Salé, Rabat-Salé-Kénitra Region, Morocco

History | Republic of Salé | 20th-century socio-political development | Modern city | Sport | Transport : Air | Trains | Tram

🇲🇦 Salé is a city in north-western Morocco, on the right bank of the Bou Regreg river, opposite the national capital Rabat, for which it serves as a commuter town. Founded in about 1030 by the Banu Ifran, it later became a haven for pirates in the 17th century as an independent republic before being incorporated into Alaouite Morocco.

The city's name is sometimes transliterated as Salli or Sallee. The National Route 6 connects it to Fez and Meknes in the east and the N1 to Kénitra in the north-east.

History The Phoenicians established a settlement called Sala, later the site of a Roman colony, Sala Colonia, on the south side of the Bou Regreg estuary.

It is sometimes confused with Salé, on the opposite north bank. Salé was founded in about 1030 by Arabic-speaking Berbers who apparently cultivated the legend that the name was derived from that of Salah, son of Ham, son of Noah.

The Banu Ifran Berber dynasty began construction of a mosque about the time the city was founded. The present-day Great Mosque of Salé was built during the 12th-century reign of the Almohad sultan Abu Yaqub Yusuf, although not completed until 1196. During the 17th century, Rabat was known as New Salé, or Salé la neuve (in French), as it expanded beyond the ancient city walls to include the Chellah, which had become a fortified royal necropolis under the rule of Abu Yaqub Yusuf's son, Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur.

In September 1260, Salé was raided and occupied by warriors sent in a fleet of ships by King Alfonso X of Castile. After the victory of the Marinid dynasty, the historic Bab el-Mrissa was constructed by the Sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd Al-Haqq which remains as a landmark of the city.

Republic of Salé In the 17th century, Salé became a haven for Barbary pirates, among them the Moriscos expelled from Spain turned corsairs, who formed an independent Republic of Salé. Salé pirates (the well-known "Salé Rovers") roamed the seas, and cruised the shipping routes between Atlantic colonial ports and Europe, seizing ships from the Americas and Europe for goods and captives.[self-published source?] They sold their crews and sometimes passengers into slavery in the Arabic world. Despite the legendary reputation of the Salé corsairs, their ships were based across the river in Rabat, called "New Salé" by the English.

European powers took action to try to eliminate the threat from the Barbary Coast. On 20 July 1629, the city of Salé was bombarded by French Admiral Isaac de Razilly with a fleet composed of the ships Licorne, Saint-Louis, Griffon, Catherine, Hambourg, Sainte-Anne, Saint-Jean; his forces destroyed three corsair ships.

20th-century socio-political development During the decades preceding the independence of Morocco, Salé was the stronghold of some "national movement" activists. The reading of the "Latif" (a politically charged prayer to God, read in mosques in loud unison) was launched in Salé and became popular in some cities of Morocco.

A petition against the so-called "Berber Dahir" (a decree that allowed some Berber-speaking areas of Morocco to continue using Berber Law, as opposed to Sharia Law) was given to Sultan Mohamed V and the Resident General of France. The petition and the "Latif" prayer led to the withdrawal and adjustment of the so-called "Berber Decree" of May 1930. The activists who opposed the "Berber Decree" apparently feared that the explicit recognition of the Berber Customary Law (a very secular-minded Berber tradition) would threaten the position of Islam and its Sharia law system. Others believed that opposing the French-engineered "Berber Decree" was a means to turn the table against the French occupation of Morocco.

The widespread storm that was created by the "Berber Dahir" controversy created a somewhat popular Moroccan nationalist elite based in Salé and Fez; it had strong anti-Berber, anti-West, anti-secular, and pro Arab-Islamic inclinations. This period helped develop the political awareness and activism that would lead fourteen years later to the signing of the Manifest of Independence of Morocco on 11 January 1944 by many "Slawi" activists and leaders. Salé has been deemed to have been the stronghold of the Moroccan left for many decades, where many leaders have resided.

