Mohamed Aziz
The bookseller of Rabat who read 4,000 books
In the heart of the old medina of Rabat, Morocco, behind a modest wooden stall surrounded by dust and dreams, lives a man who has read more books than most of us will in a lifetime.
His name is Mohamed Aziz, and his story is proof that books cannot only change lives — they can build them.
Aziz isn’t a professor. He didn’t attend fancy universities. He never had much money.
But he had books.
Since 1967, he has run a small bookstall in the labyrinthine streets of the medina. Not a sleek bookstore — just a humble corner packed with worn-out titles in Arabic, French, English, and Spanish.
Over the decades, he’s read more than 4,000 books, all while selling them to curious passersby and loyal regulars.
When you talk to Mohamed Aziz, it feels like opening a novel.
He quotes Shakespeare, discusses Marx, compares Dostoevsky to Mahfouz, and jumps from philosophy to poetry like someone flipping through a well-worn favorite.
But perhaps the most beautiful part of his story is this: Aziz taught himself everything.
He learned by reading, by listening, by paying attention. In a country where literacy was once a privilege, he made knowledge his revolution.
In a world increasingly fast, digital, and distracted, Mohamed Aziz reminds us of something sacred: That reading is an act of resistance. Of presence. Of imagination in the middle of chaos.
When tourists or locals stop to ask about a book, Aziz doesn’t just sell it — he tells them why it matters, what it means, who it changed.
He doesn’t just move books – he moves people.
He prays five times a day, reads for hours, and never tires of talking about ideas.
In interviews, he once said: “A book is like a child. It needs care. It grows with you.”
His stall has become a symbol of cultural resistance in Rabat. A lighthouse in the middle of a noisy city. A place where silence, wisdom, and stories still matter.
His story matters because we live in an age where attention spans are shrinking. Where books compete with screens.
But Mohamed Aziz shows us that reading is not a lost art — it’s a quiet superpower.
His story reminds us that you don’t need money, titles, or status to be wise.
You just need a chair, a light, and a book that asks something of you.