Safi, Morocco The Portuguese fortress built to protect the city is still there today. After 1541, the city played a major role in Morocco as one of the safest and biggest seaports in the country. Many ambassadors to the Saadian and Alaouite kings during the 16th–18th centuries came to Morocco via Asfi; its proximity to Marrakech, then capital of Morocco, helped expand the maritime trade in the city. Louis De Chénier, consul of the French court in Morocco in 1767, reported that the city was the only usable seaport at the time. A French Navy captive, Bidé de Maurville, who wrote the
Culture of Morocco the era of the Berber dynasties, coinciding with the flowering of Al-Andalus, there were several important Moroccan writers, especially in the fields of religion. Morocco is considered by some as an Arab-Amazigh country. Others insist on the Amazigh-African identity of Morocco. Classical Arabic and Tamazight are official language of Morocco. Classical Arabic rather than a mother tongue, and is used in a limited and formal socio-economic and cultural range of activities (like newspapers and official documents), in competition with French. The most common spoken languages of Morocco are Tamazight and Moroccan Arabic. Linguistically, Amazigh belongs to the Afro-Asiatic group, and