Al-Sabti historian frames oral memory with historical notation
The Moroccan historian Abdel Ahad Al-Sabti added a new book to the National Historical Treasury, in which he presented the depth of oral narration and the importance of historical recording. He titled the book “From the Year of the Elephant to the Year of the Markan.” Oral Memory and Historical Recording,” by Mediterranean Publications.
Al-Sabti divided his book into four chapters, each of which includes methodological keys for reading the Moroccan oral repertoire, and each chapter is appended with selected oral texts. The book presents the time of the founding culture, the memory of natural disasters, the memory of military battles, and the memory of the era of protection.
The book, which won the Morocco Book Award for the year 2023, is distinguished by its treatment of new topics in history, such as “rural hunger,” “the year of drought,” “the year of fire,” “the year of clouds,” and other topics in which written texts are not sufficient to write history. Complete, forcing the historian to turn to the oral heritage.
It should be noted that the historian Abd al-Ahad al-Sabti was and still is a symbol of historical giving, and was distinguished by his new historical writing style that relied on new approaches and adopted openness to the human sciences. He had previously produced writings that had no precedent in history, such as “Between the Thief and the Bandit,” to speak About road security in Central Morocco, then “From Tea to Atay” to address the history of this drink and its relationship with Moroccan culture.
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