Your journey brings you to our exciting, fascinating Holy and Imperial City, surrounded by 9 miles of ramparts and situated in a narrow valley, strategically positioned on the old crossroads of North-South caravanserai routes of salt, gold and slaves which once connected the one-time Saharan empires with the Atlantic and the Mediterranean shipping accesses to Europe. The city that was once, after Mecca and Medina, held as one of the holiest cities of the Islamic world; the city whose merchants were travelling to China in the 15th century; the city that, least in importance, gave its name to the red cylindrical, brimless hat used over most of the Moslem world. Moroccans say that Marrakech, Rabat and Casablanca live in the present, but that Fes definitely lives in the past. It should come as no surprise. European chroniclers of the Middle Ages wrote with awe of the city that for several centuries was the most civilized Western outpost of the Semitic world. Its scholars introduced astronomy and medicine to the West via Spain when it was under Moorish rule. Historians of the time said that the writings of Plato and Aristotle first reached Western Europe in Arabic translations - from Fes. Welcome to a different world. With its two hundred mosques and holy shrines, Fes contains more places of worship than any other Moroccan city. At its peak, early in the thirteenth century, Fes el-Bali alone boasted almost eight hundred mosques and mausoleums for its 125,000 inhabitants. By the seventeenth century, however, the Scottish traveler William Lithgow reported (in his wonderfully eccentric Total Discourse of The Rare Adventures & Paine full Peregrinations of...) that the places of worship were by far outstripped by some twelve thousand licensed brothels. As the Victorian traveler Budgett Meakin remarked: "Fes is at once the most religious and the most wicked city of Morocco ... the saints and sinners being for the most part identical".
When you awaken tomorrow, possibly to the call of the moaddin from the beautiful, towering Bou Inania Mosque, the sun rising in all its splendour over ancient ramparts set against a magnificent backdrop of the not-too-distant Middle Atlas Mountains, you'll know a different kind of day has begun; one that doubtless will be filled with the bustling maze of alleyways of the Medina and souqs, offering every possible variation of beautiful pottery, Berber carpet, Fassi brassware, Jewish originated silverware, traditional and modern jewellery, leather and wrought iron, all amidst the pungent aromas of spices, herbs and oil; of the many ancient living monuments and modern museums this city of a Thousand and One Nights has to offer a serious tourist. There is so much to see, so much to do and so easy to get lost; we hope you have the time to really appreciate our city and, doubtless, that of coming with us to another neighboring UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Imperial City of Meknes and the nearby Roman ruins at Volubilis; or perhaps escape up to the refreshing nearby Middle Atlas Mountains.
Is it Fes or Fez? It is both, and neither. The Western name for the city is drawn from the Arabic Fas, and there is no one correct way to transliterate Arabic words into Western characters. ln the French language, the city is referred to as "Fès", while Americans tend to use "Fez". Fassin, or Fassis, as the residents are called, themselves use "Fas", so derived from three Arabic letters:- fa (f) alif (a) and sin (s). The one true name of this remarkable city is neither "Fes" nor "Fez".
One hundred and fifty years after the death of the Prophet Mohammed bin Abdullah Banu Hashim, his great grandson set foot in Morocco in 786 A.D. The man was Idriss Ibn Abdallah, destined to become Moulay Idriss, patron saint of Morocco and founder of Fes. Implicated in a failed rebellion against the Arabian Abbasids, he had fled Baghdad and come with his bedraggled army to this 'Land of the Setting Sun', beyond which one could travel no further by land. Here, in Fes, on the east bank of the seasonal river Oued Fes, after a set-to with the indigenous Berber tribesmen, he started to build what was to become the first Islamic settlement in Morocco.
A new part of the town is established in 809 A.D on the west bank of the river by the Sultan Idriss II. When he was about to begin construction he lifted his hands to the heavens and prayed for the city and its inhabitants with the following words: "Almighty God, make of it a house of knowledge and of legal science, so that in it Your Book may always be read and Your Laws always observed. Let its inhabitants hold fast to the Book [the Holy Qur'an] and the Sunna [the practice of the Prophet Mohammed], as long as you shall preserve it."
One hundred and fifty years after the death of the Prophet Mohammed bin Abdullah Banu Hashim, his great grandson set foot in Morocco in 786 A.D. The man was Idriss Ibn Abdallah, destined to become Moulay Idriss, patron saint of Morocco and founder of Fes. Implicated in a failed rebellion against the Arabian Abbasids, he had fled Baghdad and come with his bedraggled army to this 'Land of the Setting Sun', beyond which one could travel no further by land. Here, in Fes, on the east bank of the seasonal river Oued Fes, after a set-to with the indigenous Berber tribesmen, he started to build what was to become the first Islamic settlement in Morocco.
