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Coordinates: 32°N 6°W

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the country in North Africa. For the subregion, see Maghreb. For
other uses, see Morocco (disambiguation).
 Kingdom of Morocco

• ‫( المملكة المغربية‬Arabic)
• al-Mamlakah al-Maghribiyah

• ⵜⴰⴳⵍⴷⵉⵜ ⵏ ⵍⵎⵖⵔⵉⴱ (Tamazight)

• Tageldit n Lmeɣrib

Flag

Coat of arms

Motto: ‫ٱٱٱٱٱٱٱٱ ٱٱٱٱٱٱٱٱٱ ٱٱٱٱٱٱٱٱ‬

"Allāh, al-Waṭan, al-Malik"
"God, Country, King"[1]

Anthem: ‫ٱٱٱٱٱٱٱٱٱٱ ٱٱٱٱٱٱٱٱٱٱ‬

"an-Našīd al-Waṭanīy"
"Cherifian Anthem"

Duration: 1 minute and 8 seconds.1:08

Location of Morocco in northwest Africa

Undisputed territory of Morocco

Western Sahara, a territory claimed and partly occupied

by Morocco

Capital Rabat
34°02′N 6°51′W

Largest city Casablanca

33°32′N 7°35′W

Official languages • Arabic

• Tamazight

Spoken • 92.7% Arabic

languages
• 91.9% Moroccan
(2024)[2]
Arabic

• 0.8% Hassaniya
Arabic

• 24.8% Berber languages

• 14.2% Tashelhit

• 7.4% Tamazight

• 3.2% Tarifit
Foreign • French[a]
languages
• English

• Spanish[5]

Ethnic groups See Ethnic groups

Religion • 99.68% Islam (official)

(2020)[3][6] • 99.23% Sunni

• 0.45% Shia

• 0.3% Others

• 0.13% Agnostics

• 0.10% Baháʼís

• 0.09% Christians

• 0.01% Jews

Demonym Moroccan

Government Unitary parliamentary semi-

constitutional monarchy[7]

• King Mohammed VI

• Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch

Legislature Parliament

• Upper house House of Councillors

• Lower house House of Representatives

Establishment

• Idrisid dynasty 788

• 'Alawi 1631
dynasty (current
dynasty)
• Protectorate 30 March 1912
established

• Independence 7 April 1956

Area

• Total 446,550 km2 (172,410 sq mi)[b] (57th)

• Water (%) 0.056 (250 km2)

Population

• 2024 estimate 37,493,183[9] (38th)

• 2024 census 36,828,330[10]

• Density 79.0/km2 (204.6/sq mi)

GDP (PPP) 2025 estimate

• Total $424.870 billion[11] (57th)

• Per capita $11,270[12] (122nd)

GDP (nominal) 2025 estimate

• Total $165.840 billion[13] (58th)

• Per capita $4,440[14] (123rd)

Gini (2015) 40.3[15]

medium inequality

HDI (2023) 0.710[16]

high (120th)

Currency Moroccan dirham (MAD)

Time zone UTC

• +1[17]

• UTC+0 (during Ramadan)[18]

 Calling code +212

ISO 3166 code MA

Internet TLD • .ma

• .‫ٱٱٱٱٱٱ‬

Morocco,[c] officially the Kingdom of Morocco,[d] is a country in the Maghreb region

of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic
Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to the east, and the disputed
territory of Western Sahara to the south, occupied by Morocco since 1975. Morocco also
claims the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta, Melilla and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, and
several small Spanish-controlled islands off its coast.[20] It has a population of
approximately 37 million. Islam is both the official and predominant religion, while
Arabic and Berber are the official languages. Additionally, French and the Moroccan
dialect of Arabic are widely spoken. The culture of Morocco is a mix
of Arab, Berber, African and European cultures. Its capital is Rabat, while its largest city
is Casablanca.[21]

