Fes, Morocco
Encyclopedia : F : FE : FES : Fes, Morocco
- This article is about the city Fes in Morocco. For other meanings please see Fez.
Fes or Fez (Arabic فـاس [Fās], French Fès) (located at ) is the third largest city in Morocco, after Casablanca and Rabat, with a population of 946,815 (2004 census). It is the capital of the Fès-Boulemane Region.
It is one of the four so-called "imperial cities" (the others are Marrakesh, Meknes and Rabat). Fes is separated into three parts, Fes-al-Bali (the old, walled city), Fes-Djedid (new Fes, home of the Mellah), and the Ville Nouvelle (the French-created, newest section of Fes). The Medina of Fes-al-Bali, the larger of the two medinas of Fes, is believed to be the largest contiguous carfree urban area in the world.
History
The city was founded by Idris I in 789. In 810 the Kairouyine mosque, one of the oldest and largest in Africa, was built by Idris II, and the associated university was founded in 859. The city was populated by Muslims from elsewhere in North Africa, the Middle East, Moriscos, as well as many Jews, who had their own quarter, or Mellah, in the city.
It is believed that Fes was the largest city in the world from 1170 to 1180. [link] It was the center of the Kingdom of Fez.
Fes became the scientific and religious center, where both Muslims and Christians from Europe came to study. Many Muslim refugees came to Fes after the reconquest of Spain in 1492.
Fez became part of the Moroccan Empire in 1548.
Fes became the center of the Alaouite Dynasty in 1649, and it was a major trading post of the Barbary Coast of North Africa. Until the 19th century it was the only source of Fez hats (also known as the tarboosh), before they began to be manufactured in France and Turkey; originally, the dye for the hats came from a berry that was grown outside the city, known as the Turkish kizziljiek or Greek akenia (Cornus mascula). Fes was also the end of a north-south gold trading route from Timbuktu.
Fes was the capital of Morocco at various times in the past, the last such period ending in 1912, when most of Morocco came under French control and Rabat was chosen to be the capital of the new colony, a distinction that city retained when Morocco achieved independence in 1956. While many of the original inhabitants of Fes have since emigrated, the Jewish quarter has been emptied of its Jewish population, and the economy has stagnated, Fes is perhaps the most interesting and picturesque of the Imperial Cities of Morocco. Despite the traditional character of most of the city, there is also a modern section, the Ville Nouvelle, or "New City", which is a bustling commercial center. The popularity of the city has increased since the King of Morocco took a Fassi computer engineer, Salma Bennani, as his wife.
See also
External links
- [The top Moroccan blog in English]
- [A few photos of Fez]
- [The Medina of Fes-al-Bali]
- [The Jewish Community of Fez]
- [Entry in Lexicorient]
- [Fez at the Magic Morocco]
- [Fes Festival Of World Sacred Music]
- [Photo tour of Fes-al-Bali]
- * Mapping from [Multimap] or [GlobalGuide]
- * Aerial image from [TerraServer]
- * Satellite image from [WikiMapia] or [Google Maps]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.