Fez

Fez, or more properly FAZ, the second capital of the sultanate of Morocco, lies inland in $34^\{\backslash circ\}\; 6\text{'}\; N.$ lat. and $4^\{\backslash circ\}\; 58\text{'}\; W.$ long., about 100 miles E. of Rabat on the Atlantic. Standing in a pear-shaped valley surrounded with hills, which are clothed with orchards of orange, pomegranate, apple, and apricot trees, and with olive-gardens, whilst the plain is strewn with numerous ruined buildings, Fez presents a strikingly oriental appearance. The town itself, divided into two parts by a little stream that joins the Sebu $2\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ miles to the NE. of the town, is encircled by crumbling walls, and has narrow, dirty, sunless streets. For more than a thousand years Fez has been one of the sacred cities of Islam, being especially renowned for its university and schools of learning. The university, attached to the mosque of the Cherubim, called also the mosque of Muley Edris (one of the largest and most venerated in North Africa), was founded in 859; at present it is frequented by about 700 pupils, who come from all parts of the Mohammedan world, and are taught by about forty professors. Attached to this mosque is a library, computed to contain 30,000 MSS. Besides the university there are also fourteen colleges. The extensive palace of the sultan is now partly in ruins. Although thus falling into decay, Fez is nevertheless one of the busiest commercial towns of north-west Africa; its merchants import European manufactured wares and the productions of tropical lands, which they despatch by periodical caravans to Timbuktu and the interior of Africa, and export (since 1885 very largely by way of Rabat, instead of as formerly by Tangier) the products they receive thence in return, such as fruits, gums, ivory, gold, together with those of the native industries, chief amongst which are morocco leather, fez caps, pottery, and gold and silver wares. The population is very variously estimated from 150,000 to 50,000; a native computation in 1888 puts it at only 24,000, embracing Arabs, Berbers, Jews, and Negroes. Fez was founded by Muley Edris in 808, and was the capital of the Edrisi dynasty as long as it lasted. Towards the end of the 11th century the town was made the capital of an independent kingdom, founded (1086) by the Almoravid prince, Ynssuf ibn Tashfin, and from that time onwards it ranked, on account both of the veneration it was held in as a sacred city and of its learning, as one of the first cities of Islam. But from the date of its incorporation with Morocco, in 1548, it began to decay in importance. See Delphin, L'Enseignement Supérieur Mussulmain (1889), and De la Martinière, Morocco (Eng. trans. 1889).