Chefchaouen (Arabic: شفشاون Shafshāwan (pronounced IPA: ʃəfˈʃɑˑwən); Berber languages: ⴰⵛⵛⴰⵡⵏ Ashawen), also known as Chaouen, is a city in northwest Morocco. It is the chief town of the province of the same name, and is noted for its buildings in shades of blue. Chefchaouen is situated just inland from Tangier and Tetouan.
The city was founded in 1471[1] as a small kasbah (fortress) by Moulay Ali ibn Rashid al-Alami, a descendant of Abd as-Salam al-Alami and Idris I, and through them, of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Al-Alami founded the city to fight the Portuguese invasions of northern Morocco.[2] Along with the Ghomara tribes of the region, many Moriscos and Jews settled here after the Spanish Reconquista in medieval times.[3] In 1920, the Spanish seized Chefchaouen to form part of Spanish Morocco. Spanish troops imprisoned Abd el-Krim in the kasbah from 1916 to 1917, after he talked with the German consul Dr. Walter Zechlin (1879–1962). After defeating him with the help of the French, Abd el-Krim was deported to Réunion in 1926. Spain returned the city after the independence of Morocco in 1956.
