Almost every day over four decades and more, he’s stood out in Jemaa el Fna, the great sprawling square that forms the heart of medieval Marrakech in Morocco.
In cold winter rain and mist, and in the searing heat of the endless desert summer, he’s one enduring fixture, a constant force in a realm constantly touched by change.
He stands there, knitted cap pulled down tight over a balding scalp, fingers gnarled and black with dirt, a face conjured from a weather-worn sheet of chapped leather.
As the muezzin’s voice radiates down over the long morning shadows, Abdul-Hakim finishes his prayer and steps out into the sunlight.
Having given a blessing that begins “All things to the pious,” he claps his hands to gain an audience.
All of a sudden, the story begins:
“There was once a woodcutter named Mushkil Gusha,” he says, his voice rasping a tale from the “Arabian Nights.”
“A man who was as honest and kind as any other alive …”
Within an instant, a halqa has formed, a sacred circle of souls.
Pressed shoulder to shoulder, the listeners crane forward, as they do, day in day out, every day.
For them, Abdul-Hakim’s stories are a kind of magical lifeblood, a wisdom and an entertainment all rolled into one.
–
A microphone strapped around his neck leads to a little amplifier, cupped in the hands of his young grandson.
The sound stretches out like a magic carpet laid over the desert floor.
Listen hard, and you find yourself transported back in time to an encampment in the wilderness, a watering hole for camels and men.
As the night approaches, the medicine men and the healers pack up their bones, their potions, and their boxes of human teeth. The Gnaoua disappear into the shadows, and the snake charmers slink away home for another night.
Abdul-Hakim is one of the last to go.
Pausing at a cliffhanger in his epic tale, he tugs off his knitted cap and holds it upside down.
A few Dirham coins are dropped in by locals.
The storyteller does a mental calculation. Just enough for dinner.
“They’ll be back here in the morning as sure as day follows night,” he says. “You see, they’re caught in my spell. I can see it in their eyes. They simply can’t resist.”
Tahir Shah moved from London to Casablanca 10 years ago. He’s the author of more than 15 books and is best known for “The Caliph’s House,” which details the tribulations of living in a haunted Moroccan home.
