Fez

The Athens of Africa or Mecca of the West as some historians prefer to call it, Fez has a diversified rich history that dates back to the arrival of Idriss I in the late eight century, when he fled the persecution of Abbassides to find a safe refuge among the Amazigh tribes of Awraba who supported him and appointed him leader given his genealogy that can be traced back to the Prophet.

The first part of the city was built on the right bank of the Wadi-Fez river. When a flux of families moved from the city of Kairawn in present day Tunisia, they came to settle in the first neighborhood in Fez, which is known amongst the historians as “Adwat El Karawiyins” (the neighborhood of El karawiyins).

Also, after the decline of “Andalusia” in Spain, Andalusian families emigrated from across the Mediterranean to settle in Fez to form like the Tunisian families, their own neighborhood: “Adwat Al Andalussiyin” (Andalusian neighborhood).

the population of Fez also included Jews who settled in large neighborhoods called “Mellahs.”

After the assassination of “Idriss I,” his elder son -“Idriss II”- enlarged Fez by building a new city on the left bank of the Wadi-Fez.

Fez remained divided into two parts: “the western and the northern Fez” until it was occupied by “Mourabiteen,” the Almoravids, who under the rule of Youssef Ibn Tchafin unified the city to be their military headquarters to wage a war against the tribes that governed the northern Morocco.

Following the collapse of the Andalusian state in Spain, Fez became under the control of the princes of Znata (the local rulers of Morocco). After a few decades, its rule moved from the Almoravids, to the Almouhads, the ‘Unifiers’, in 1143.

In the fourteenth century, its sovereignty came under the fist of the “Merinids”, who made it their new capital instead of Marrakesh, as the state of Almouhads crumbled.

In 1554, its domination shifted to the “Saadiyin” until 1649, when it became under the “Alawiyin” dynasty, the lineage of king Mohammed VI.

The Alawiyin, in their turn, kept Fez as the capital until 1912, (the year when Morocco was occupied officially by French army.) After the independence of Morocco in 1956, Moroccan authorities made Rabat as the capital of their state

Special custody of the king of Morocco to Fez

In 2008, Fez was to celebrate its 1200th anniversary. Because of this occasion, the king of Morocco gave orders- during a long visit to this Imperial city- to the government and to the local rulers to take necessary procedures to restore the entirety of the old Medina, advising them to keep to its medieval and original character. The new Medina (city), also, is concerned with this rehabilitation. Consequently, at the present time, Fez has become like a bride on her wedding day. “It has become the most beautiful city in Morocco,” Cecilia, the former wife of Nicolas Sarkozy, former French  president, declared during her last visit with her partner Richard Attias, who is also native of Fez. If you visit the old Medina, you will feel, undoubtedly, as though you were living in the medieval centuries. It will make you immerse in an orientalist feeling. And if you wander in the new city, you will, certainly, believe that you are hiking in a garden. As a result, Fez of today, combines the genuineness of the medieval period and the modernity of the 21st century.