It’s dubbed the “pilgrimage of the poor” — every summer, tens of thousands of people flood this small central Moroccan town to honour a Sufi saint buried here 12 centuries ago.
Idris I was the great grandchild of Hasan, who was the son of Fatimah and grandson of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad.
His brothers Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya and Ibrahim had been killed by the Abbasids during an abortive rebellion, and Idris himself escaped after the defeat of another Alid uprising at the Battle of Fakhkh in 786 and took refuge in the western Maghreb (nowadays Morocco). There he established the Arabian Idrisid dynasty.
Moulay Driss Zerhoun, nestled between two hills covered in olive groves, is where Idriss I, who founded Morocco’s first Islamic dynasty, was laid to rest in the late eighth century.
In the main square, pilgrims grouped in “brotherhoods” from a host of countries…
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