A new part of the town is established in 809 A.D on the west bank of the river by the Sultan Idriss II. When he was about to begin construction he lifted his hands to the heavens and prayed for the city and its inhabitants with the following words: "Almighty God, make of it a house of knowledge and of legal science, so that in it Your Book may always be read and Your Laws always observed. Let its inhabitants hold fast to the Book [the Holy Qur'an] and the Sunna [the practice of the Prophet Mohammed], as long as you shall preserve it."
The magnificent fortifications and ramparts of Fes with its several Babs (gateways) date to the 11th century period of Berber Almoravid rule. During this reign the two separate towns of the Quarawiyyini and of the Andalusi, which faced each other across the Oued Fes, were united by a single fortification. This was subsequently completed by the Merinid dynasty under the Sultan Abu Yusuf Ya’qub on his establishing his new administrative centre, Fes el-Jdid, in 1276.
Just beyond the Bab Boujloud (Gate of the Owner of the Skins) you'll find the largest and possibly the most beautiful Medina in all of the Maghreb, the Talâat Sghira, with its mosque and fountain of the same name, now a United Nations World Heritage Site. In the Medina, at the end of the Talâat Kbira, is a labyrinth of sloping, winding alleyways crammed full of stalls and workshops; this is the famed Kissaria - the commercial centre ¬renowned for its eye-catching market of locally-produced embroidery, silks and brocade work, slippers and cotton fabrics. The shops and stalls operate under a copy of the Turkish system, whereby craftsmen are group within syndicates and pool their profits into a central fund, they do say. For perfumes and beauty products, the Souq al-Henna is the place to visit. Situated at the bottom of Rue Cherabliyyin, you turn right before entering Souq el¬ Atterine, which is the centre of the Souqs in Fes el-Bali. Spread out on a pretty tree-lined square before the Maristan, built in 1268 and what was once the largest insane asylum in the Merinid Sultanate, a plaque on its wall states that it probably served "as a model for the first psychiatry hospital in the Western world, opened in Valencia, Spain, in 1410." Until the psychiatry hospital closed half a century ago, musicians regularly came to play to calm the patients. The Sebbaghine, also known as the Street of Dyers and is to be found near the Oued Fes, lined with workshops and stalls where bales and rolls of wool are dyed in large copper basins. The Square and Fondouk Nejjarine Quarter of a "fondouk" (caravanserai or inn) dating from 1711, a beautiful fountain in zellij and sculpted wood adorning the central plaza and a carpenter's and woodworker's mall hidden away behind a wooden door, this recently renovated area, wherein certain walls were underpinned, floors were rebuilt, and underground sewers restored using traditional techniques, is now a museum - and a photographer's delight. This newly-opened Nejjarine Museum of Wood and Carpentry (open daily from 10:00 to 17:00) - apart from its interesting collection of fine antiques, including finely carved coffee tables, chests and cupboards, all with the classic motifs of double palms and crowns, intermixed with Persian elements such as carnations and tulips, liturgical thrones and everyday objects - shows the sophistication of a Fassi mansion, with its inner court yard, its décor of intricate stucco, finely carved panels of cedar and the mosaics and layouts of tiles. The museum also offers one of the Medina's few points of rest, a lovely roof top cafe with a view of the labyrinth around you. Near the Al-Quarawiyyin complex is the 1000-year old Tannery Quarter, the 'Chouara'; you can smell it for many minutes before you arrive. The tannery itself is a pavilion of ceramic kettles sunk into the ground, filled with acids, pickling salts, and vivid dyes of brown from henna, black from coal, yellow from poppy and safflower, green from mint, red from saffron, and blue from indigo. Boys and men labour here, stamping the hides into the freezing dyes - desperate, purgatorial work little changed since biblical times. All hides are treated with guano - pigeon um droppings. From the terraces of the surrounding homes you'll have a bird's eye view of multitudes of sheep and goat hides drying in the sun. The finest hides stay in Fes where they are skillfully fashioned into belghas (a type of slipper), cushions, belts and other leatherwork of quality. Take some mint leaves with you, or buy some from the merchants strategically placed outside; you'll be glad you did! The Mellah: a Mellah, in Morocco, coming from the Arabic word melh, or salt, literally means the place where salt is prepared or sold. After a riot here centuries ago, the Sultan obliged most residents to leave and gradually the place became inhabited only by Jewish refugees, enticed by tax incentives. A Mellah is thus now the Jewish section of a town, once usually with a gate that would be closed by the gatekeeper at sunset and during the Sabbath. One positive aspect of a Mellah is that if becomes a walled enclave