against the dangers and hardships of the music industry, Fath-Allah remained dedicated to teaching himself the instruments and music of Gnawa. After some time, he was invited to join his cousin Maallem Lahouaoui’s band, playing the castanets, dancing and singing. But he dreamed of playing the in a real . His chance finally came on a night when his cousin asked him to stand in for him and finish playing what was left of the ceremonial songs. It was the first time Fath-Allah had ever played in front of a crowd, and during an actual Gnawa ceremony. The audience was amazed at how the youngest member of the band could so easily replace the Master, and actually play as well as he and many other Masters. This was the beginning of the Maallem Fath-Allah. His favourite Masters include: Maallem Lahouaoui, Maallem Mustapha Baqbou, Maallem Hmida Boussou and Maallem Abd Elkader Amil Mohamed Errebbaa One of the youngest masters, originally from Rabat, he started at a young age when he moved to Casablanca and grew up attending ceremonies of great masters such as Maalem Hmida boussou ,Maalem Abdelkader Benthami. He spent many years learning with different masters such as Maalem Abderrahim Benthami and Maalem Said Oughassal before he moved to Essaouira and spent a few years with Maalem Mokhtar Gania. Mohamed has always worked on different types of music and collaborations besides his traditional ceremonies.He moved to the UK in 2020 and is based in Bristol. Notes References Ibiblio.org: Gnawa Stories: Mystical Musician Healers from Morocco gnawa at the Moroccan ministry of Communication website WorldMusicCentral.org PTWMusic.com: gnawa by Chouki El Hamel at Duke University December 1, 2000 arab-art.org: article about Gnawa from the "Centre de collecte et de recherche Arab-art" (the description above comes from this side) External links Essaouira at WorldMusicCentral.org gnawa at the Catholic University of America, D.C. "The Gnawa and Their Lila: An Afro-Maghrebi Ritual Tradition" by Timothy D. Fuson Dar Gnawa Website A website dedicated to Gnawa Music (fr) Music of Morocco: The Paul Bowles Recordings-Contains recordings, images and photos of Gnawa music recorded in 1959 Moroccan styles of music Algerian styles of music North African music West African music de:Gnawa fr:Gnaoua