Arabian Nights

I have already mentioned the way in which books re-present themselves on the shelves when you move house. I keep rediscovering old favourites and I feel justified in hanging on to the books I brought with me, even though it seemed too many at the time. (I know, you can never have too many books!) In the last week I have read Tahir Shah's books about Casablanca again. 'The Caliph's House' is his story of buying a house in Casablanca and the process of making it his family home. It's in a part of Casablanca I can picture, even though he's writing nearly 30 years later. He describes a small rocky island at one end of the beach, accessible by wading across at high tide. It's covered in low white washed buildings. I walked across to it in the first week I spent in Casa, realising that I was out of place and in uncharted territory, but fascinated nevertheless. Apparently the sorceresses live there. You can see film of it on Tahir Shah's youtube posts. He also takes you round his amazing home and shares some of the wonderful French architecture in the centre of the city. I know parts of it must have changed beyond recognition, but there's plenty in the books and the films that is familiar. It seems that living in Morocco, and especially French influenced Morocco, is still the fascinating and disorientating experience I had. It really is like living in four or five centuries simultaneously. High fashion and donkey carts, djinns and nightclubs, art deco architecture and shanty towns. Tahir Shah is the son of Idries Shah, whose collections of Sufi stories were favourite reading when I first discovered them in my twenties. Tahir went looking for his own story, the story in his heart, which led him on a quest for traditional storytellers in Morocco. Once I'd read 'In Arabian Nights' again, I spotted another book about storytelling in Morocco, 'The Last Storyteller' by Richard Hamilton, a BBC correspondent in Marrakesh. Then as often happens, synchronicity struck. As I finished this intense bout of reading, Radio 4 broadcast Moroccan stories each weeknight at 7.45pm. They can be found if you search Open Art on the website. Ben Rivers, an artist, was commissioned to work with Artangel to produce a body of work based on Morocco and storytelling traditions. He's been working on it since 2013. There's a film, The Sky Trembles And The Earth is Afraid And The Eyes Are Not Brothers, and a multimedia installation at BBC Television Centre. There are also these five audio pieces for Radio 4. He uses Mohammed Mrabet's stories, read by Youssef Kerkour. Mrabet was Paul Bowles' muse. Bowles transcribed and translated his stories, publishing them as collections, Harmless Poisons Blameless Sins and M'Hashish. There's a mosaic of Moroccan sounds to accompany the readings. It's evocative and magical to listen to them. They transport you on a magic carpet ride. I'd been so disappointed when the trip I had planned to make to Morocco in April didn't go ahead. This has been a consolation prize.