Haj Omar was nicknamed Kisra by his friends

Kisra, king of Persia

Kisra is the Arabic spelling of the name of the Sassanid dynasty emperors who ruled Persia and a significant portion of the Arabian peninsula between 226 and 642 A.D. In English, the named is spelled as "Khusrau" or "Khusrow". Famous kings are Anshurwan and Yezdigird III, the last one. For a short history of their kingdom, click here.

The name of Kisra, like Kaisar (Caesar) are symbols of large power in the history of Arab world. This is true for most of Arab world including the one in the extreme west: Morocco.

In Morocco, it is usual for every person to have a nickname related to where they come from, their job, their look, etc. Born in 1910, Omar was a wheat and fruits producer in a rural area 30 kilometers from Marrakech called "Ithnin eloudaya" (translated "Monday Market of Oudaya"). His lands are located only few meters from the Tensift river that divides the Haouz area south of Morocco, and he gets all his irrigation water from this river through special canals.

His wife was known for making elegant clothes and beautiful carpets. Omar was also known for particularly caring about his look, and most of the time, he was wearing his beautiful white jellaba and black selham. Add to this the fact that he was taller and more robust than his peers, and you get a local version of a handsome king, a local Kisra.

Later on, when family names were officially assigned to people all around the country, Omar joined the crowd. When he was trying to get his tribe name registered, some guy recognized him, and did to him what was done to millions of Moroccans of his age. Instead of giving him his real tribe name, he registered him by his nickname, Kisra.

Agricultural land in Marrakech area. For more photos, click here

He was the first and only Kisra in the whole family, and he ended up with a name different from his brothers' in East Marrakech. In 1940, Omar had to leave his land trying to try to find his mother who quit its village to live in Rabat, the capital. It took him a while to find her. Then, unable to convince her of coming back home, he chose to stay with her and take care while delegating many of his tasks in the village to friends.

This step was very significant for the life of his children. Morocco, still a French colony had no compulsory education education system. Worse, there were no official schools in most of the rural areas. The second son, who was born in Rabat was the first to go to school, and he made sure all his younger brothers and sisters did the same.