Setting forth to view the wonders of Marrakesh on the morning of November 15, 2017, our Go-Ahead tour group arrived first at the Palais Bahia. Located in the middle of the Marrakesh Medina, the Bahia (“Brilliant” in Arabic) Palace is a sprawling, labyrinthine complex with around 150 rooms as well as multiple courtyards and extensive gardens. It was begun in the 1860s by Si Musa, a descendant of black slaves who became the grand vizier of the Alawi Sultan Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman (r. 1859-1873). Si Musa’s son, Ahmad ibn Musa, more commonly known as Ba Ahmed, became hajib (chamberlain) to Abd al-Rahman’s successor, Sultan Moulay Hassan, and upon the latter’s death in 1894, ensured the succession of his son, Abd al-Aziz. Since Abd al-Aziz was only 16 years old at the time, Ba Ahmed, was able to exercise control in his name as regent and became the de facto ruler of Morocco until his own death in 1900.
Ba Ahmed greatly expanded the palace begun by his father and made it truly worthy of a ruler. Being obese, he did not like to climb stairs, so he limited construction to the ground floor.
Upon Ba Ahmed’s death in 1900, Sultan Abd al-Aziz immediately seized control of the government and made the Palais Bahia royal property. It subsequently came under the control of the powerful el-Glaoui family, who were instrumental in the overthrow of Abd al-Aziz in 1908 and the enthronement of his successor, Moulay Abd al-Hafid. During that time some second-story additions were made to the palace.
In 1912 the French established their protectorate, whereupon the French Resident-General, Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey, made the Palais Bahia his own residence and headquarters. After Morocco regained full independence in 1956, Sultan Mohammed V used it for a time as a personal residence, but his successor Hassan II turned it into a tourist attraction. It is now one of Morocco’s main draws, with over 400,000 visitors per year.
Our tour group entered the Palais Bahia through its unpretentious south gate, which led via a broad path to the Small Riad (Petit Riad). A riad in this context is a square courtyard garden divided by walkways along its two central axes. The Petit Riad was a feast for the eyes, overflowing with lush greenery.
The Petit Riad is surrounded by richly decorated galleries and chambers, one of which served as Ba Ahmed’s diwan or Council Chamber.
The smaller chambers around the Petit Riad were equally sumptuous.
After exploring the chambers around the Petit Riad, we strolled on to another court, known simply as the Small Courtyard – whereas “riad” denotes a courtyard which is also a garden, “courtyard” in this context denotes a paved patio. But it also was surrounded by decorated chambers, which we proceeded to explore in their turn.
From the Small Courtyard we graduated to the Grand Courtyard, a much larger space which is also known as the Cour d’Honneur. Built in 1896-7, it is paved with Carrara marble from Italy and surrounded by an elegant gallery decorated in an unusual blue-and-yellow color scheme which I found quite pleasing. The gallery fronts a set of apartments which are believed to have been part of Ba Ahmed’s harem. We were not told how many women dwelt in the harem, nor how they felt about being the concubines of a fat old man who couldn’t climb stairs.
Next to the Grand Courtyard, one of the newest parts of the Palais Bahia, lies the Grand Riad, which is the oldest, having been built under Si Musa in 1867. Like the Petit Riad, it is filled with lush vegetation, but is much larger, and contains some exotic plants which we could neither recognize nor identify but were certainly a feast for the eyes. Also like the Petit Riad, it is surrounded by salons and apartments, but in this case they mostly belonged to the harem.
At either end of the Grand Riad are two large salons, one of which served as the main hall of Ba Ahmed’s first and presumably most honored wife, Lalla Zaynab.
Beyond the main hall, we explored the luxuriously furnished apartments of Lalla Zaynab.
We soon became lost in the gorgeously furnished rooms of the harem, and one seemed to blend into another indistinguishably.
From the Grand Riad, we retraced our steps back through the Palais Bahia to the Medina; and there we strolled through the souk, the marketplace outside the palace, until we arrived at the great gate called the Bab Agnaou, where we began our next adventure in Marrakesh.
