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Salé
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Salé (Amazigh: Sla, ) (from the Berber word asla, meaning "rock") is the twin city to Rabat, capital of Morocco. Today it is home to just over 900,000 people, mostly impoverished factory workers. It was once a self-contained, self-ruled Republic with international scope, situated on the mouth of the Bou Regreg river on the Atlantic coast. The city's name is sometimes transliterated as Salli.
was apparently colonised by the Phoenicians at approximately the same time that Chellah, across the Bou Regreg to the south.
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Encyclopedia
Salé (Amazigh: Sla, ) (from the Berber word asla, meaning "rock") is the twin city to Rabat, capital of Morocco. Today it is home to just over 900,000 people, mostly impoverished factory workers. It was once a self-contained, self-ruled Republic with international scope, situated on the mouth of the Bou Regreg river on the Atlantic coast. The city's name is sometimes transliterated as Salli.
History
Salé was apparently colonised by the Phoenicians at approximately the same time that Chellah, across the Bou Regreg to the south. Researchers know a considerable amount about the Chellah colony, probably because of the good state of preservation of the Chellah site.
In Pirate Utopias, Peter Lamborn Wilson says:
- "Salé ... dates back at least to Carthaginian times (around 7th century BC). The Romans called the place Sala Colonia, part of their province of Mauritania Tingitane. Pliny the Elder mentions it (as a desert town infested with elephants!). The Vandals captured the area in the 5th century AD and left behind a number of blonde, blue-eyed Berbers. The Arabs (7th century) kept the old name and believed it derived from "Sala" (sic., his name is actually Salah), son of Ham, son of Noah; they said that Salé was the first city ever built by the Berbers."
In about 1630 Salé became a haven for Moriscos-turned-Barbary pirates. Salé pirates (the well-known "Sallee Rovers") roamed the seas as far as the shores of the Americas, bringing back loot and slaves. There is an American family van Salee descended from a Salee Rover who was captured by the Dutch and settled in New Amsterdam. The character Robinson Crusoe, in Daniel Defoe's novel by the same name, spends time in captivity of the local pirates and at last sails off to liberty from the mouth of the Salé river.
Salé has played a rich and important part in Moroccan history. The first demonstrations for independence against the French, for example, sparked off in Salé. A good number of government officials, decision makers and royal advisors of both France and Morocco were from Salé. Salé people, the Slawis, have always had a "tribal" sense of belonging, a sense of pride which developed into a feeling of superiority towards the "berranis", i.e. Outsiders.
Modern city
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