Morocco’s Famous Bookseller

A Rabat bookseller who started with nine books in 1963 became a fresh World Book Day fixture after a social post sent Mohamed Aziz back across timelines. (news18.com) News18 reported on April 22, 2026 that Aziz, now in his late 70s, still works from a small shop in Rabat’s medina after decades selling and reading books there. The same report said widely shared accounts trace his start to a rug in the medina in 1963 and a permanent shop by 1967. (news18.com) A 2025 profile by 1000 Libraries gave the same outline: orphaned at six, out of school at 15 because he could not afford textbooks, then building a bookselling life in the medina from a tiny stock of nine books. That profile said he reads about six to eight hours a day and has been credited with reading more than 4,000 books, with some accounts putting the total higher. (magazine.1000libraries.com) The timing was tied to April 23, UNESCO’s World Book and Copyright Day, an annual observance built around books, publishing and reading. A story about a street-level bookseller fit neatly into that day’s global stream of reading posts and tributes. (unesco.org) Aziz’s shop sits in Rabat’s medina, part of the Moroccan capital’s UNESCO-listed historic fabric. The setting matters because the story being shared is not about a chain bookstore or festival stage, but about a seller working in one of the city’s oldest commercial spaces. (whc.unesco.org) Accounts that made Aziz famous online also stress trust as part of his reputation. News18 said one widely circulated quote attributed to him is: “Those who can’t read won’t steal books. And those who can, aren’t thieves.” (news18.com) The numbers attached to Aziz vary across retellings. News18 said he taught himself Arabic, French, English and Spanish through books, while other profiles describe 4,000 to 5,000 books read over roughly six decades, a range that is repeated often online but hard to verify independently. (news18.com) (magazine.1000libraries.com) Morocco’s reading culture also sits against a longer literacy story. World Bank data show Morocco’s adult literacy rate was 77.9% in 2022, the most recent year listed there, which helps explain why stories about lifelong booksellers can carry extra symbolic weight in local and regional coverage. (data.worldbank.org) What the viral post ultimately resurfaced was a familiar image: Aziz in Rabat, seated among stacks of books, still working the same trade he began as a teenager more than 60 years ago. (news18.com)