Ouezzane

Ouezzane lies in a transition zone between the first foothills of the Rif to the north-east and the Gharb plain to the south-west. According to Nouzha Boudouhou, four large tribes live in the surrounding area: the Masmouda, Ghzaoua, Beni Mestra and Rhouna.¹ Ouezzane province has been part of the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region since 2015.²

Decree No. 2-09-319 of 11 June 2009 listed Ouezzane province in the administrative organisation of the Kingdom, at that time in the wilaya of Tetouan.³ At the 2024 census 57,737 people lived in the town, compared with 59,606 in 2014. It is the largest municipality in the province, which had a total of 274,577 inhabitants in 2024, down from 300,637 in 2014.⁴

The name Ouezzane does not appear in the Arab geographers; it first emerges with the founder of the zawiya at the beginning of the 17th century.⁵ Moulay Abdallah Chérif was born in 1596 or 1597, according to Boudouhou on Jbel Alam in the territory of the Beni Arous, and died in 1678.⁶ After the death of his teacher Sidi Ali ben Ahmed in 1618 he moved several times before settling in Ouezzane; Boudouhou therefore dates the founding of the zawiya and the town to around 1623 to 1626.⁷

The anthropologist Hassan Elboudrari gives a different date: around 1630 to 1632 Moulay Abdallah Chérif proclaimed a spiritual path of his own, and from his first disciples emerged the zawiya he founded in Ouezzane. According to tradition, he settled in the village of al-Miqal near the hill of Jbel Bou Hlal, where Ouezzane later grew up; houses were built around his own, gardens were laid out and water was brought in, and he built a mosque with a minaret.⁸

The zawiya of the Sharifs of Ouezzane is also called Dar ed-Dmana, “House of the Guarantee”, and lies in Masmouda territory. In the songs of the Gnawa it is a place of pilgrimage.⁹

The village of Asjen lies 9 kilometres north-west of the town.¹⁰ It is the site of the mausoleum of Rabbi Amram Ben Diwan, where the hiloula is celebrated every year; the celebration is organised by the Conseil des communautés juives au Maroc, and in 2016 hundreds of pilgrims came from all over the world and from many regions of Morocco.¹¹

Since an order of the Minister of Agriculture of 17 October 2013, “Huile d’Olive Vierge Extra Ouezzane” has been a recognised geographical indication for olive oil; an order of 10 October 2017 amended the rules.¹²

The climate figures on this page come from the coastal station at Larache, 47 metres above sea level. There, mean daily maximum temperatures rise from 16.7 °C in January to 28.7 °C in August, and of 700.5 millimetres of annual precipitation an average of 0.8 millimetres falls in July and 129.1 millimetres in November (WMO climate normals 1991–2020).¹³