Frédéric Weisgerber (30 March 1868, - 26 December 1946,

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populati ...

) was a French colonial doctor and cartographer active in Morocco before and during the French Protectorate. In 1904, he wrote a book entitled '' Trois mois de campagne au Maroc: étude géographique de la région parcourue'' about his three-month participation in a campaign in Morocco in the winter of 1898.

Biography

He was born to a military family in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines,

Haut-Rhin Haut-Rhin (, ; Alsatian: ''Owerelsàss'' or '; german: Oberelsass, ) is a department in the Grand Est region of France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine. Its name means ''Upper Rhine''. Haut-Rhin is the ...

in 1868.

''Trois Mois de Campagne au Maroc''

His 1904 book ''Trois Mois de Campagne au Maroc'' recounts his 3-month journey through Morocco occasioned by the illness of Sultan Abdelaziz's

grand vizier Grand vizier ( fa, وزيرِ اعظم, vazîr-i aʾzam; ota, صدر اعظم, sadr-ı aʾzam; tr, sadrazam) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. The office of Grand Vizier was first ...

, Ahmed bin Mūsa ash-Sharqī, commonly known as

Ba Ahmed Ahmed bin Mūsa (), known as Ba Ahmed (), was ( Grand Wazir) of Morocco and de facto ruler of the kingdom between the 1894 and 1900. He became the country's true regent, after enthroning the son of Hassan I, Abd al-Aziz, as sultan, who was a chil ...

, early 1898. In this book, Weisgerber describes the geography of what had been a "'' terra incognita''" to Europeans: its " orography, hydrography, geology, climate, flora, fauna, and population." He also illustrates the contrast between ''Bled el- Makhzen'', where the sultan has direct authority, and ''

Bled es-Siba Bled (; german: Veldes,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 146. in older sources also ''Feldes'') is a town on Lake Bled in the Upper C ...

'', inhabited by independent tribes. The book also discusses the ongoing insurrection of Jilali ben Driss al-Youssefi al-Zerhouni, commonly known as El Rogui or

Bou Hmara Jilali ben Driss al-Youssefi al-Zerhouni (; c. 1860 – 1909), commonly known as El Rogui, El Roghi or Bou Hmara, was a pretender to the throne of Morocco in the period 1902–1909, during the reign of Abdelaziz and Abd al-Hafid. Name ...

, in the north, as well as the Makhzen's treatment of prisoners at the time.

Publications

* ''Organisation médicale en Allemagne'', thèse de la Faculté de Médecine de Paris, H. Jouve, 1894, 59 p. * ''Trois mois de campagne au Maroc : étude géographique de la région parcourue'', Paris : Ernest Leroux, 1904, 260 p

* ''Le Malais vulgaire, vocabulaire et éléments de grammaire à l'usage des voyageurs en Malaisie'', Paris : E. Leroux, 1908, 64 p. * ''Carte provisoire de la région de Fez'', levée et dressée par le Dr F. Weisgerber, Paris : H. Barrère, 191

* ''Le Maroc il y a 30 ans'', conférence faite aux officiers et aux contrôleurs civils stagiaires du Cours préparatoire au Service des Affaires Indigènes du Maroc, le 4 avril 1928, Impr. réunies de la ''Vigie marocaine'' et du ''Petit marocain'', 1928, 39 p. * ''Casablanca et les Châouïa en 1900'', préface du général Albert-Gérard-Léon d'Amade (1856-1941), Casablanca : sur les presses des Imprimeries réunies de la « Vigie marocaine » et du « Petit Marocain » , 1935, 139 p., fig., avec un plan de Casablanca et une carte des Châouïa, des reproductions d'aquarelles de E. W. Soudan et de photographies de l'auteur et de G. L. Tricot. * ''Au seuil du Maroc moderne'', Rabat : les Éditions la Porte, 1947, 368-IV p. il s'agit d'un réaménagement de Casablanca et les Châouïa en 1900, complété de 4 pages de lexique

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weisgerber, Frederic University of Strasbourg alumni French geographers Officers of the Legion of Honour 1868 births 1946 deaths French expatriates in Morocco