The Caliph's House
(Tahir Shah)
In the tradition of A Year in Provence and Under The Tuscan Sun, The Caliph's House, A Year in Casablanca, is an entertaining look inside a culture that is unusual and consistently surprising. While it might seem obvious that the Moroccan culture would be different to readers from the West, one might be surprised to find just how different.The author purchases a formerly grand house in Casablanca, bundles up his young family and goes in search of roots put down in Morocco many years ago by his grandfather. The background of the story is the renovation of the house, which consists of everything from intricate rituals designed to rid the house of "evil spirits" to the discovery of hidden and forbidden rooms. The real story lies in the discovery of a very new and different culture and how the author, despite almost constant frustration and minor defeats, comes to appreciate and even love his surrogate country. Colorful characters abound, from the three caretakers of the house who firmly believe in the Jinns, or spirits that inhabit the house, to the author's assistant, who is vaguely menacing and mysteriously disappears at several instances. There are threatening omens in the form of a local gangster whose wife shows up at the door unannounced, locals who predict terrible events will befall the owners of the house, and generally a new dramatic calamity every day the family stays on in Morocco. There are also gratifying relationships in the form of a man who happens by and asks for stamps and becomes the author's confidant and close friend. The author's relationship with the denizens of the nearby slum blossoms when he talks an official out of bulldozing the shanties. And, ultimately, the house is rid of the Jinns thanks to an animal sacrifice and a team of exorcists who are paid to perform rituals every day in a country that believes, indeed lives by, the need for ceremonial acts.
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