In his book Orientalism, Edward Said claimed that Western literary depictions of the Islamic and Near Eastern world suggested an inferior culture fit to be colonized. While there is some truth in his assertion, the larger picture is more complicated. A collection of travelers’ accounts from the 17th through the 20th centuries, A Morocco Anthology shows that for many Westerners, the East represented an ideal of life beyond the stodgy restrictions of the West. Reuters’ correspondent Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett wrote of finding “freedom which is exhilarating to the mind and to the body.” Scottish nationalist leader Robert Cunninghame Graham praised the hashish. Most of the writers found themselves entranced by the starkness of the Moroccan terrain and the tiled beauty of its cities.