The region constituting Morocco has been inhabited since the Paleolithic era, more than
300,000 years ago. The Idrisid dynasty was established by Idris I in 788, and Morocco
was subsequently ruled by a series of other independent dynasties, reaching its zenith
as a regional power in the 11th and 12th centuries, under
the Almoravid and Almohad dynasties, when it controlled most of the Iberian
Peninsula and the Maghreb.[22] Centuries of Arab migration to the Maghreb since the 7th
century shifted the demographic scope of the region. In the 15th and 16th centuries,
Morocco faced external threats to its sovereignty, with Portugal seizing some territory
and the Ottoman Empire encroaching from the east. The Marinid and Saadi dynasties
otherwise resisted foreign domination, and Morocco was the only North African nation to
escape Ottoman dominion. The Alawi dynasty, which rules the country to this day, seized
power in 1631, and over the next two centuries expanded diplomatic and commercial
relations with the Western world. Morocco's strategic location near the mouth of the
Mediterranean drew renewed European interest. In 1912, France and Spain divided the
country into respective protectorates, reserving an international zone in Tangier.
Following intermittent riots and revolts against colonial rule, in 1956, Morocco regained
its independence and reunified.

Since independence, Morocco has remained relatively stable. It has the fifth-largest
economy in Africa and wields significant influence in both Africa and the Arab world; it is
considered a middle power in global affairs and holds membership in the Arab League,
the Arab Maghreb Union, the Union for the Mediterranean, and the African
Union.[23] Morocco is a unitary semi-constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament.
The executive branch is led by the King of Morocco and the prime minister,
while legislative power is vested in the two chambers of parliament: the House of
Representatives and the House of Councillors. Judicial power rests with the
Constitutional Court, which may review the validity of laws, elections, and
referendums.[24] The king holds vast executive and legislative powers, especially over
the military, foreign policy and religious affairs; he can issue dahirs, decrees which have
the force of law, and he can also dissolve the parliament after consulting the prime
minister and the president of the constitutional court.

Morocco claims ownership of the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara, which

it has designated its Southern Provinces. In 1975, after Spain agreed to decolonise the
territory and cede its control to Morocco and Mauritania, a guerrilla war broke out
between those powers and some of the local inhabitants. In 1979, Mauritania
relinquished its claim to the area, but the war continued to rage. In 1991, a ceasefire
agreement was reached, but the issue of sovereignty remained unresolved. Today,
Morocco occupies two-thirds of the territory, and efforts to resolve the dispute have thus
far failed to break the political deadlock.

Etymology and name

The English Morocco is an anglicisation of the Spanish name for the country, Marruecos,
derived from the name of the city of Marrakesh, which was the capital of the Almoravid
dynasty, the Almohad Caliphate, and the Saadian dynasty.[25] During the Almoravid
dynasty, the city of Marrakesh was established under the name of Tāmurākušt, derived
from the city's ancient Berber name of amūr n Yakuš (lit. 'land/country of God').[26] In
English, the first vowel has been changed, likely influenced by the word "Moor".[27]

Historically, the territory has been part of what Muslim geographers referred to as al-
Maghrib al-Aqṣā [ar] (‫المغرب األقصى‬, 'the Farthest West [of the Islamic world]' designating
roughly the area from Tiaret to the Atlantic) in contrast with neighbouring regions of al-
Maghrib al-Awsaṭ [ar] (‫المغرب األوسط‬, 'the Middle West': Tripoli to Béjaïa) and al-Maghrib al-
Adnā [ar] (‫المغرب األدنى‬, 'the Nearest West': Alexandria to Tripoli).[28]

Morocco's modern Arabic name is al-Maghrib (‫المغرب‬, transl. the land of the sunset; the
west), with the Kingdom's official Arabic name being al-Mamlakah al-Maghribīyah ( ‫المملكة‬
‫ ;المغربية‬transl. the kingdom of sunset/the west).[29][30][31] In Turkish, Morocco is known
as Fas, a name derived from its medieval capital of Fes which is derived from the Arabic
word Faʾs (‫ ;فأس‬transl. pickaxe), as the city's founder Idris I ibn Abd Allah reputedly used
a silver and gold pickaxe to trace the outlines of the city.[32][33] In other parts of the Islamic
world, for example in Egyptian and Middle Eastern Arabic literature before the mid-20th
century, Morocco was commonly referred to as Murrakush (‫)مراكش‬.[34] The term is still
used to refer to Morocco today in several Indo-Iranian languages,
including Persian, Urdu, and Punjabi.[35]
Morocco has also been referred to politically by a variety of terms denoting the Sharifi
heritage of the Alawi dynasty, such as al-Mamlakah ash-Sharīfah (‫)المملكة الشريفة‬, al-Iyālah
ash-Sharīfah (‫ )اإليالة الشريفة‬and al-Imbarāṭūriyyah ash-Sharīfah (‫)اإلمبراطورية الشريفة‬,
rendered in French as l'Empire chérifien and in English as the 'Sharifian Empire'.[36][37]

