fishing port.
Artisanal trade in the old medina (old city) specializes mainly in leather working, handicrafts made from wood and silver, traditional clothing, and shoes of Moroccan origin.
The city has seen a fast pace of rural exodus from other small cities and villages. The population has quadrupled during the last 25 years (1 million inhabitants in 2007 vs. 250,000 in 1982). This phenomenon has resulted in the appearance of peripheral suburban districts, mainly inhabited by poor people, that often lack sufficient infrastructure. The city's postcode is 90 000.
New Developments
New developments include a new terminal at the airport, a football stadium seating 69,000 spectators, a high-speed train, and a business district called Tangier City Center.
Transport
A railroad line connects the city with Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakech in the south and Fès and Oujda in the east. The service is operated by ONCF. The Rabat-Tanger expressway connects Tangier to Fès via Rabat (250 km) and Settat via Casablanca (330 km). Another expressway will connect the city with Tanger-med. The Ibn Batouta International Airport (also known as Tangier-Boukhalef) is located 15 km south-west of the city center.
The new Tanger-med port is managed by the Danish firm A. P. Moller-Maersk Group and will free up the old port for tourist and recreational development.
Tangier's Ibn Batouta International Airport and the rail tunnel will serve as the gateway to the "Moroccan Riviera" the coast between Tangier and Oujda. Traditionally the north coast was an impoverished and underdeveloped region of Morocco but it has some of the best beaches on the Mediterranean and is likely to see rapid development.
The Tangier-Boukhalef Airport is being expanded and will become larger with more flights. Easyjet flies to Tangier from Paris and Madrid, and will soon fly via London. Ryanair flies from Milan, Marseille, Brussels and Madrid. The biggest Airlines at the Airport Atlas Blue (Royal Air Maroc) flies from 7 cities to Tangier, from Barcelona, Amsterdam, Brussels, London Gatwick and Heathrow, Paris Orly and CDG, Madrid and Casablanca. In addition, a TGV high-speed train system is being built. It will take a few years to complete, and will become the fastest train system in North Africa.
Language
Arabic is the official language, but eight other languages are also spoken including Berber, French and Spanish. English is generally understood in the tourist areas, but French is the most widely spoken.
Literature
Silent Day in Tangiers by Tahar Ben Jelloun.
"Streetwise" by Mohamed Choukri
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs - relates some of the author's experiences in Tangier. (See also Naked Lunch (film))
America by Allen Ginsberg
Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac relates him living with William Burroughs and other Beat writers in Tangier.
Interzone by Burroughs - It talks about a fictionalized version of Tangier called Interzone.
Let It Come Down is Paul Bowles's second novel, first published in 1952
The Loom of Youth by Alec Waugh - a controversial semi-autobiographical novel relating homosexual experiences of the author in the city of Tangier.
Two Tickets to Tangier by Francis Van Wyck Mason, an American novelist and historian
Modesty Blaise; a fictional character in a comic strip of the same name and a series of books created by Peter O'Donnell - In 1945 a nameless girl escaped from a displaced person (DP) camp in Karylos, Greece. She took control of a criminal gang in Tangier and expanded it to international status as "The Network". After dissolving The Network and moving to England she maintained a house on a hillside above Tangier and many scenes in the books and comic strips are located here.
Carpenter's World Travels: From Tangier to Tripoli - a Frank G. Carpenter travel guide (1927)
The Thief's Journal by Jean Genet - Includes the protagonist's experiments in negative morality in Tangier (1949)
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Crossroads of the Medterranean by Henrik de Leeuw- chronicles the author's journey through Morocco and Tunisia in the early 1950s and includes many pages describing Tangier, notably the Petit Socco as a food market with mountain dwellers (the jebli) selling their produce and 'the street of male harlots', where they ply 'their shameful trade'.
The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers
The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain includes a mixed bag of comments on his visit to Tangier, ending with: "I would seriously recommend to the Government of the United States that when a man commits a crime so heinous that the law provides no adequate punishment for it, they make him Consul-General to Tangier."
Seed by Mustafa Mutabaruka - An African American dancer struggling with the death of his father meets an enigmatic young woman and her companion in Tangier.
Magazines
Antaeus (magazine) was first published in Tangier by Daniel Halpern and Paul Bowles before being shifted to New York
Tangier Gazette was founded by William Augustus Bird (aka Bill Bird) in Tangier
Films
The Living Daylights - a James Bond movie where he hunts Brad Whitaker down at his Tangier headquarters
From Russia with Love - the fictional character in "James Bond", Red Grant was recruited by "SPECTRE" in Tangier in 1962, whilst on the run from the law
Tangier Incident - an American agent posing as a black market operator, is in Tangier on a mission to stop the plans of three atomic scientists who are there to pool their secrets and sell them in a package to the Communists.