preserving a Jewish way of life, especially on the Sabbath. The negative aspect is that in bad times, these same Mellah boundaries were used as a physical restriction, turning it into a kind of ghetto where Jews were only allowed to appear in public in black and were forbidden to have any footwear. The women were shut-ins; the men had menial, degrading jobs such as draining and salting the heads of rebels and criminals before they were spiked and displayed from the ramparts. The Al-Quarawiyyin Mosque is a great Mosque of historical importance whose construction started during the month of Ramadan in 245 (Hegira). Founded by a young woman of Tunisian birth, Fatima Bint Cheikh Faqih Abi Abdellah Mohammed Bin Fihriya Al Qarawani, shortened, fortunately, to Fatima Oum Al Banin, whose family had fled persecution in Tunisia, she had inherited a large fortune and found immense satisfaction in offering to Allah a magnificent building in His honour. She chose the site for herself, paying 60 ounces of gold just for the land and then paid for the entire construction, fasting throughout the entire period. The peculiarity of this Mosque lies not only in the fact that this virtuous young lady had it built entirely from her own funds, that it is ancient and has lasted intact throughout the ages, but also in its historical and political, cultural, scientific and religious roles. It was the seed that grew to become the Al-Quarawiyyin University and, subsequently, within and around the Mosque were founded many religious schools (Medersas). Entrance to non-believers is forbidden, but you may catch a good look in from the outside. The Al-Quarawiyyin University. This remarkable centre of learning was not limited to just instruction of the Islamic religion, but encompassed many sciences, extending to linguistics, literature, rhetoric, history, semiotics, astronomy, philosophy, medicine, arithmetic, geometry and algebra. It even founded a medical school, something previously unheard of. Thus it attracted scholars and researchers from all over the Islamic world, including scientists and religious personages from Europe who came to visit, the most prominent of whom was perhaps Pope Sylvester Il who studied here for a period before becoming Pope. The mother of all of Fes's Medersas is the Bou Inania, built between 1350 and 1357 by Sultan Abu Inan, the first ruler of the Merinid Dynasty. Incorporating the direct importation of 14th century Andalusian building techniques, the school differs from other Medersas in that it had an imposing minaret and served both as a mosque and a school. Its doorways, columns, court yard and hall are all extravagantly decorated with exquisitely carved dark cedar (now fading), floral and geometrical patterns; delicate lace-like stucco, toughened with egg white; marble floors; bronze and onyx ornamentation and ceramic-tiled lower walls covered in Arabic script with academic messages - one reading, "This is a place of learning,". The whole inside is a stunning combination of decorative artwork. The Medersa El Atterine, next door to the Al¬ Quarawiyyin Mosque, was built in 1350 by the Merinid Sultan Abu Said on the edge of the spice souq - hence, its name, Atterine (from the Arabic Âitora (spices or spice merchants). In fame, it comes second to Bou Inania. Some claim it is more beautiful and delicate and more perfect than that particular Medersa. The Medersa Sihrij is the third finest of the Fes Medersas and is one of two Medersas built near the Mosque of al-Andalusiyyin by the heir to the throne of Ali Ben Uthman Abu al Hassan (R.1331-1349) Erected in the late 14th century, it was later to be named after its beautiful rectangular ablutions pool (from the Arabic saharaj - pool) that occupies the centre of its patio. The 17th century Medersa Shiratin (Sharratin, Cherratin) is the largest in Fes, the only one that is not of Merinid construction. It was commissioned by the Alaouite Sultan Rashid ben Muhammad al-Cherif in 1670, founder of the present Moroccan dynasty. Noted for its double bronze-faced doors and fine door knockers, it is much less ornate than the Medersas built by the Merinides. However, as a school it is much more functional and may have housed up to 150 students, whose rooms are unusual for their disposition around small interior court yards rather than distributed around the main court yard, as in the majority of Medersas in the Maghreb. The Medersa es-Seffarine, or the Medersa of the Metalworkers, constructed in 1271, is the oldest Medersa to have been built in Fes. It was founded by the Merinid Sultan Ya’qub Ben Abd al-Haqq Abu Yusuf (1258-1286). Unlike the other schools, it is built like a traditional Fassi (Fes) home and gets its name from the Seffarine Square (from the Arabic afar - brass) where craftsmen hammer metal into huge urns, trays, plates and pots. It is small in scale, with accommodations for its students arranged on the ground floor around a lavishly decorated court yard of glazed tile, intricately-carved stucco and carved, painted cedar wood. And there’s so much more in this Imperial City, reminiscent of Jerusalem at is was more than 1000 years ago.