THE MEDINA FEZ ANCIENT BUSTLING INTRICATE
INTRODUCTION
Fez or Fez (in Arabic: Fās; in Moroccan standard Amazigh: ⴼⴰⵙ, Fas) is a city in northern Morocco, located 180 km east of Rabat, between the Rif massif and the Middle Atlas. Part of the imperial cities of Morocco, it was at several times the capital of the country and is today considered its spiritual capital3.
Its foundation dates back to the end of the 8th century, during the reign of Sultan Moulay Idriss I. Its past prestige made it one of the major centers of Islamic civilization linked to Baghdad, Damascus, Cordoba, Cairo, Kairouan, Granada, Palermo, Isfahan and Samarkand, with which it had established economic5 as well as social and cultural.
Various titles have been attributed to the city of Fez, including the Athens of Africa, the Queen of the Maghreb and the Baghdad of the Maghreb.
It extends over three sectors: the ancient city (medina), listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, the royal enclosure and the new districts, established by the French, and which today extend into the surrounding plain .
Administratively, the city is made up of the commune of Fez, which is divided into six districts, and the municipality of Méchouar Fès Jdid, where the royal palace is located. Fez is the 2nd largest city in Morocco with a population of inhabitants according to the 2015 census.
THE ORIGIN OF FEZ
The origin of the toponym Fez is uncertain; several etymologies exist, some from popular legend, others from the work of historians.
Known since at least the 10th century, the classical etymology of Fez, as reported by ancient authors (Abou Bakr ben Mohammed er-Razi and Ibn Abi Zar), explains the name of Fez by the discovery during the digging of the foundations of the city under construction, of a pickaxe, in Arabic (Fä’s), which will give the name of Madinat Fäs10. Another version, reported by El-Modaffari, describes the pickaxe discovered as very old, large (four spans long and one wide) and weighing sixty pounds.
According to another etymology from popular legend, Idris I, founder of Fez, participated in the construction of the city and helped dig the foundations using a gold and silver pickaxe, and this is how the city took the Arabic name of the pickaxe (fez)
Another etymological hypothesis links the origin of the name to a metathesis. Two versions are offered. The first, reported by Ibn Abi Zar in his Rawd al-Qirtas, speaks of an old Christian monk who revealed to Idris I the existence, on the site where Fez will be built, of an ancient city named Saf or Sèf , founded by the Ancients and disappeared one thousand to seventeen hundred years ago; the Saf metathesis in Fez would explain the name of the city. Idris I himself would have decided on the Sef metathesis in Fez. Another version – originally put forward by Larbi Mezzine – former dean of the faculty of letters at the University of Kenitra and master in Berber toponymy – suggests a Berber origin for the name of the city. There being numerous rivers around the city (Wad Fäs, Wad Zhun, Wad Zitun, etc.), the name of Fez would be a metathesis of isaffen (plural of asif, river in Berber)
Here is yet another etymological proposition: in the Amazigh language: ⴼⴰⵙ, Fas) or Afas which means soil or earth which compacts; because the city Afas is built on blue marls of upper Miocene age, which compact during rains alternating with periods of drought
FEZ THE CITY
The city “Medina Fez” was founded by the Alid Sharif Idris I in 789 on the site of the current Andalusian district. In 808, the regent Rashid Ben Morshid founded “al-Aliya” on the other bank of the Fez wadi. Al Aliya developed very quickly and became a real city with a mosque, palace and kissariya (hall, market).
The vital water sources around the city of Fez, which even before its founding were known and praised in song, were undoubtedly an important criterion when choosing the location for the future metropolis.