Man from Tangier (a.k.a. Thunder Over Tangier) - 1957
Tangiers, 1908 was one of the unaired Young Indiana Jones Chronicles episodes
Flight to Tangier (Charles Marquis Warren) - 1953
Tangier an episode of the television series Passport to Danger starring Cesar Romero - 1955
The Nautch of Tangier (aka The Witchmaker) - 1969
Tangier featuring María Montez, Robert Paige, and Sabu Dastagir - 1946
Espionage in Tangiers. A thriller of a secret agent out to snag a dangerous molecular ray-gun - 1966
That Man from Tangier (in Spanish Aquel Hombre de Tanger) featuring Sara Montiel
The Bourne Ultimatum, an espionage movie featuring Matt Damon - Jason Bourne tracks a man through the city who has information on his (Bourne's) past. - 2007
The Wind and the Lion - Based on the Perdicaris incident of 1904, this film, starring Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, and Brian Keith, takes place largely in Tangier. The film's Tangier, however, was actually created in the Spanish cities of Seville and Almeria.
Prick Up Your Ears(film), Joe Orton (Gary Oldman) and Kenneth Halliwell (Alfred Molina) visit Tangier, the scene represents the 88 day holiday that Joe Orton took after the failure of his play 'Loot'.
Music
Tangiers (band) - a Canadian Rock music band.
If You See Her, Say Hello by Bob Dylan - one of song's lines says, "If you see her say 'hello', she might be in Tangier."
Sartori in Tangier by King Crimson - derives its title from beat generation influences including the Jack Kerouac novel Satori in Paris, and the city of Tangier, where a number of beat writers resided and which they often used as a setting for their writing.
Waiting in Tangier - a track in the album Woman to Woman of Fem2fem band. Tangier by the Scottish musician Donovan Phillips Leitch on his album The Hurdy Gurdy Man.
Live At Tangiers - a solo by Michael Stanley
Tangiers - an instrumental piece by John Powell featured in The Bourne Ultimatum
My Tangier - Dave Crockett (circa 1980's)
Intrigue in Tangiers - a track from the album What Does Anything Mean? Basically by The Chameleons.
Idaho by Josh Ritter - "I got your letter in Tangier".
Guantanamo by Outlandish Or we can lounge in Tangier - Not the one in Vegas, naah the one in Maroc
Tangiers by Billy Thorpe - a concept album about Tangier, inspired by the late Billy Thorpe's several visits there.
Night Train by Looptroop - a song about travelling by night train and noticing diffidences caused by time, place and circumstances; Promoe's singing about his trip around Morocco "I'm on the night train from Tangier to Marrakesh"
Paintings
Window at Tangier by the French artist Henri Matisse (1912 - The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow).
Virtual Tangier: Visions of the City by Matisse (c. 1911-1916)
Harvest of a journey to Spain and Tangiers, The Great Mosque, and Serpent
Charmers of Sokko - a painting by Emile Wauters
Market Day Outside the Walls of Tangiers by Louis Comfort Tiffany (1873 - Smithsonian American Art Museum)
HMS Mary Rose and pirates by Willem van de Velde (a painting ascribed to Willem van de Velde, taken from the book: William Laird Clowes (ed.): The Royal Navy. A History From the Earliest Times to the Present, Vol. 2, London 1898)
People born in Tangier
Ibn Battuta - a Berber explorer
Franklin D. Koppel Benchimol - descendant of Jacob Ibn Jao (960 AD) - International Architect
Ralph Benmergui - a Canadian TV and radio host at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Alexandre Rey Colaço - A Portuguese pianist
Karim Debbagh - a Moroccan Film producer
Roger Elliott - the first British Governor of Gibraltar
Mohammed el Fenni - Artist and Moroccan Haute Couture clothes designer
Sanaa Hamri - a Moroccan music video director
Emmanuel Hocquard - a French poet
Alexander Spotswood - an American Lieutenant-Colonel and Lieutenant Governor of Virginia
Heinz Tietjen - a German music composer
Ángel Vázquez - a writer in Spanish
Abderrahmane Youssoufi - a former socialist prime minister of Morocco
Angelina Lamberth (Vela Torrisco) - settled in U.S., First Female Deputy Sheriff, Sarasota FL
Sol Labos Brien - Porcelain painting artist, creator of Atelier de Bercy in Montreal
People who settled or sojourned in Tangier
Lancelot Addison - an English chaplain and the author of West Barbary, or a Short Narrative of the Revolutions of the Kingdoms of Fex and Morocco (1671)
José Luis Alcaine - a Spanish-born cinematographer
