Fes el Bali
Fes el Bali is the oldest part of Fez, Morocco. It is one of the three main districts of Fez, along with Fes Jdid and the French-created Ville Nouvelle. Together with Fes Jdid, it forms the medina of Fez, significant for the preservation of its pre-modern urban layout and numerous historic monuments, which have earned it UNESCO World Heritage Site status.
Fes el Bali was founded as the capital of the Idrisid dynasty between 789 and 808 AD. It was originally composed of two separate towns on either side of the Fez River which subsequently merged under the Almoravids. Even when Marrakesh replaced it as the political capital, it continued to thrive in subsequent centuries thanks to its economic and religious importance. In the 13th century, the Marinid dynasty built Fes Jdid as a new administrative capital next to Fes el Bali.
Fes el Bali district still largely retains much of its historic fabric of market streets and narrow winding alleys, along with large sections of its historic city walls. At its heart is the historic al-Qarawiyyin University, centered around a mosque founded in the 9th century. Among the other major historic landmarks are the Chouara Tanneries and various mosques, madrasas, hammams, caravanserais and residences that constitute important examples of traditional Moroccan and Moorish architecture.
UNESCO listed Fes el Bali, along with Fes Jdid, as a World Heritage Site in 1981 under the name Medina of Fez. The World Heritage Site includes Fes el Bali's urban fabric and walls as well as a buffer zone outside of the walls that is intended to preserve the visual integrity of the location.
History
As the capital for his newly acquired empire, Idris ibn Abdallah chose to build a new town on the right bank of the Fez River in AD 789. Many of the first inhabitants were refugees fleeing from an uprising in Cordoba. However, in 809 his son, Idris II, decided to found a capital of his own on the opposite bank of the Fez River. Even though they were only separated by a relatively small river the cities developed separately and became two individual cities until they were unified in the 11th century by the Almoravids. There were many refugees who decided to settle in the new city this time too, however this time they fled from an uprising in Kairouan. The University of Al-Karaouine is recorded by traditional sources as having been founded by one of these refugees, Fatima al-Fihri, in 859. UNESCO and Guinness World Records consider it the oldest continuously operating university in the world. The Al-Andalusiyyin Mosque, on the opposite shore of the river, is likewise traditionally believed to have been founded by her sister in the same year.Under the Almoravids, Fez lost its status as a capital, which was moved to the newly created Marrakesh. During Almohad rule, Fez was a thriving merchant city, even though it was not a capital. It even became the largest city in the world during that time, with approximately 200,000 people living there.
After defeating the Almohads in Morocco, the Marinids moved the capital from Marrakesh back to Fez. This marked the beginning of the greatest period of the history for Fes. When the Marinids moved the capital to Fez in 1276 they started building a new town outside the old city walls. At first it was called Madinat al-Bayda, but it quickly became known as Fes el-Jdid, while the old city became known as Fes el-Bali. The Marinids built the first true madrasas in Morocco, which include many of the city's most notable architectural monuments such as the Bou Inania Madrasa, the Al-Attarin Madrasa, and the Sahrij Madrasa.
The Saadian dynasty, who used Marrakesh again as their capital, did not lavish much attention on Fez, with the exception of the ornate ablutions pavilions added to the Qarawiyyin Mosque's courtyard during their time. They built a number of new forts and bastions around the city which appear to have been aimed at keeping control over the local population. They were mostly located on higher ground overlooking Fes el-Bali, from which they would have been easily able to bombard the city with canons. These include the Kasbah Tamdert, just inside the city walls near Bab Ftouh, and the forts of Borj Nord on the hills to the north, Borj Sud on the hills to the south, and the Borj Sheikh Ahmed to the west, at a point in Fes el-Jdid's walls that was closest to Fes el-Bali. These were built in the late 16th century, mostly by Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur.
