Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

You may wish to see an introductory page to this section or a page on the walls and gates of Fez or a page on Fez el-Bali (Old Fez) first.

Entrance to the Royal Palace

On the height of Old Fez, in a plain capable of great cultivation, Jacob Ben-Abdallah, of the race of Beni-Merins, built, in the thirteenth century New Fez, contiguous to the Old, and, by its situation keeping the latter in awe. The high town, which is well and healthily situated, contains some old palaces, in which the sons of the Emperor live. The Sovereign himself resides here when he pleases; but he prefers a separate palace, built by his father, Muley Abdallah, half a league from the city.
Louis de Chénier - The Present State of the Empire of Morocco - 1788
Under the Marinids (13th to 15th centuries), a new town (Fez Jedid) was founded (in 1276) to the west of the ancient one (Fez El-Bali). It contains the royal palace, the army headquarters, fortifications and residential areas. At that time, the two entities of the Medina of Fez evolve in symbiosis forming one of the largest Islamic metropolis's representing a great variety of architectural forms and urban landscapes.
UNESCO synthesis of the universal value of Fez which in 1981 was included in the World Heritage List.

Minaret of the Great Mosque

This citie of new Fez Jacob the Sonne of Abdultach (Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd al-Haqq, Marinid Sultan in 1259-1286) caused to bee built (..) which being erected, he called The white citie, but it was afterward named by the inhabitants new Fez. (..) Not farre from his pallace he built a most stately and sumptuous temple.
Leo Africanus - The history and description of Africa: and of the notable things therein contained - 1526 - 1600 translation by John Pory
The town has two governors, of which one, under the title of "Bascha," governs Old Fez; and the other, called "Kaid," New Fez. From this it appeared, in the first place, that the Government of the Sultan treats the two towns as quite distinct; and, secondly, that New Fez is looked upon as a fortress, whilst Old Fez is considered the more important, inasmuch as it is governed by a Bascha.
Gerhard Rohlfs - Adventures in Morocco (in 1861) - 1874
Fez el-Jedid being regarded as a separate town from Fez el-Bali, it was provided by its founder with a Great Mosque, i.e. a mosque where all the inhabitants of the town gathered for the Friday noon prayer, hence it is also known as the Friday Mosque. Its minaret follows the design of those at Seville, Rabat and Marrakech and is decorated with a sebka pattern, i.e. a grid of diamond shapes.

(left) Entrance to the Great Mosque; (centre) minaret of Jami el-Hamra housing a stork's nest, similar to what occurs on many tall buildings of Fez, e.g. a tower of Kasbah Cherarda; (right) minaret of Jami el-Beida

A law forbids non-Muslims to access mosques, so the minarets are their only architectural feature which can be seen from the outside as they do not have a proper façade, because entrances are flanked by shops or small houses which usually belonged to the mosque.
The image used as background for this page shows a detail of the tile decoration of the minaret of Jami el-Hamra.

Walls of Fez el-Jedid surrounding the Moulay Abdallah neighbourhood

At length within the space of an hundred and forty yeeres this new citie was environed with most impregnable walles, and adorned with temples, colleges, palaces, and other such buildings as serve to beautifie a citie, so that I thinke there was more bestowed in garnishing of the citie, then in building of the walles. (..) To conclude, here are but few gentlemen in this citie, except such as attend upon the court, for the residue are base and mechanicall people: but such as carie any shew of honestie, doe so hate and disdaine the kings courtiers and gentlemen, that they will by no meanes vouchsafe to marie their daughters unto them. Leo Africanus

Moulay Abdallah mosque

In the XVIIIth century a new grand mosque was built by Sultan Moulay Abdallah; he spent his life fighting against his brothers; he was deposed six times. According to Chénier his father addicted to sensuality, had a prodigious number of wives, and, so numerous was his posterity, that, it is doubted whether he himself knew all his children. If the common opinion may be credited, he had more than eight hundred sons. (..) Muley Abdallah, though, perhaps, as capricious as, and not less cruel than, his father, Muley Ishmael, was generous even to excess. Six times deposed, and six times remounting the throne, in the commencement of his reign he was the sport of fortune, the victim of his people's sickleness, and of the avarice of his soldiers.

Small Mechouar

Mechouar means a large courtyard attached to a Royal Palace where the Sultan administered justice or held public audiences. When not used by the Sultan it was a public place where people gathered for leisure; until the 1970s they were amused as described by Leo Africanus: In this citie likewise there is a great swarme of base people, such as the Italians commonly call Ciurmatori: these sing foolish songs and rimes in all the streets of the citie, and broching meere trifles with the musicke of drums, harpes, and citterns, they sell unto the rude people certaine scroules or briefe charmes instead of preservatives. Unto these you may adde another kinde of reffuse people of one family and disposition with the former, who carrie dauncing apes up and downe, and have their neckes and armes all entwined with crawling snakes. These also professe Geomancie, and persuade women that they can foretell them their fortune.

(left) Old Mechouar; (right) Bab Makina inside Old Mechouar

In 1885 Sultan Moulay el-Hassan commissioned the construction of Makina, a weapon manufacturing factory attached to his palace at Fez, as part of an effort to modernize his army. Because he was aware of the French mires over Morocco he relied on assistance from Italy. This explains why the portal of the factory has a very Italian aspect.

Bab al-Amer leading to the Mellah (Jewish Quarter); see the nearby Jewish cemetery in the introductory page

The new town is inhabited by some Moorish families, but by still more Jews, who trade with old Fez, notwithstanding the contempt with which they are treated by the inhabitants: this contempt they endeavour to find a recompence for their gains. Chénier
Following the road into New Fez one comes at once to the unenclosed part of the town, called the Melha, or Jewish quarter. The Jews are only permitted to dwell in New Fez, and then in an unenclosed part near the Sultan's Palace, away from the faithful. And they are glad to be here: for they have long learned that however much they are exposed to the vexations and exactions of the Sultan's Government, it is nevertheless better to live under the protection of the most despotic of rulers, than to be at the mercy of an ignorant and fanatical populace. Rohlfs

Interior of a synagogue in the Mellah

The greatest part of goldsmiths dwelling in new Fez are Jewes, who carrie their vessels of gold and silver unto a certaine place of old Fez, neere unto the grocers shops, and there sell them. (..) The Jewes indeed first dwelt in old Fez, but upon the death of a certaine king they were all robbed by the Moores: whereupon king Adusadid caused them to remoove into new Fez, and by that meanes doubled their yeerely tribute. They therefore even till this day doe occupie a long street in the said new citie, wherin they have their shops and synagogues, and their number is marvellously encreased ever since they were driven out of Spaine. Leo Africanus

In the Mellah

In the Jewish quarter a like briskness in trade and manufacture is to be found as in the Kessaria (market) and streets of Old Fez. The working of gold and silver is principally in the hands of the Jews. The needles, used to fasten the hair or clothes of the women, finger-rings, bracelets, and ankle-rings (the women of Morocco wear heavy copper or silver rings just above the ankle), are also almost exclusively made by them. Rohlfs
In 1956, after the end of the French Protectorate over Morocco, the Jews began to leave Fez and today only a handful of them live in the city.

Go to Fez: Walls and Gates or to Fez el-Bali.

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