The following developments are due to two successive waves of emigration: from 817–818, nearly 800 Andalusian families, expelled by the Umayyads from the suburbs of Cordoba, settled in the city founded by Idris I. Shortly after, around 200 families banished from Kairouan in Ifriqiya (fleeing persecution by the Aghlabids) settled on the bank of al-Aliya. The Quaraouiyine university mosque founded by the aristocrat of Kairouan origin Fatima el Fihriya in the 9th century became one of the most important spiritual and cultural centers of the time and participated in the intellectual golden age of Islamic civilization. Its influence is felt even in the schools of Al-Andalus, and beyond towards Europe where it attracts a large number of scholars and mystics. The new arrivals bring with them both technical and artisanal know-how as well as long experience of city life. Under their leadership, Fez became an important cultural center and, after the founding of the Quaraouiyine university mosque, the religious heart of the Maghreb.
Fez is in a particularly advantageous location, at the crossroads of important trade routes, in the heart of a region naturally generous with precious raw materials for crafts (stone, wood, clay). This allows it to develop a rich aesthetic culture stemming from the great tradition of Arab-Andalusian art. Fez lies on the caravan route from the Mediterranean to sub-Saharan Africa via the great trading city of Sijilmassa (which disappeared in the 17th century) in the Tafilalet region, which also increases its economic appeal.
FEZ THROUGH THE AGES: BATTLES, MASSACRES, AND REVIVAL FROM THE 10TH TO 16TH CENTURY
In the 10th and 11th centuries, the city of Fez was taken by the Maghraoua. It will be the scene of battle between the Zenete Maghraoua and Banou Ifren tribes successively allegiance to the caliphate of Cordoba or the Fatimids. It was during this period that a massacre took place against the Jewish community causing 6,000 victims in what was called the Fez Massacre of 1033. Under the reign of the Almoravids and then under that of the Almohads the city is home to a Mozarab Christian community originally of Al-Andalus15. Traditions reported by Ibn Khaldoun and by the Rawd al-Qirtas mention the existence of a fire temple in a place called Chibouba, at the location of Madinat Fas, which would attest to the theoretical presence of followers of the Zoroastrianism
The two parts of the city united in the Middle Ages in 1069, destroying the wall that separated them. Fez lost its role as capital with the founding of Marrakech and the capture of Tlemcen by the Almoravid dynasty in the 11th century but regained it in 1250 thanks to the Marinid dynasty. Under their reign, the new city El Medinet El-Beida (the white city) was founded in 1276; it is equipped with ramparts, palaces and gardens. It quickly became known as Fez Jedid (the new Fez) in opposition to Fez el Bali (the old city). The Jewish population that was around the palace was forced to leave and the Mellah (Jewish quarter) was formed in the former quarter of the Syrian archers’ garrison.
At the beginning of the 14th century (the peak of Hispano-Moorish art), the city experienced strong growth. Thanks to caravans going to the port of Badis in the Rif, Fez is permanently linked to the kingdom of Granada and the entire Mediterranean world. During the Moroccan revolt of 1465, the local Jewish community was once again decimated. In 1471, the city fell into the hands of the Beni Ouattas dynasty which only reigned over the kingdom of Fez in the northern portion of present-day Morocco. After the capture of Granada by the Catholic kings of Spain in 1492, Boabdil, the last sultan of the Nasrid dynasty, took refuge in Fez with all his retinue. He died there around 1533, and was possibly buried in the mausoleum known as Msalla al Soltane.
RESILIENCE AND POWER STRUGGLES: FEZ FROM THE 16TH TO 19TH CENTURY
In 1522, Fez suffered an earthquake which partly destroyed the city. In the years that followed, many buildings were rebuilt, restored or replaced. The Sharifian dynasty of the Saadians took the city in 1554, which it disputed with the regency of Algiers, which seized it once again in 1576 thanks to an army of 10,000 men including 6,000 janissaries under the orders of Ramdan Pasha ; but the Saadian sovereigns chose Marrakech as their capital. The Ottoman Sultan Mourad III, who had helped the Saadian pretender Moulay Abdelmalik Saadi to conquer the Moroccan throne, hoped to incorporate the part of Morocco corresponding to the Kingdom of Fez into the Ottoman Empire, but his stratagem was foiled by Ahmed al-Mansour after the Battle of the Three Kings won against the Portuguese in 1578 (see Moroccan-Ottoman conflicts). Al-Mansour had a khalifa representing the Sultan of Marrakech appointed in Fez, and had bordjs built to protect the city from a possible new Ottoman threat. Following the decline of the Saadian dynasty, Fez fell under the domination of the zaouïa of Dila in the mid-17th century.
