The Draa (Berber languages: Asif en Dra, ⴰⵙⵉⴼ ⴻⵏ ⴷⵔⴰ, Moroccan Arabic: واد درعة, romanized: wad dərʿa; also spelled DraorDrâa, in older sources mostly DarhaorDara, Latin: Darat) is Morocco's longest river, at 1,100 kilometres (680 mi). It is formed by the confluence of the Dadès River and Imini River. It flows from the High Atlas mountains, initially south-eastward to Tagounite, and from Tagounite mostly westwards to its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean somewhat north of Tan-Tan. In 1971, the (El) Mansour Eddahabi dam was constructed to service the regional capital of Ouarzazate and to regulate the flow of the Draa. Most of the year the part of the Draa after Tagounite falls dry.
Draa River fleuve du Draa (French) Río Draa (Spanish)
Human occupation in the Draa valley and adjacent mountains dates at least to the Lower Paleolithic, as attested by Oldowan and Acheulean tools found near Tamegroute. Middle Paleolithic sites are widespread.[5]
Neolithic-era rock art can be found throughout the Draa valley, depicting hunting scenes as well as domesticated cattle.[6] The chronology of these sites is uncertain, but the earliest may date to the 3rd millennium BCE.[7]
Before 1054
editPtolemy's map of Africa. The River Draa, Dara fl. is in the center of the map, just south of the mountain range, above the word Garamantes. fl. is an abbreviation for flumen, Latin river.
Mulay Muhammad as-Sharif bin Ismail as-Samin (s/o full-brother of Muhammad al-Alam). Khalifa of the Draa 1703.
Mulay 'Abdu'l-Malik bin Ismail as-Samin. b. ca. 1677. Khalifa of the Draa. He was k. for plotting against his father, 1696.
Mulay Nasir bin Ismail as-Samin. Khalifa of Draa 1702-1703, and of Tafilalt. Rebelled in 1711-1712. He was k. 1714.
H.M. Sultan 'Abu Marwan Mulay 'Abdu'l Malik, Sultan of Morocco, etc. b. at Meknes, after 1696, son of H.M. Sultan 'Abul Nasir Mulay Ismail as-Samin bin Sharif, Sultan of Morocco, educ. privately. Khalifa of the Draa 1701-1703, and of Sus 1717-1718. Proclaimed Sultan on the deposition of his elder half-brother 13 March 1728. Deposed at Meknes 18 July 1728. Fled to Fez and arrested there 23 December 1728. He was k. (executed) at Meknes, 2 March 1729 (bur. there at the Mulay Ismail Mausoleum).==May 2024==
Kashbah in the Draa valleyThe Draa river supports light agriculture, including the cultivation of pomegranates and dates.
Two languages are spoken in the area: a local variety of Colloquial Arabic which is closely related to Hassaniya, and Shilha or Tashelhiyt, a Berber language.
This is the southern stretch of the valley between the Azagha and the Bounou dam near Tagounite. There are 55 villages, mostly consisting of ksour (plural of ksar):
Centre Tagounite
Bani Sbih
Zaouia Sidi Salah
Nesrate
Kser Tiraf
Ait Gazzou
Bani Hayoune
Ouled Amer
Knazta
Tabourite
Bani Mhamed
Khassouane
Adouafil
Zaouia Jdid Zrahna
Ait Rbaa
Gourguir
Kasbat Aamamou
Bani Semguine
Ksar Hammad Tahr
Ouled Youssef Drawa
Loughlade
Ouled Ali
Regba
Bani Hnit
Zaouia Moulay Chrif Tahtania
Blida centre
Ksebt Ramla
Takchourte
Ksar Bani Mhammed
Ksar Lakbir
Ksar Jdid Zrahna
Ksar Jdid Ignaoun
Bani Skouken
Zte. Sidi Yahya
Ait Ali Ignaoun
Zaouia Moulay Chrif Foukania
Zaouia Koudia
Taarchate
Ait Boutbratine
Zaouia Lansar
Zaouia Dakhlania Zhahna
Ait Zemrou
Ksebat Nani
Ksar Aarib
Ouled Youssef Ait Isfoul
Zaouia Sidi Madani
Zaouia Dakhlania
Ait Talaarifte
Ait Aissa Obrahim
Najia
Ksar Ait Rardi
Ait Boumhamed
Ikddarne
Tahramet
Bnou Khettal
Source : Recensement général du Maroc, 1994 (Recensement général de la population et de l'habitat (RGPH, Haut-Commissariat au Plan du Royaume du Maroc (HCP), septembre 1994)).
The Draa has attracted the attention of a number of notable explorers including Frenchman Charles de Foucauld who travelled throughout Morocco disguised as a Jewish merchant in the 1800s, and Jeffrey Tayler who wrote a book about his experiences.
^The topography of Hanno's journey has recently been discussed by W.F.G. Lacroix in the fourth appendix of his Africa in Antiquity. A linguistic and toponymic analysis of Ptolemy's map of Africa (1998 Saarbrücken)
^A legendary history of the Jews in the Draa valley in the early middle ages can be found in: The Chott el-Maghzen, contributions to oral history collected by rabbi Jacob Moïse Toledano of Tibériade in 1910 and in the Manuscrit of Tiilite (Dadès), in the possession of the rabbi of Tiite Abraham Cohen in 1900. For a summary of that legendary history see D. Jacques Meunié « Le Maroc Saharien des origines au XVIe siècle » Librairie Klincksieck, 1982, pp 175-187. [1]Archived 2017-12-01 at the Wayback Machine see also: Les tribus oubliées d'Israel - L'Afrique Judeo-Berbere, des origines aux Almohades by Didier Nebot
^Gomez, Michael (2018). African dominion : a new history of empire in early and medieval West Africa. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 331. ISBN9780691177427.
^Saadian funerary stele (A.D.1580) (cf. the steles of the Saadian Tombs in Marrakech) with Arabic inscription: 'This is the tomb of (..) Fatima (..) the wife of Caid Abdallah of Tamdart'. Tamdart refers to Tagmadert of the Draa valley. Also inscribed on the stele are the Quaranic verses 26 and 27 of Sura 55.[2]Archived 2007-03-13 at the Wayback Machine
^Example of a golden Saadian dinar. This coin, struck by Moulay Zidan (AD 1603–27), was made at the time of the reign of the son of Ahmad al-Mansur. (Numismatic Museum of the al-Maghrib Bank, Rabat, Morocco): [3]Archived 2007-03-13 at the Wayback Machine
Bahani, A., La nouba d'eau et son évolution dans les palmeraies du Draa Moyen du Maroc: CERES. Les oasis du Maghreb, Tunis: pp. 107–126, 1994
Philip Curtin (ed.), African History, London: Longman, 1988
M. Elfasi (ed.), General History of Africa III, Africa from the Seventh to the 11th century, UNESCO, 1988
Charles de Foucauld, Reconnaissance au Maroc, 1888, 1 vol. in -4 and atlas
Hammoudi, A., Substance and Relation: Water Rights and Water Distribution in the Dra Valley. In: Mayer, A.E. (Ed.), Property, Social Structure, and law in the Modern Middle East. New York: pp. 27–57, 1985
Marmol Caravajal, Africa, 1667 3 vol. in 4
Thomas Pellow; Josephine Grieder, The History of the long captivity and adventures of Thomas Pellow, in South-Barbary : [written by himself], 1973 (repr.of the 1739 edition with a new introd. for the Garland ed. by Josephine Grieder) ISBN0-8240-0583-X
