The Sous region (also spelt Sus, Suss, Souss or Sousse) ( ar, سوس, sūs, shi, ⵙⵓⵙ, sus) is an area in mid-southern

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

. Geologically, it is the alluvial basin of the

Sous River The Sous River, Sus River or Souss River ( Berber: Asif en Sus, Arabic: واد سوس) is a river in mid-southern Morocco located in the Sous region. It originates in the High Atlas and flows west passing Aoulouz, Taroudannt, Oulad Teima, Inezga ...

(''Asif n Sus''), separated from the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

desert by the Anti-Atlas Mountains. The natural vegetation in the Sous region is

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

dominated by the

argan ''Argania'' (Tashelhit: ⴰⵔⴳⴰⵏ ''Argan'') is a genus of flowering plants containing the sole species ''Argania spinosa'', known as argan, a tree endemic to the calcareous semidesert Sous valley of southwestern Morocco and to the regio ...

(''Argania spinosa''), a local

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

tree found nowhere else; part of the area is now a

UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) is an intergovernmental scientific program, launched in 1971 by UNESCO, that aims to establish a scientific basis for the improvement of relationships between people and their environments. MAB's work engag ...

to protect this unique habitat. The region of Sous is generally fertile and has a high agricultural production.

History

Medieval Arabic geographers generally divided the Sous region into two distinct sub-regions: ''al-Sūs al-Aqṣā'', or "farther Sus", and ''al-Sūs al-Adnā'', or "nearer Sus". Sus al-Aqsa consisted of the southern/western part, and Sus al-Adna consisted of the northern/eastern part; however, there were never any precise boundaries between the two. The capital of the Sous was at Igli. There was also a

ribat A ribāṭ ( ar, رِبَـاط; hospice, hostel, base or retreat) is an Arabic term for a small fortification built along a frontier during the first years of the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb to house military volunteers, called ''murabitun'' ...

Massa Massa may refer to: Places *Massa, Tuscany, the administrative seat of the Italian province of Massa-Carrara. *Massa (river), river in Switzerland * Massa (Tanzanian ward), administrative ward in the Mpwapwa district of the Dodoma Region of Ta ...

near the Atlantic coast.

Ibn Hawqal Muḥammad Abū’l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal (), also known as Abū al-Qāsim b. ʻAlī Ibn Ḥawqal al-Naṣībī, born in Nisibis, Upper Mesopotamia; was a 10th-century Arab Muslim writer, geographer, and chronicler who travelled during the ye ...

makes conflicting claims about the religious makeup of the Sous region at his time. In one passage, he says that its inhabitants were

Shi'i Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...

s, but in another he says that the region was divided between

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

s of the

Maliki The ( ar, مَالِكِي) school is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas in the 8th century. The Maliki school of jurisprudence relies on the Quran and hadiths as primary ...

school and Shi'is, who he calls "Mūsawiyyun". Tensions were high between these groups, he wrote, and there was a lot of warfare between them. Around 683,

Uqba ibn Nafi ʿUqba ibn Nāfiʿ ibn ʿAbd al-Qays al-Fihrī al-Qurashī ( ar, عقبة بن نافع بن عبد القيس الفهري القرشي, ʿUqba ibn Nāfiʿ ibn ʿAbd al-Qays al-Fihrī), also simply known as Uqba ibn Nafi, was an Arab general ser ...

conquered the Sous region, but after his death in 688 his conquests in Morocco slipped out of Muslim control. The Sous was reconquered around 20 years later by

Musa ibn Nusayr Musa ibn Nusayr ( ar, موسى بن نصير ''Mūsá bin Nuṣayr''; 640 – c. 716) served as a Umayyad governor and an Arab general under the Umayyad caliph Al-Walid I. He ruled over the Muslim provinces of North Africa (Ifriqiya), and direct ...

, who began the spread of Islam among the local population.

Bibliography

*Boogert, Nico van den. ''The Berber Literary Tradition of the Sous: with an edition and translation of 'The Ocean of Tears' by Muḥammad Awzal (d. 1749)'', Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 1997. *Montagne, Robert. ''Les Berbères et le Makhzen dans le sud du Maroc; essai sur la transformation politique des Berbères sédentaires (groupe Chleuh)''. Rabat: Dar Al-Aman, 2013 .
UNESCO Arganeraie Biosphere Reserve

References

External links

{{coord, 30, 18, N, 9, 20, W, region:MA_dim:100000, display=title Natural regions Geography of Morocco