Modern city Recent developments, including the new bridge connecting to Rabat, the new Rabat-Salé tramway, marina and coastal development demonstrate government investment. Private development companies such as Emaar Properties are also investing in the area. High unemployment used to be a serious issue to the Salé area, with the numerous textile factories located in this area being the only real source of work, this is recently diversing into other areas such as international call centres, electronics and recently a new "techno park" was opened, which was modeled on the Casablanca techno centre success.

Water supply and wastewater collection in Salé was irregular, with poorer and illegal housing units suffering the highest costs and most acute scarcities. Much of the city used to rely upon communal standpipes, which were often shut down, depriving some neighbourhoods of safe drinking water for indefinite periods of time. Nevertheless, Salé fared better than inland Moroccan locations, where water scarcity was even more acute. Improvements from the government, local businesses and the water distribution companies of Régie de distribution d'Eau & d'Électricité de Rabat-Salé (REDAL) as of 2010 have meant that this situation has improved drastically.

Sport In December 2017, AS Salé became Africa's basketball club Champion. It was the first continental crown in the club's history.

The A.S.S. is the football club of the city, and the president is Abderrahmane Chokri.

Transport: Air Salé's main airport is Rabat–Salé Airport, which is located in Salé but also serves Rabat, the capital city of Morocco.

Trains Salé is served by two principal railway stations run by the national rail service, the ONCF. These stations are Salé-Tabriquet and Salé-Ville.

Salé-Ville is the main inter-city station, from which trains run south to Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech and El Jadida, north to Tanger, or east to Meknes, Fes, Taza and Oujda.

Tram The Rabat-Salé tramway was put into service on May 23, 2011. The network has two lines with a total length of 19 km (12 miles) and 31 stops. It is operated by Veolia Transdev with Alstom Citadis trams.

Marina Bouregreg Salé, Salé, Morocco 
Marina Bouregreg Salé, Salé, Morocco
Image: Photo by Hassan OUAJBIR on Unsplash

Salé has a population of over 890,400 people. Salé also forms part of the wider Rabat metropolitan area which has a population of over 1,800,000 people.

To set up a UBI Lab for Salé see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns, Sister Cities Salé has links with:

🇹🇳 Aryanah, Tunisia 🇵🇸 Beitunia, Palestine 🇸🇳 Gandiaye, Senegal 🇸🇳 Grand Yoff, Senegal 🇨🇲 Maroua, Cameroon 🇵🇹 Portalegre, Portugal 🇲🇽 Tlaxcala de Xicohténcatl, Mexico
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Antipodal to Salé is: 173.183,-34.04

Locations Near: Salé -6.81707,34.04

🇲🇦 Rabat -6.83,34.02 d: 2.5  

🇲🇦 Temara -6.901,33.925 d: 15  

🇲🇦 Kenitra -6.583,34.25 d: 31.7  

🇲🇦 Benslimane -7.117,33.617 d: 54.6  

🇲🇦 Mohammedia -7.372,33.703 d: 63.5  

🇲🇦 Khemisset -6.067,33.817 d: 73.6  

🇲🇦 Sidi Bernoussi -7.505,33.607 d: 79.7  

🇲🇦 Casablanca -7.61,33.59 d: 88.7  

🇲🇦 Maârif -7.633,33.583 d: 90.9  

🇲🇦 Sidi Belyout -7.633,33.583 d: 90.9  

Antipodal to: Salé 173.183,-34.04

🇳🇿 Whangārei 174.326,-35.725 d: 19800.7  

🇳🇿 Hibiscus Coast 174.698,-36.606 d: 19698.4  

🇳🇿 North Shore City 174.75,-36.8 d: 19676.9  

🇳🇿 Auckland 174.763,-36.853 d: 19671.1  

🇳🇿 Hamilton 175.28,-37.788 d: 19557.6  

🇳🇿 Cambridge 175.467,-37.883 d: 19540.9  

🇳🇿 Tauranga 176.154,-37.7 d: 19528.1  

🇳🇿 Rotorua 176.25,-38.133 d: 19483.1  

🇳🇿 Stratford 174.283,-39.333 d: 19418.4  

🇳🇿 Taupō 176.072,-38.687 d: 19437.3  

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