Inevitably my guide took me to a carpet shop, but I was not asked by the owner for my interest & custom at all. I assume that this is because the shop is for wealthy Moroccans and foreign diplomats, and the sales technique was correspondingly more mild-mannered. A few more academic comments to my guide, for instance about Tudor English lords displaying imported carpets on walls rather than ever walking on them, had no good effect watsoever and he wandered around distracted and clutching at his belly.

On the rooftop.

















The cultured owner of the establishment, chatting to me about the middle eastern religions: Judaism, Christianity & Islam (in his opinion Islam being the final and most advanced system), also speaking encouragingly about the advent of Ramadan and asking whether I would observe it, and about my onward itineary.
















A cafe scene with the men watching the universal coverage of Hassan Nasrallah's Hezbollah 'victory celebrations' in Beirut, a waving sea of Lebanon cedar flags.