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Fes
a jewel of Spanish-Arabic civilization...
…and a city where life moves to centuries-old traditions
Fes, the oldest of the imperial cities, is the symbolic heart of Morocco. It seems that this Holy City is still lingering back in the Middle Ages. Enclosed within its walls, Fes appears timeless, an interlocking structure of mosques, medersas, palaces, fondouks and souks in which traditional trades still thrive. As you arrive in the city and begin to walk around your senses are torn between beautiful sights, intricate sounds and colourful smells. Its narrow winding alleys and covered bazaars are crammed with every conceivable sort of workshop, restaurant, market, extensive dye pits and tanneries. Fes does not reveal its secrets easily. Bustling with artisans and merchants, its captivating sounds, fragrances and colours mesmerize the visitor with a constant swirl of activity.
Founded shortly after the Arabs swept across North Africa and Spain, it became the country’s religious and cultural centre, shaped by each of the great dynasties and by its populations’ roots in Muslim Spain and the Arab east.
Berbers have settled here, but Fes retains a distinctly Arab identity.
Fes is the cradle of the Moroccan monarchy. Its first representative was Moulay Idriss I, a political refugee and a great-grandson of the Prophet’s daughter Fatima. After an unsuccessful uprising against the caliphate in Bagdad, he fled in 786 from his home in Medina to Volubilis, where the local Berber tribes embraced Islam and appointed him imam in 788.
Idriss I accelerated the spread of Islam and the Arab influence in the Maghreb. He assembled his followers by the Oued Fes in a camp. In 789, a pick-axe of silver and gold - "fas" in Arabic - was presented to Idriss I to use in tracing the outlines of the city. Hence the name of the city, which lies at the far eastern end of the plain of Saïss, bordered to the south by the hills outlying the Atlas Mountains. He died before the plans were implemented, however, so credit for the founding of Fes is often awarded to his son, Idriss II, who carried out the will of his father. Later, Idriss II transformed the Berber camp into an Arabian capital. Families fleeing Al-Andalus settled the east bank of the Oued Fes. They were later joined by Arab families from Kairouan in modern-day Tunisia, who took over the west bank. With the building of the Kairouine Mosque in 859, a tradition of Coranic scholarship began and is still greatly respected in the Islamic world. Over the next centuries, the fortune of Fes rose and fell with the dynasties. Fes continued to be a crucial crossroads, wielding intellectual rather than political influence. With the Kairouine Mosque and University already well established, it was the centre of learning and culture in an empire stretching from Spain to Senegal. It recovered its political status with the arrival of the Merenid dynasty around 1250. During the 19th century, as central power crumbled and European interference increased, the distinction between Marrakesh and Fes diminished with both effectively serving as capitals of a fragmented country. The treaty introducing the French and Spanish protectorates over Morocco was signed in Fes, on March 1912. When the French transferred their centre of power to Rabat and Casablanca, Fes remained the spiritual and moral capital.
If you fancy a round of golf…
The setting: countryside looking out towards the summits of the High Atlas. The raw materials: a magnificent olive grove. The architect: Cabell B. Robinson. He really put his heart into this project: accentuating the natural contours of the terrain to produce the undulating fairways and the treacherously sloping greens ... playing with the great lake, drawing it out, dividing it into three for the greater delight of the golfers, providing the greens with a whole battery of defenses; trees, water, bunkers, giant bunkers and monumental bunkers, the largest covering 1,200 square meters! And there is more to come: the nine hole Royal Golf Course at Fez will very soon be twice the size!
The paradox
As one of Morocco’s most traditional cities, Fes is generally regarded with a certain amount of awe, perhaps tinged with jealousy, by the rest of the country. Indeed, a disproportionate share of Morocco’s intellectual and economic elite hail from here and it’s a widely held belief that anyone born in Fes medina is more religious, cultured, artistic and refined. When the news came out that Mohamed VI’s new bride was from Fes, the locals were not in the least surprised.
But Fes is a city in trouble. Its million or so inhabitants are straining it to the utmost, and the old city is slowly falling apart. The UNESCO designation of the Fes medina as a World Heritage site has done much to stop the deterioration. The Moroccan government has created incentives for businesses and private interests to return to the medina and to preserve one of the largest living medieval cities in the world.