Fès History
Morocco's Islamic history can be said to start
in Fès, and much of the country's later history took place
there. Not all Moroccan sultans established their capital in Fès,
but its spiritual power has always been such that rulers
preferred to have the Fassi (its inhabitants) with them rather
than against them. Its medina is the nearest a modern
visitor can get to a
medieval Arab town, with its labyrinth of little streets and
dark cul-de-sacs. The
richness of its Islamic monuments is incomparable and the fascination
of its age-old markets and craft workshops immediate. It is the
oldest of the Imperial Towns.
Beginnings. Fès lies in a
hollow in the middle of the fertile Sais Plain, just to the
north of the Middle Atlas Mountains. It is on the easy east-west
route by which invaders reached Morocco from Algeria and moved
on across the plains to the Atlantic. Fès and Marrakech, the two most important cities of Old
Morocco, lie in the center of the country, built to guard
ancient trade routes through the Atlas Mountains.It is also
well placed for communication with Tangier and the
Mediterranean.
Fès was founded by Idriss I,
who made it his capital in
789 a.d. His son,
Idriss II, increased the size of the first settlement and
offered home and welcome to thousands of Arab Moslems
from Spain and other North African countries. Refugees fleeing
from Andalusia founded the Andalusian district of the town in
818, while those from
Kairouan (Qayrawin) in Tunisia, in 825, built another district
to which they also gave their name. These new populations, who
evicted the local Berbers, were wealthy merchants,
craftsmen, and intellectuals with
a rich cultural tradition, used to city life. Progressively the
town was endowed with
a university, the Qarawiyin, mosques, and libraries, and became
the religious and cultural center of the country. With all this
richness, it was not
surprising that it was coveted by foreign Islamic dynasties. It
was ruled by Tunisian Fatimid governors until 953, before they
were pushed out for a short
time by the Idrissids, who were back again shortly thereafter,
and then replaced by the Spanish Umayads in 985. In the beginning
of the llth century,
they too disappeared, and Fès, independent again,
became bigger and richer through its varied crafts and trading
contacts, with an important and industrious Jewish community.
However, the Almoravid sultan, Yusef ben Tachfin, put an end to this in 1069 when he besieged
and captured the city. He knocked down the ramparts that divided
Fès
in two and surrounded the town with one single rampart and
exterior fortress, but
preferred to use Marrakech as his capital.
Commerce and culture. In the middle of the 12th century, Fès came under
Almohad rule, new silk weaving, leather, and metalworking techniques
were introduced by refugees from Andalusia, and trade prospered
as never before. Although no longer the political capital, Fès
was widely recognized as an unparalleled religious and cultural center. Under the Merinids,
who made Fès their capital in 1250, it reached its golden
age— splendid new
palaces were constructed, religious schools established, and business
boomed. Merchants traded with China, India, East Africa, and the
Middle East, sold
wheat, leather, and rugs to Europe, and imported cloth and
industrial products from England. The status of Fès as the
country's spiritual and cultural capital was maintained. More
Moslems and Jews expelled
from Spain settled there in 1492. The
ups and downs of history after the decline of the
Merinids led Fès to be occupied by the Saadian dynasty
in 1549. After a brief early period, when the Saadian Abd el-Malik
kept Fès as the
capital city, for most of the Saadian reign Fès lost its capital
status in favor of Marrakech. Episodes of plague, famine, and
civil wars at the beginning of the 17th century enormously
reduced the population
until, in 1666, the new Alaouite sultan, Mulay Rashid,
established order in the country and made Fès his
capital. Business looked up and the
town prospered again, even if his successor, Mulay Ismail,
preferred to settle
in neighboring Meknes. The cairn was broken by a long period of
disorder
after the death of Mulay Ismail in 1727, before peace and
prosperity started
to return when Mohammed III took control in 1757. After the
death of sultan Hassan I in 1894, the troubled period that
marked the reign of his
successors, Mulay Abd el-Aziz and Mulay Abd el-Hafid, forced the
latter, who had deposed his brother, to call in French forces to
quell a violent revolt in Fès.
In March 1912, Mulay Hafid signed the Treaty of Fès, initiating
a French Protectorate over the country. As was his custom, the French
General Lyautey left the old town untouched and had a new, separate
modern town built, slightly higher than the original Fès, but
practically touching it. The visitor should not be surprised
by the names Fès el-Jdid (the New Fès) and Fès el-Bali (the
Old Fès)—both are in the old town. During the struggle for
independence, Fès and the Qarawiyin were the center of resistance, where the intellectual elite of the country,
already active before World War II, drew up their
political programs and plans. Many ministers in Morocco's first
post-independence governments were Fassi
Today, most of the
businessmen and traders have deserted Fès for Casablanca.
Their rich
dwellings in the medina have become occupied by poor
families from the Rif with their numerous children, many often
sharing the house with several other families. The result is a
degradation of the urban tissue in the medina, not
designed for such an influx of population, which is today
estimated at around 200,000.
The Fès medina was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1976. Its
walled medina is one of the most intact and impressive medieval
cities in the Islamic world and, taken as a whole, it's the
architectural highlight of Morocco. Fez also has a
French-planned new city (ville nouvelle), and the contrast
between the old and the new sections makes sightseeing all the
more fascinating. You truly feel as if you're stepping into the
past when you walk through one of the gates to the old medina.
Fès
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