JTLS, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2026, pp. 54-76.
Print ISSN: 3135-6788; Online ISSN: 3135-6796
Journal homepage: https://www.tlsjournal.com
DOI：https://doi.org/10.64058/jtls260102nrare
Narrating the Republic: Al-Saffar’s Rihla, Early Colonial Encounters and Shifting Power Structures in the Nineteenth-Century Mediterranean
Abdelmouttalib Chrif Elidrissi
Abstract: This article examines Rihlat al-Saffar ila Faranca (1845–1846), the travel account of a nineteenth-century Moroccan envoy Muhammad al-Saffar, as a foundational text within the historically marginalized body of non-European travel literature. The article argues that al-Saffar’s narrative reverses the gaze through which Europe appears as a space subjected to observation, comparison, and evaluation from a non-European perspective. Conceptually, the article examines the recurrent politics of reception that I term the "subaltern dilemma," whereby North African travel texts are denied epistemic agency, frequently read as information haunters within travel literature studies. The article also interrogates the discursive dynamics that shaped Morocco’s relations with European powers. Situating the rihla within a broader framework of travel literature studies and postcolonial theory, this article challenges the longstanding academic bias that privileges Orientalist narratives, while offering scant consideration—if any—to Occidentalist texts. In doing so, the study underscores the intellectual and political significance of Moroccan travel writing as a critical site of negotiation—balancing between strong admiration for European progress and modernity, and the constraints imposed by socio-political and religious structures in Morocco. Offering a close reading of his engagements with European progress in science, technology, military affairs, education, governance, and gendered public life, the article demonstrates how al-Saffar’s rihla maps the geopolitical asymmetries of the nineteenth-century Mediterranean and articulates a reformist-pedagogical mode of travel literature addressed to Moroccan readership. Ultimately, this paper reconsiders North African textual interactivity with Europe through positioning Moroccan travel narratives as essential contributions to the nineteenth-century rihla literature.
Keywords: Moroccan rihla literature; France; Muhammad al-Saffar; nineteenth century Mediterranean; subaltern studies; Occidentalism
Author Biography: Abdelmouttalib Chrif Elidrissi, an independent scholar and international EFL teacher with the Ministry of Preschool and School Education (MoPSE) of the Republic of Uzbekistan. He holds an MA in Cultural Studies from Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Morocco. His research interests encompass cultural studies, travel writing, popular music, ethnomusicology, and postcolonial studies, with a particular focus on power, discourse, representation, and cultural resistance in Morocco. Email: achrifelidrissi@gmail.com.
Received: 03 Jun 2026 / Revised: 07 Aug 2026 / Accepted: 05 Sep 2026 / Published online: 15 Sep 2025 / Print published: 15 Dec 2026.
