In 2011, the history of Morocco before the arrival of Islam was introduced into school curriculums. I didn’t want to interrupt Silver to ask him to spell names. I looked it up later. I found the “Anas” but what about “silver” in Berber? Was that the correct spelling?

What was the name of the dynasty in power when Islam arrived in Morocco in the 7th century?

Did Silver say the amawe dynasty?

Amazir? It’s spelled Amazigh.

I looked up “dynasty before Muslims arrived in Morocco.”

I couldn’t find anything.

It was not a Muslim dynasty.

I’m being transparent about my process on purpose.

Anas: This is a letter that represents all the alphabet—zz.

Maria: zz. In what context do you use that?

Anas: (writing on the chalkboard) Like all the other normal languages.

Maria: It represents all the letters? We don’t have that in English, for example.

Anas: In the Berber or Amazigh flag, you’ll find this symbol.

Maria: It’s more symbolic? A unifying idea?

Anas: Exactly. It’s the “yaz.”

In Berber alphabet I don’t say ah, I say yah. For b, I say yab. And yaz, you see? This is the t—it’s like a cross. If you go to the mountains, females have this letter as a tattoo. It represents hope, light. It was also a way to distinguish if she is married or not. If she’s married, it’s only t.

Maria: If they aren’t married…

Anas: They don’t have a tattoo.

Aamir: (with the other Aamir—if I remember correctly—who paid for my dinner at the street food spot down the street. He works here but was off that night)

You guys got along very quickly guys! Wow! I’m going to put an order in—just to say.

Anas: But if she’s divorced, we add the dots. If she has a t, you don’t put yourself in an awkward situation. Now we’re back on track (he erased the board). We’re trying to revive a bit the culture. And now these alphabets are in there.

Aamir: Okay, guys. Finish your talk. I'll be upstairs.

Maria: I’ll come back another time, I still have a bunch of things to do…

(Aamir continued up the steps)

Anas: Absolutely.

Maria: …for work. I’ll come back.

Anas: Exactly. Allow me just to show you the alphabet. A, ke, l, u. The itch sound. The d, the m, this is the rr sound; there is the soft r and the tense r sound. This is similar to that one, but this is yaz. But this is more tense.

Maria: I really appreciated that being a language person.

Anas: Yeah, well, I'm trying my best. If you need more information about this, I could supply you with that. I was planning to write what I have. I wanted to put it into a unified language like English, so other people would know the story of the whole north of Africa. The Moroccan culture is amazing and we didn’t get a chance to learn it…believe me. Like in the curriculums? There was no existence of such things.

Maria: You mean ancient history? Why is that?

Anas: The Amazigh folks embraced Islam as a religion. History started there.

Maria: When?

Anas: Allow me to check which time exactly; during the Amawe dynasty…

Maria: When the country shifted to Islam. Before, it was…

Anas: 750; 661-750. That was when everything was missed. The identity, the language itself. We replaced Berber with what we have now—the Moroccan dialect. It is a mixture of Arabic, Amazigh, French, Spanish words. During 1962, there was a protest—a political decision from the government. We had to purify the Moroccan tongue. They imposed the Arabic language; it became the first language.

Maria: But now it’s changed?

Anas: Since 2011, they started including the history pre-Islam. Political parties are reviving the culture and imposing it on the government. No, this is the true history of our folk.

We know how to pronounce the words; we use the Arabic letters—(writes my name is Arabic)— but if I show it to a normal guy passing by, he wouldn’t know how to read it, because he only knows how to speak it. He doesn’t have inside his mind the realization of those sounds as letters.

Maria: I look forward to talking more with you…

Anas: Absolutely. Take your time. You will find me always here.

Maria: If I wasn’t full…

Anas: Absolutely.