RABAT

One of the four imperial cities of Morocco; national capital since 1912.

Since being named capital by the French in 1912, Rabat (also Ribat al-Fath) has grown in size and prestige as the new administrative, educational, and cultural center of Morocco. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the Bou Regreg River, which separates it from its rival sister city to the north, Salé.

Rabat takes its name from a small tenth-century ribat (monastery-citadel) manned by Muslim holy warriors (murabits). The Almohad Sultan Yaʿqub alMansur constructed a city on the site and named it Ribat al-Fath (Monastery of Conquest), in honor of a victory over Spain in 1195. Rabat's historical significance, along with its neighboring rival, Salé, stemmed from commercial trade and piracy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Spanish Muslims expelled from Spain in 1610 formed the core of Rabat's population.

At the beginning of the French protectorate in 1912, the French decision to relocate Morocco's capital to Rabat opened it to extensive development outside the original Arab city (madina) to the south and west. French colonial administrator General Louis-Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey, in laying out the plan for Rabat, saw it as an opportunity to design an exemplary modern city. The major national university, Muhammad V, is located in Rabat, as are various national research institutes. Rabat and Salé together form an administrative prefecture that has grown at a rate of more than 5 percent annually since the late 1960s. The population of Rabat-Salé and environs numbers 1,386,000 (1994 figures).

see also lyautey, louis-hubert gonzalve; morocco.

Bibliography

Abu-Lughod, Janet L. Rabat: Urban Apartheid in Morocco. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980.

donna lee bowen

Rabat, Malta, Morocco 1. Malta: in Roman times the present area of Mdina and Rabat was called Melita. When part of the city, now Mdina, was fortified by the Arabs the parts outside the walls was called rabat ‘suburb’.2. Morocco: locally Ribāṭ which is a fortified monastery. It was originally Phoenician and then Roman as a self‐governing city. The modern city was founded by 'Abd al‐Mu᾽min (d. 1163), the first Almohad ruler (1130–63), in 1150 as a ribāṭ in which to house his troops for a jihād ‘holy war’ against Spain. It was, however, Abū Yūsuf Ya'qūb al‐Manṣūr (c.1160–99), the third Almohad sultan (1184–99), who decided to make the camp into an imperial city. He named it Ribāṭ al‐Fath ‘Camp of Victory’, from which the present name comes, to commemorate his victory over the Spanish at Alarcos in 1195. In Europe it was known as New Salé during the 17th century since it lay across the Bou Regreg River from a pre‐Roman settlement called Sala. Although a conurbation, they remain separate cities.

Rabat , city (1994 pop. 787,745), capital of Morocco, on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Bou Regreg estuary, opposite Salé. Silting problems have diminished the city's role as a port but it maintains important textile industries. There have been settlements on the site since ancient times. It became a Muslim fortress c.AD 700. Prior to independence (1956), it was capital of the French protectorate of Morocco. Points of interest in Rabat are the old walls and the ruins of a large, unfinished mosque with adjoining tower (similar to the Giralda ); these were built during the reign of Yakub (1184–99). Rabat was a stronghold of corsairs in the 17th and 18th cent. Muhammad V Univ. was founded in the city in 1957.

Rabat •at, bat, brat, cat, chat, cravat, drat, expat, fat, flat, frat, gat, gnat, hat, hereat, high-hat, howzat, lat, mat, matt, matte, Montserrat, Nat, outsat, pat, pit-a-pat, plait, plat, prat, Rabat, rat, rat-tat, Sadat, sat, scat, Sebat, shabbat, shat, skat, slat, spat, splat, sprat, stat, Surat, tat, that, thereat, tit-for-tat, vat, whereat •fiat • floreat • exeat • caveat •Croat, Serbo-Croat •Nanga Parbat • brickbat • dingbat •combat, wombat •fruitbat • numbat • acrobat • backchat •whinchat • chitchat • samizdat •concordat • Arafat • Jehoshaphat •butterfat • Kattegat • hard hat •sun hat • fat cat • hellcat • requiescat •scaredy-cat • Magnificat • copycat •pussycat • wildcat • bobcat • tomcat •Sno-Cat • polecat • muscat • meerkat •mudflat • cervelat •doormat, format •diplomat • laundromat • Zermatt •Donat • cowpat