Reconnaissance au Maroc is Charles de Foucauld’s adventurous account of his Moroccan explorations. For eleven months in 1883–84, Foucauld travelled through a country then off-limits to Europeans, documenting its landscape and charting its waterways. He travelled in disguise as a Russian rabbi, Joseph Aleman, accompanied by the real rabbi Mardochée Aby Serour, and sought hospitality in the mellahs, Jewish quarters, of villages along their route. Foucauld meticulously recorded every day of his time in Morocco, and by the time his memoir was published in 1888 it had already garnered praise in France and the prestigious gold medal from the Société de Géographie de Paris. The book is more than merely a travel memoir, however: as an artefact of cultural and religious encounter, and as a scientific compendium, Reconnaissance au Maroc offers an extraordinary glimpse of the late-nineteenth century French mentality toward North Africa, as well as a cross-section of Moroccan society in the pre-colonial era. Rosemary Peters-Hill’s volume translates Foucauld’s work into English for the first time, situating Reconnaissance within the contexts of both late-nineteenth century French writing about ailleurs, other places, and Foucauld’s own journey through Morocco: the “other” place where, paradoxically, he found his true self and calling.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures; Acknowledgments; “There are no roads”: Charles de Foucauld’s Reconnaissance au Maroc—a Critical Introduction, Rosemary A. Peters- Hill; Charles de Foucauld, Reconnaissance au Maroc, 1883–1884; Letter to François de Bondy; Introduction; Avant- Propos; I. Tangiers to Meknès; II. Meknès to Qaçba Beni Mellal; III. Qaçba Beni Mellal to Tikirt; IV. Tikirt to Tissint; V. Sojourn in the Sahara; VI. Tissint to Mogador; VII. Mogador to Tissint; VIII. Tissint to the Dadès; IX. The Dadès to Qçabi ech Cheurfa; X. Qçabi ech Chorfa to Lalla Maghnia; Appendix: The Jews of Morocco; Note on the Materials Used to Draw Up My Itinerary; Report Delivered to the Société de Géographie de Paris in Its General Session of 24 April 1885 by M. Henri Duveyrier on the Journey of M. the Viscount Charles de Foucauld through Morocco; “Itineraries in Morocco” by the Viscount Charles de Foucauld; Afterwards: An Afterword, Rosemary A. Peters- Hill; Glossary of Terms; Bibliography; Index.