It was only when the founder of the Alaouite dynasty, Moulay Rashid, took Fez in 1666 that the city saw a revival again, albeit briefly. He built the Kasbah Cherarda to the northwest of Fes el-Jdid to house a large part of his tribal troops. He also restored or rebuilt what became known as the Kasbah an-Nouar, which became the living quarters of his followers from the Tafilalt region. For this reason, the kasbah was also known as the Kasbah Filala. Moulay Isma'il, his successor, chose nearby Meknès as his capital instead, but he did restore or rebuild some major monuments in Fes el-Bali, such as the Zawiya of Moulay Idris II. While the succession conflicts between Moulay Isma'il's sons were another low point in the city's history, the city's fortunes rose more definitively after 1757 with the reign of Moulay Muhammad Ibn Abdallah and under his successors.
The last major change to Fez's topography before the 20th century was made during the reign of Moulay Hasan I, who finally connected Fes el-Jdid and Fes el-Bali by building a walled corridor between them. Within this new corridor, between the two cities, were built new gardens and summer palaces used by the royals and the capital's high society, such as the Jnan Sbil Gardens and the Dar Batha palace.
In 1912 French colonial rule was instituted over Morocco following the Treaty of Fes. Fez ceased to be the center of power in Morocco as the capital was moved to Rabat, which remained the capital even after independence in 1956. Starting under French resident general Hubert Lyautey, one important policy with long-term consequences was the decision to largely forego redevelopment of existing historic walled cities in Morocco and to intentionally preserve them as sites of historic heritage, still known today as "medinas". Instead, the French administration built new modern cities just outside the old cities, where European settlers largely resided with modern Western-style amenities. The existence today of a Ville Nouvelle alongside a historic medina of Fez was thus a consequence of this early colonial decision-making and had a wider impact on the entire city's development. While new colonial policies preserved historic monuments, it also had other consequences in the long-term by stalling urban development in these heritage areas. Wealthy and bourgeois Moroccans started moving into the more modern Ville Nouvelles during the interwar period. By contrast, the old city of Fez was increasingly settled by poorer rural migrants from the countryside.
Today Fes el-Bali and the larger historic medina is a major tourism destination due to its historical heritage. In recent years efforts have been underway to restore and rehabilitate its historic fabric, ranging from restorations of individual monuments to attempts to rehabilitate the Fez River.
Geography and layout
Urban structure
The city is located along both sides of the Fez River. Although parts of the wall and some of its historic gates have disappeared, Fes el-Bali is still mostly enclosed by a long and winding circuit of defensive walls. These were entered via a number of gates, the most important of which were Bab Mahrouk, Bab Guissa, and Bab Ftouh. At the western end of the city were two historic kasbahs attached to the city: the Kasbah an-Nouar, which still exists today on the northern side of Place Bou Jeloud, and the Kasbah Bou Jeloud, whose walls have since disappeared but which stood directly southwest of the current Bab Bou Jeloud gate. The Kasbah Bou Jeloud was historically the governor's residence and the seat of government control. The Almohad-built Bou Jeloud Mosque still stands there today, one of the only remnants of the original enclosure.As in many medieval Islamic cities, the main souk streets of the city typically run from the city's main gates to the area of the city's main mosque: in this case, the Qarawiyyin and, to a lesser extent, the Zawiya of Moulay Idris II and the Mosque of the Andalusians. These mosques, in turn, are located inside or near the city's main commercial and economic zones. The souk streets themselves constitute the main commercial axes of the city and are home to most of its funduqs. As a result, merchants and foreign visitors rarely had need to wander outside these areas and most of the streets branching off them lead only to local residential lanes, many of them leading to dead-ends. Even today, tourists are generally found only on these main commercial thoroughfares. The city's most important monuments and institutions are also located on or near its main souk streets. Accordingly, the medina has a cohesive and hierarchical urban structure that can be distinguished on two levels. At a local level, individual neighbourhoods and districts are specialized for residential, commercial, and industrial purposes. On a wider level, the city is organized in relation to major points of importance such as gates and main mosques. At this wider level, there are roughly four main centres of urban activity and organization: one around the Qarawiyin Mosque, one around the Mosque of the Andalusians, another around the Bou Inania Madrasa-Mosque, and the historically separate agglomeration of Fes el-Jdid.
Fes el-Bali is also notable for being a large car-free urban area, due to the well-preserved urban fabric of traditional narrow streets and alleys unsuitable for cars. Only one major road penetrates the medina from the south, following the course of the river, and reaching Place R'cif near the center of the city, which allows access for public transportation and emergency vehicles.