ABSTRACT
Today most visitors are brought to Rabat not by aesthetic considerations, but for political reasons, since this quiet town has become the capital of the kingdom of Morocco. In Morocco, as in all other Arab and Moslem countries one single person sets the tone in politics: in this case the King. The late Mohammed V was an absolute monarch, whose power was not limited by any constitution or parliament. The name of the state, ‘Sherifian Kingdom of Morocco’, already stresses the religious legitimation of power by reference to the royal family’s descent from the Prophet. Ruler and Nationalists were intimately linked in the independence movement, which is one of the reasons why Morocco received independence without at the same time going through a social revolution. In the ‘Far West’, in present day Morocco, the Arabs established themselves as the upper class, whose religion, culture, and language were the only ones which counted.
