صور من تداعيات المجاعات و الأوبئة على الوضع الاجتماعي بالمغرب خلال القرنين السابع عشر و الثامن عشر

Abstract EN

This article aims to shed light on the devastating influence of the famines and epidemics on Moroccan social life in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Morocco witnessed a series of terrible famines and epidemics during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which had disastrous effects on people's social life.

It took the lives of tens of thousands of Moroccans and forced a huge number of people to leave their countries to safe areas to save their lives from perdition.

Those famines and epidemics led to the spread of the phenomenon of banditry, the prevalence of acts of violence and robbery over people's homes and properties, and intimidation of merchants and travellers by cutting off their tracks and plundering their money.

They contributed to the disruption of social and demographic conditions in both the countryside and cities, affecting the psyche of Moroccans, their way of thinking, and their mental attitudes towards these natural disasters.

Many Moroccans showed a sharp sense of guilt about the crisis in their country, so they rejected and complained about it.

They were tired of it to the extent that they became mentally ready to accept all possible solutions to overcome their miserable reality.

To seek a solace, comfort and protection, they resorted to the saints.

They believed that the divine powers of the saints could be an alternative and effective solution to get rid of their shameful reality.

Faced with these deplorable conditions, the Alawi Makhzan took urgent social measures to alleviate the impacts of those natural disasters on people's lives.