Bill Bird - an American journalist and the founder of Tangier Gazette
Paul Bowles - an American writer and composer. Died in Tangier
Joseph McPhillips III - an American theater director and the headmaster of The American School of Tangier. Died in Tangier
Jane Bowles - an American writer. Wife of Paul Bowles
William S. Burroughs - an American novelist, essayist, social critic, painter and spoken word performer
Truman Capote - an American novelist and writer
João de Castro - a Portuguese naval officer and fourth viceroy of the Portuguese Indies
Ira Cohen - an American poet, publisher, photographer and filmmaker; he published the magazine Gnaoua in Tangier
Eugène Delacroix - a French Romantic painter
Jim Ede - a notable British art collector
Malcolm Forbes - the publisher of Forbes magazine
Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac visited Burroughs, their fellow Beat in Tangier
Sean Gullette - American actor and writer
Brion Gysin - a British writer and painter
Mohamed Hamri - a Moroccan painter, described as being the 'Picasso of Morocco'
Friedrich von Holstein - a German statesman
Barbara Hutton - a wealthy American socialite dubbed by the media as the "Poor Little Rich Girl" because of her troubled life
Bernard-Henri Lévy - a wealthy French journalist and intellectual
Gavin Lambert - a British novelist and friend of Paul Bowles
Henri Matisse - a notable French painter
Mohamed Mrabet - a Moroccan storyteller
Joe Orton - British playwright
Ion Perdicaris - a U.S.-Greek playboy who was the centre of the infamous Perdicaris incident, a kidnapping that aroused international conflict in 1904
George John Pinwell - a British painter
Reichmann family (including Edward below) - a rich immigrant Jewish family from Austro-Hungary
Edward Reichmann - an Austro-Hungarian businessman
David Roberts - a Scottish painter
Yves Saint-Laurent (designer) - a French fashion designer
J. Slauerhoff - a Dutch poet and novelist
Kenneth Williams - a British humourist
People who died in Tangier
Ibn Battuta - 14th century traveller and diarist - was born in Tangier in 1304 and is said to have been buried there in 1368.
Mohamed Choukri - a Moroccan novelist. (Died in Rabat, buried in the Marshan, Tangier)
George Elliott - probably the illegitimate son of Richard Eliot. He was the "Chirurgeon to the Earl of Teviot's Regiment at Tangier"
George Fleetwood - One of the regicides of Charles I. Brought to trial and sentenced to imprisonment in the Tower of London. He may have been transported to Tangier.
Paul Lukas - a Hungarian actor.
John Middleton, 1st Earl of Middleton - a commander-in-chief of the troops in Scotland under the reign of Charles II.
Paul Bowles - American novelist and musician.
Joseph McPhillips III - an American theater director and the headmaster of The American School of Tangier. Died in Tangier
Trivia
One of the Lathyrus tingitanus plants is called Tangier Pea. As a great collector of toy soldiers, the American billionaire and publisher of Forbes magazine Malcolm Forbes brought together a total of 115,000 models in what was the Forbes Museum of Tangier. These figures re-enacted the major battles of history; from Waterloo to Dien Bien Phû, realistically recreated with lighting and sound effects. Entire armies stand on guard in the showcases, while in the garden, 600 statuettes bear silent homage to the Battle of Three Kings. The museum was closed after the death of Malcolm Forbes and is now used by the Moroccan government as a private residence for visiting dignitaries.
One of the inherited disorders of bloodstream is called the Tangier disease, albeit named for Tangier Island, which was named for Tangier.
The name tangerine comes from Tangier from which the first tangerines were shipped to Europe. The adjective tangerine, "from Tangier", was already an
English word (first recorded in 1710).
The poem called "Herb's Herbs" of unknown origin describes a capitonym:
A herb store owner, name of Herb, Moved to a rainier Mount Rainier.
It would have been so nice in Nice, And even tangier in Tangier.
Tangier has an antipodean neighbour in Whangarei, New Zealand
Events
Tanjazz - An annual international Jazz festival.
Festival National du Film - An annual Moroccan film festival (8th edition in 2006).
Le Festival International de Théâtre Amateur - An international amateur theater festival.
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