Ifrane - City of Morocco

Ifrane is a town and ski resort in the Middle Atlas region of Morocco. Ifrane is 1650 meters in altitude and is part of the Meknès-Tafilalet region. In Tamazight, the regional Berber language, "ifran" means caves.

The first permanent settlement of the area dates to the 16th century, when a sharîf by the name of Sîdî ‘Abd al-Salâm established his community in the Tizguit Valley, seven km downstream from the present town. In Tamazight, the regional Berber language, yfran means “caves”. Sîdî ‘Abd al-Salâm’s village, called Zaouiat Sidi Abdeslam , consisted at first of cave dwellings hollowed out of the limestone valley wall. Only in the last fifty years or so have its inhabitants build houses above ground. The caves which now lie under these houses are still used as mangers for animals and for storage.

By the mid-17th century Sîdî ‘Abd al-Salâm’s zâwiyah was well enough established to receive an extensive iqtâ’, or land grant, from the ‘Alâwî sultan Mûlây Rashîd b. Muhammad. The iqtâ’ extended from upstream of present Ifrane down the Tizguit valley all the way to El Hajeb escarpment. Late in the 19th century agro-pastoral groups of the Amazigh Beni M’guild and Beni M’tir, crossing the Middle Atlas from the upper Moulouya Plain, started grazing their herds of sheep and goats on the surrounding plateau. While the inhabitants of Zaouiat Sidi Abdeslam are ethnically Arab, being shurafâ’, their mother tongue is Tamazight. The livelihood of the zâwiyah was based on irrigated agriculture on the valley floor, livestock grazing and forest resources.

The agricultural plots were held as private property but the grazing land was under collective tribal jurisdiction. The tribally organized populations of the Ifrane- Azrou area submitted to colonial rule after a period of resistance. Resistance continued higher in the mountains until 1922.