Namalata

Namalata lies near Tahla, at the foot of the Middle Atlas on the road between Fez and Taza. The wooded slopes above and the plateaus below belonged to the Beni Ouarain, a large Berber tribe whose herders moved between mountain and plain with the seasons. Just to the east, Taza commanded the corridor between the Rif and the Middle Atlas through which ran the route from Fez towards Tlemcen. The Marinids seized Taza in the 1240s and from there pressed their wars against the Zayyanids, conquering Tlemcen in 1337; for centuries afterwards, armies and caravans bound east still passed below these hills.