Tadla, Tadla-Azilal Region, Morocco :

The Tadla-Azilal region in Morocco has an advantageous location in the center of road network linking the major urban poles of the country (Casablanca, Marrakech, Fes and Rabat).

The region has well exploited its ideal climate, its arable lands, as well as the availability of water, to develop an important agriculture which represents the basis of its economy, the Tadla-Azilal region, composed of two provinces (Beni Mellal and Azilal) stretches over three different geographical formations: the fertile Tadla plain, the piedmont (Dir) which is abundant in forest resources and favourable to stock breeding, and the wonderful mountain rooted in the chain of the Medium and High Atlas ranges. The climate is Mediterranean with a rainy seaon lasting from November to March and a dry season from April to October. The average annual temperature is 18° C with peak periods of 38°C to 40°C in August and 3 to 4°C in January.

The population is 66% rural, young and dynamic. The population less than 25 years old constitutes half the population which amounts to 1 450 519 inhabitants, In the middle ages, Tadla was regarded as a great economic metropolis. It was known for its massive agricultural production (huge exports of cotton crops) as well as of its precious mineral riches, copper in particular.

From the Idrissid Dynasty in 788 AD to the Alaouite Dynasty in the year 1680 through Almoravids, Almohads, the Merinid Dynasty and the Saadi Dynasty, the Tadla-Azilal Region stood witness to the rule of each of these dynasties, In the period between the 17th and 19th centuries, Tadla was mentioned in the historical records of Leo Africanus and Charles de Foucauld, who describe the region’s mountainous villages, its Kasbahs and splendid vestiges.

During the colonial period, the mountainous chains surrounding the Tadla-Azilal region stood as a resistance, In the year 1955, during the first administrative division of post-protectorate Morocco, the province of Beni Mellal formed a part of the country’s 13 provinces. It consisted of the major part of Tadla’s territories, plains and mountains.

In 1974, Tadla region was divided up into two areas: the province of Beni Mellal, stretching over a large plain, and the mountainous province of Azilal,.the Tadla-Azilal region was first inhabited by the Amazighs (Berber people), the Zenata (they were farmers mostly living in plains), and the Haskur-Sanaga tribes (they were herders mostly living in mountains).

It was in 686 AD that the Arabs first came into contact with the Berbers with the Arabization of the Maghreb under Uqba ibn Nafia, Since then Arabs started to settle in the region.

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