Fez, the dean of imperial cities, was founded in 789 AD by Idriss I, a descendant of the prophet. His son, Sultan Idriss II, decided in 809 to establish the seat of the dynasty there. From 818, the sultan welcomes in his city 8 000 families of Andalusian Moslems. Seven years later, this new population was reinforced by the arrival of Jews and Kairouanais (Tunisia). Rich in this diverse religious, cultural and architectural heritage, Fes is fast becoming the religious and cultural center of Morocco. From then on, despite the dynastic wars and the periods when it was not the official capital of the country, the imperial city never stopped growing and embellishing. Nowadays, Fez is undoubtedly the most authentic city in North Africa. The intellectual radiation of its Koranic university, its famous Karaouiyne mosque, its treasures of the Arab-Andalusian art, its medieval medina of Fez el-Bali, and its craftsmen of great talent make it the guardian of the traditions of Islam.
It will be the first Islamic city in the country. His young son, Idriss II, welcomes several hundred Arabs from the central Maghreb and Spain. The Andalusian district - El Adoua - was founded in 818 by Muslim refugees from Spain. Nearly one thousand four hundred Andalusian families arrived from Cordoba and settled there. Seven years later, expelled from Kairouan (now Tunisia), three hundred families of craftsmen and merchants rich, educated, accustomed to urban life, settled west of the river in the neighborhood called Kairouanese The veiled Saharan, Youssef Ben Tachfine, besieged Fez in 1063 and entered the city in 1069.
The writer Abu Obeid el-Bekri described it as follows: "Fez consists of two cities, one next to the other, each surrounded by a wall. They are separated by a very fast river that turns the mills and is crossed by bridges. "Both cities have a large population with a strong Jewish minority. The Almoravid conqueror hastened to tear down the walls, to establish a single enclosure, and to build, apart, a fortress. Founder of Marrakech, the new sovereign did not choose Fez as capital. However, the city experienced an artistic and intellectual boom marked by the construction in 1096 of the COLLEGE OF ALMORAVID PATIENTS, a Medersa equipped with a library, and by the reopening of the road of Saharan gold. The pulpit, from which the preacher, at the end of his sermon, preaches the glory of the dynasty in place, is the symbol of political and religious power. The Fatimid period panel (above) and the Omayyad period file (opposite) are witnesses to the bitter war between the Fatimids and the Omayyads for power. In 985, the Caliph Omayyad signed his victory by endowing the minbar with this new file. Royal procession. Every Friday, the Sultan would go to the Great Mosque, escorted by his black guard in ceremonial dress and preceded by horsemen and infantrymen who would dismiss the enthusiastic crowd to leave the field open for the royal procession. He joined the congregation for Friday prayer.
In the mid-twelfth century, the Almohad Sultan Abd al-Mumem seized the city, "frequented by travelers from all countries. Its inhabitants traded with Spain, the central Maghreb, the Sahara, the East, and even some Christian countries. The Andalusian refugees, welcomed in Fez, introduce new techniques of weaving silk, leather, and metalwork. At the end of the twelfth century, Fez counts one hundred and twenty thousand houses and, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, three thousand five hundred factories. The city prospers.
In the first half of the 13th century, the weakness of the Almohads benefited the Merinid dynasty. Fez again becomes the capital of the empire in 1250, for two centuries. The Merinid sovereigns assert themselves as great builders. They make Fez a prestigious city. It will know its golden age at the beginning of the XIVth century. The Merinids oscillated between two strategies: expanding their power in North Africa and resuming the traditional south-north axis oriented toward Spain. Fez, the hub of these operations, acquired a new administrative city.
Fez el-Jedid. Inside the enclosure, palaces, mosques, fortresses, and barracks are built. The Medersas are the object of particular care. These spaces of prayer serve as training centers for the political cadres intended to ensure the Islamization of the imperial Maghreb, the unity of North Africa from the West. From the beginning of the 15th century, international trade flourished. Merchants left for China, India, East Africa, Persia. Fassi sells grain and leather in Portugal, imports textiles and English industrial products, and exports leather and carpets to Europe. In 1437, the discovery of the tomb of Idriss animates a popular cult for the patron of the city. The Jewish district is then created near the palace of the Jamaican family.
In the second half of the XVth century, Fez is reached by the disorders which reign in the kingdom at the end of the Merinid dynasty. It is marked by the appearance of the new Beni Wattas dynasty in 1471, by the arrival of the Moslems and the Jews drove out of Spain in 1492, and, in an indirect way, by the arrival of the Portuguese in the Atlantic ports. The successes of the Saadian Korpha in the south allowed the victors to settle in Marrakech in 1524 and to capture Fez in 1549. The city lost its status as capital to Marrakech. At the beginning of the 17th century, Fez experiences plague epidemics, famine, misery, and civil wars that depopulate the city.
In 1666, Moulay Rachid restores order, restarts trade, and chooses again Fez as capital.
After a long period of unrest in the first half of 18th century, the city regained tranquility and prestige in the 18th century, thanks to the alliance of the army and the leaders of the ancient University of Qaraouiyne, the seat of a real political force. Competed by the nascent economic activity of Casablanca, Fez maintains its religious, intellectual, and commercial influence.
In 1911, Moulay Hafid, confronted with an insurrection, called on French troops. A few months later, in March 1912, he signed the Convention of Fez, a treaty establishing the French protectorate over Morocco. It was then that the modern, so-called European city developed, following a very regular urban plan. This new city coexists with the old one and Fez, a millennial city, knows how to preserve its deep personality while opening itself to modernism. Fez cedes the status of capital to Rabat later but will remain the spiritual capital of this Morocco deep in history.
