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| Significance
of Fez Fez is the oldest of Morocco's imperial
cities and a religious, intellectual and artistic center of great
historic importance. An architectural treasure, Fez is known for
the most remarkable Medina in Morocco, an intact medieval city of
souks and labyrinthine alleys. UNESCO has designated the entirety
of the Fez Medina a World Monument.
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The
Founding of Fez At the end of the 8th century,
persecuted by the Abbassids of Baghdad, Idriss I founded the city
of Fez along the right riverbank of the Oued Fez. In 818, the Andalusian
Quarter was founded by over one thousand Muslim families expelled
from Arab Andalusian Spain by Christian armies, bearing with them
the learning and culture of a civilization at the height of its
glory. Seven years later, they were joined by 300 wealthy merchant
and artisan families ousted from Kairouan in what is now Tunisia.
These cultured and urban families established themselves on the
left bank of the river. By the middle of the 9th century, the famous
Karouine University was already built, and Fez was on its way to
establishing its reputation as "the Athens of Africa."
Three times the capital of the Kingdom during its twelve-hundred-year
history, Fez has seen cyclical periods when the seat of power has
rested in Fez, followed by eras where it has been located elsewhere.
During the colonial period, the French built a Ville Nouvelle or
New City with wide, straight boulevards outside the twisting souks
of the Medina, and installed the administrative functions of urban
Fez there. The result of this city planning strategy was that the
Old Medina was both preserved and bypassed as an administrative
center. The Fez Medina both benefits and suffers from this legacy
today, remaining one of the world's few intact medieval walled cities
- while business and technological advances occur on its outskirts.
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| The
Renaissance of the Fez Medina In the last few
years, increasing attention has been given to the Old Medina of
Fez. A Princess of the royal family has led the restoration of the
fountains in the Medina, and the Moroccan government has created
significant incentives for businesses and private interests to return
to the Fez Medina and create new uses for the remarkable range of
historic houses there. There has been a resurgence of interest in
the architectural and cultural treasures in the Old City of Fez,
evidenced by a number of traditional Medina houses being purchased
and restored by both Moroccan and foreign families. Invisible World's
Fez Medina project is just one part of this widespread effort to
preserve and interpret the remarkable historic legacy of the Medina
of Fez.
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Is It Fez or Fes?
It is both, and neither. The Western name for the city is drawn
from the Arabic, and there is no one correct way to transliterate
Arabic words into Western characters. In the French language,
the city is referred to as "Fes", while Americans tend
to use "Fez". Fassis themselves use "Fes",
most likely due to the long history of colonial French presence
in Morocco. On the Fez Medina site, we use "Fez" primarily
because it is the most commonly used spelling in America, where
our web site and many of our clients are located. But we do permit
ourselves some inconsistencies. Both so that we can be found in
Internet searches, but also out of habit of living in Morocco
in constant flux between three languages, where among our staff
and family a sentence often begins in one language and ends in
another, in a constant meandering not unlike the medina itself.
Our role is to interpret back and forth across the lines of language,
always remembering that the one true name of this remarkable city
is neither "Fes" nor "Fez", but:
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