Saints and sinners

The town is just about coming back to life after Eid. Most of the out of towners have gone home. The baker re-opened on Friday at first mornings only, the schools went back on Monday and more shops opened, but the butchers all remain closed- who wants to buy meat when you still have sheep at home. The market is open half-hearedly and some of the street vendors are returning but best for us the car hire agencies reopened ! So this morning we had a trip into the foothills of the Atlas , about half an hours drive.

We took pictures of the Marahout's tomb at the end of the cemetary at Tamalackt. Behind the white wall is the village cemetery but at one end is the marahout tomb. This is aperson thought to be of some religious eminence and sanctity. They are often referred to as muslim "saints" although this has a different meaning to the Catholic sense of saint as it is implicit in Islam that nobody can intercede or intervene between a person and God. Anyway  there are a large number of these tombs scattered about the country and most of them have a moussem or festival annually when the marahout is remembered. Usually these are very local but some attract pilgrims from great distances.