History

Main article: History of Morocco

Prehistory and antiquity

The area of present-day Morocco has been inhabited since at least Paleolithic times,
beginning sometime between 190,000 and 90,000 BC.[38] A recent publication has
suggested that there is evidence for even earlier human habitation of the area: Homo
sapiens fossils that had been discovered in the late 2000s near the Atlantic
coast in Jebel Irhoud were recently dated to roughly 315,000 years ago.[39] During
the Upper Paleolithic, the Maghreb was more fertile than it is today, resembling
a savanna, in contrast to its modern arid landscape.[40]

DNA studies of Iberomaurusian peoples at Taforalt, Morocco dating to around 15,000

years ago have found them to have a distinctive Maghrebi ancestry formed from a
mixture of Near Eastern and African ancestry, which is still found as a part of the genome
of modern Northwest Africans.[41] Later during the Neolithic, from around 7,500 years ago
onwards, there was a migration into Northwest Africa of European Neolithic
Farmers from the Iberian Peninsula (who had originated in Anatolia several thousand
years prior), as well as pastoralists from the Levant, both of whom also significantly
contributed to the ancestry of modern Northwest Africans.[42] The proto-Berber tribes
evolved from these prehistoric communities during the late Bronze- and
early Iron ages.[43]

In the early part of Classical Antiquity, Northwest Africa and Morocco were slowly drawn
into the wider emerging Mediterranean world by the Phoenicians, who established
trading colonies and settlements there, the most substantial of which
were Chellah, Lixus, and Mogador.[44] Mogador was established as a Phoenician colony
as early as the 6th century BC.[45][page needed]

Roman ruins of Volubilis

Morocco later became a realm of the Northwest African civilisation of ancient Carthage,
and part of the Carthaginian empire. The earliest known independent Moroccan state
was the Berber kingdom of Mauretania, under King Baga.[46] This ancient kingdom (not to
be confused with the modern state of Mauritania) flourished around 225 BC or
earlier. Mauretania became a client kingdom of the Roman Empire in 33 BC.
Emperor Claudius annexed Mauretania directly in 44 AD, making it a Roman
province ruled by an imperial governor (either a procurator Augusti, or a legatus Augusti
pro praetore).

Christianity in Morocco appeared during the Roman times, when it was practiced
by Berber Christians in Roman Mauretania Tingitana.[47] During the Crisis of the Third
Century, parts of Mauretania were reconquered by Berbers. By the late 3rd century,
direct Roman rule had become confined to a few coastal cities, such as Septum (Ceuta)
in Mauretania Tingitana and Cherchell in Mauretania Caesariensis. When, in 429 AD, the
area was devastated by the Vandals, the Roman Empire lost its remaining possessions in
Mauretania, and local Mauro-Roman kings assumed control of them. In the 530s,
the Eastern Roman Empire, under Byzantine control, re-established direct imperial rule
of Septum and Tingi, fortified Tingis and erected a church.

Foundation and dynasties

Idrisid coin in Fes, 840

The Muslim conquest of the Maghreb that had begun during the mid-7th century was
completed under the Umayyad Caliphate by 709. The caliphate introduced
both Islam and the Arabic language to the area; this period also saw the beginning of a
trend of Arab migration to the Maghreb which would last for centuries and effect a
demographic shift in the region. While constituting part of the larger empire, Morocco
was initially organised as a subsidiary province of Ifriqiya, with the local governors
appointed by the Muslim governor in Kairouan.[48]

The indigenous Berber tribes adopted Islam, but retained their customary laws. They
also paid taxes and tribute to the new Muslim administration.[49] The first independent
Muslim state in the area of modern Morocco was the Kingdom of Nekor, an emirate in
the Rif Mountains. It was founded by Salih I ibn Mansur in 710, as a client state to the
Umayyad Caliphate. After the outbreak of the Berber Revolt in 739, the Berbers formed
other independent states such as the Miknasa of Sijilmasa and the Barghawata.

al-Qarawiyyin, founded in Fes in the 9th century,

was a major spiritual, literary, and intellectual centre.

The founder of the Idrisid dynasty and the great-grandson of Hasan ibn Ali, Idris ibn
Abdallah, had fled to Morocco after the massacre of his family by the Abbasids in
the Hejaz. He