Gnawa music
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Gnawa music is a body of Moroccan religious songs and rhythms. Emerging in the 16th and 17th centuries, Gnawa music developed through the cultural fusion of West Africans brought to Morocco, notably t
A gnawa street performer wearing traditional gnawi clothing in Rabat's Qasbat al-Widaya
Gnawa singer in Salé, Morocco
Mehdi Qamoum playing the Guembri
A 19th century Gnawa musician, painting by Austro-French Rudolf Ernst (1854–1932)
Black Guard
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The Black Guard or ʿAbīd al-Bukhārī were the corps of sub-Saharan African slaves and Haratin slave-soldiers assembled by the 'Alawi sultan of Morocco, Isma‘il ibn Sharif. They were called the "Slaves
Gnawa music
…spread to many other countries in Africa and Europe, such as France. The origins of Gnawa music are intricately associated with that of the famed royal "Black Guard" of Morocco. The name Gnawa originated in the indigenous languages of North Africa and the Sahara Desert. According to the grammatical principles of…
The sultan of Morocco with the Black Guard, 1862 painting by Eugène Delacroix
Isma‘il ibn Sharif's mother was a black concubine and members of the Black Guard may have been motivated by a "racial solidarity" with Isma‘il.
A Moroccan Guard by Stefano Ussi
Moroccan Black Guards in 1926