Sunday, June 11, 2023 at 10:31 AM Rabat- The Moroccan novelist and researcher, Kaoutar Abu Al-Aid, presented, on Saturday in Rabat, her novel entitled “Le Voyage du Hijaz”, winner of the Ibn Battouta Prize for Literature of voyage, in the category annotation of manuscripts on the scale of the Arab world, awarded by the Arab Center for Geographical Literature in Abu Dhabi. Presented on the occasion of the 28th edition of the International Publishing and Book Fair (SIEL-2023), this novel is originally a manuscript that traces the journey of the Moroccan scholar Mohamed Hajji Al-Hachimi Bouchaara. The book essentially traces the journey made by this scholar in 1348 of the Hegira (1930) at a crucial period in the history of Morocco. This is a journey that marked history and was a real adventure, especially because France had imposed at that time the dahir of segregation called “Dahir Berber”. The author of the book, who says he has devoted more than six years of work to this work, says that she met the family of the scientist who lived the details of his trip, before transforming what was originally a manuscript into a literary work. “I worked on this trip for more than six years, which earned me a doctoral thesis specializing in the history of relations between Morocco and the Mashreq during modern and contemporary history at the University of Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah from Fez,” she said. “This is a manuscript that I found in the National Library of Rabat, a unique original copy written in beautiful Moroccan script by the author himself. I then turned it into a literary work,” she said. Organized under the high patronage of HM King Mohammed VI, by the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication, in partnership with the Wilaya and the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra Regional Council, SIEL-2023, which continues until June 11, is marked by the participation of 661 Moroccan and foreign writers, intellectuals and poets.