Going back about 400 years, Tamegroute came to grow up as an important desert town around the school of Abu Abdallah Muhammad bin Naceur. He founded the Naciri Sufi brotherhood, a group of moderate Muslims. They soon became known as peacemakers and missionaries among the many Berbers in the Moroccan mountains that still had not converted to Islam. Their institutions live on today, even if the library is no longer the largest in Morocco, when it contained 40,000 volumes. Most of these books are not stolen or lost, but distributed to other learning centres. There are several sights you should watch out for. Walking through the ksours, try to catch the dramatic changes between the over- and underground alleys. And then head for the centre of the Zaouia Naciri, consisting of both a marabout (holy tomb) over Naceur, a school preparing young men for higher religious learning and the library. Inside this, there are many impressive examples of Korans. The potter's cooperative is another place to stop by, as pottery is made and sold on the spot. The style and technique was imported from Fez in the Naciris attempt to develop Tamegroute.