It was in Fez that Moulay Rachid was proclaimed sultan of the Cherifian Empire in 1667, thus becoming the first sovereign of the Alaouite dynasty, but his successor Moulay Ismail designated Meknes as the new capital of Morocco from 1672. He moved to Fez garrisoned part of the Guich tribe of Oudayas who had helped him gain power. After his death (1727), the Oudayas mutinied, and they were not expelled from the city until 1833 by Sultan Abd al-Rahman. Moulay Abdallah, the successor of Moulay Ismail, made Fez his permanent place of residence during the Alawite dynastic war and had mosques, schools (madrasas), bridges and streets renovated or built, notably the streets of Fez Jedid which are now paved. Mohammed III, on the other hand, settled in Marrakech between 1757 and 1790. In 1820 Fez revolted against Sultan Moulay Slimane, and this uprising led in concert with the Aït Oumalou and other important tribes of the Middle Atlas led to the social ascension of the powerful merchant bourgeoisie to the detriment of the traditional religious elite. The Makhzen having lost control of the capital of the Shereef Empire, Moulay Slimane, discredited by his policies, was forced to abdicate in 1822 in favor of his nephew Abd al-Rahman.
FEZ IN TRANSITION: FROM CAPITAL CITY TO PROTECTORATE HUB IN THE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURIES
In the 19th century, the two old parts of the city were connected. Until the start of the protectorate in 1912, Fez was the capital of Morocco, a function which was subsequently devolved to Rabat . The explorers Charles de Foucauld and Mordochée Aby Serour stayed in Fez during Ramadan 1883 because they were unable to find protectors to continue their journey south. They stay in the mellah at Mr. Benchimol’s house, an inscription on the house still indicates their passage. Foucauld describes the city’s flourishing trade in European goods from Tangier, “leathers from Tafilalet, wool, wax and goatskins from Aït Ioussi and Beni Ouarain, sometimes even feathers from Sudan”. But for the explorer the commercial potential of the city could be exploited. Three reasons hinder its development according to him; the permanent insecurity of Moroccan roads due to wars and pillaging among the tribes, the high price of transport due to tolls and the cost of escorts, and finally the excessively high credit rate of which he makes a detailed analysis.
In addition to a description of the economic and political situation of the Moroccan capital, the French explorer offers an account of Fassi costumes and fashion at the end of the 19th century. He also praises the “great beauty” and the “wonderful cleanliness” of the inhabitants.
It was in Fez that the Franco-Moroccan treaty establishing the French Protectorate in Morocco was signed on March 30, 1912. The promotion of Saint-Cyr from 1909-1912 bears the name “Promotion of Fez”. Less than three weeks after the official proclamation of the Protectorate, major anti-French riots broke out in the city and left hundreds of victims: rebels, Muslim and Jewish civilians, Europeans. The Protectorate authorities then moved the capital to Rabat, but Fez nevertheless remained an important place of royal residence and a cultural, political and economic center of the first order.
A new town is created according to the plans of Henri Prost, next to the medina which is, for its part, the subject of an avant-garde heritage policy. Many nationalist and anti-colonialist initiatives originate in Fez, which makes the city a major cradle of the Moroccan national movement and in particular the Istiqlal party.
CONCLUSION
To conclude, the Medina of Fez offers a fascinating trip into the past of Morocco, providing visitors with the opportunity to explore one of the best preserved cities of the medieval age in the world. Through its narrow alleyways ancient buildings, bustling souks and a rich historical heritage Fez’s Medina is an authentic witness to the traditional Moroccan living. It’s an UNESCO World Heritage site that is a perfect mixture of old-fashioned construction, craftsmanship as well as spirituality, making it an ideal destination for those interested in the country’s tradition and history. Its Medina of Fez is an enduring and beautiful element of Fez’s culture.
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