Day 5 - Fes

Old Meets New in Fez

by Danielle Harms

In season 1, episode 3 of Gilmore Girls, Rory mentions to her grandfather that she wants to travel to Fez one day. Later in that same episode, Rory’s grandfather brags to his golf friends about Rory’s travel ambitions. Incredulously, his golf buddy responds, “Fez? What the hell is in Fez?!” Rory’s grandfather’s response: “That’s for her to find out.”

Fez is never mentioned again the entire series, but I found out what’s in Fez and can tell that old crotchety country clubber (and all the Gilmore Girls fans) a thing or two.

One thing that is always a struggle for me while traveling is wrapping my head around just how old something is. As someone who lives in a country that is not even 250 years old yet, the concept of age and time is something difficult for me to fathom. There’s 1970s old, there’s 1700 and 1800s old, and then there’s old old.

The original city of Fez was founded in 789. To put that into perspective, only thirty-six years earlier (753), modern Rome was founded. Four years later, in 793, the first recorded Viking raid took place; eleven years later, Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. Roughly 330 years later, in 1117, the University of Oxford was established. Five hundred years later, Marco Polo traveled the Silk Road. In 1347, 558 years after the establishment of Fez, the Black Death plagued Europe. Seven hundred years later, Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas. And nearly 1000 years after Fez was founded, the United States became an independent country. Fez is old old.

The medina is the oldest part of the city. The entry into the medina is as nondescript as the Harry Potterian alley-way that allows wizards entry to Diagon Alley. After only a few twists and turns, however, it feels like you are transported 1200 years back in time into a labyrinth that would make Jim Henson jealous. As I twisted and turned my way through the medina, I was most intrigued by the juxtaposition of the old with the new. In just a few short steps, you can watch things being done just as they have been done for centuries—tanning, weaving, dying, sewing—and then turn around and witness the Wall Street-esque hustle and bustle of daily commerce. Much of what we saw for sale in the medina was handmade, and almost all of us had items thrust at us followed by persuasions in an attempt to get us to buy.

Inside the medina, you can see layers of centuries: new brick on top of old brick; old brick chipped away to install multiple water meters, sometimes up to five in a single section; wires carrying electricity; sewing machines thumping; hundreds of shops buzzing with excitement, chatter, life. The medina is sprinkled with scooters—but also handcarts and donkeys carrying loads.

The medina is also home to the world’s oldest university: Al-Qarawiyyin. This is where we spent our morning. Al-Qarawiyyin was built first as a mosque in 859 and quickly became one of the leading spiritual and education centers. In the 13th century the university began awarding doctorate degrees for the first time in the history of the world. We were surrounded by the old, but our speakers were using microphones, the ancient manuscripts were housed in humidity-controlled and lit displays, the room was air conditioned. Old meets new.

Outside of the medina, the juxtaposition of old and new is stark. Cars aren’t allowed inside the medina (they won’t fit), but hundreds line the streets surrounding the entryways. Looking up at the sky, you see satellite dishes dotting the rooftops of the 1000 year old buildings, awaiting the magic signals that will bring them to life.

Fez itself is a city that was literally constructed by maintaining the old and building completely new right next to it. Shortly after Fez was founded by Idris I in 789, his son, Idris II, crossed the river that bordered Fez and built his own city—right next door in 809. The two cities lived side-by-side until they were conquered by the Almoravids in 1070 and united into one Fez. In the 13th century, the Marinids moved in and built a new Fez right next door to the old Fez and established their palace in this “new” city. Fez saw a third city—Ville Nouvelle—built right alongside the others in 1912 during the French Protectorate.

Traveling from one end of Fez to the other is like peeling back layers of history. In the French part of the city, the streets are wide and sprawling. The street outside of our hotel, for example, is a four-lane road, with room for parking and a ginormous median large enough for hundreds of people to hang out and enjoy the day. The median space is essentially used as a park; that’s how large it is. As you make your way to the medina, the roads become narrower and narrower, until, moving through the Medina, they are sometimes only a shoulder’s width wide.

Our morning was spent in the medina at the world’s oldest university, surrounded by thousands upon thousands of handmade goods; our afternoon spent at a university founded in 1975; our evening spent at the mall, surrounded by the latest technology, gadgets, and clothing. We traversed 1200 years of history in the span of a day; it’s as if we traveled by Floo Network.

So, just what exactly is in Fez?

Fez is full of education. Western learning owes much to Al-Qarawiyyin and the Fassi scholars who introduced astronomy and medicine to the West, who translated Plato and Aristotle. The concept of higher education as we know it today—a space for intellectual exchanges for learning and teaching—originated at Al-Qarawiyyin. The university’s willingness to open its doors for numerous areas of studies, instead of only religious or a few selected scientific areas, was a model soon echoed across Europe in the following centuries.

Fez is full of culture. Many immigrants and refugees from Tunisia, the Middle East, and Jews escaping persecution made Fez their home, turning it into a cosmopolitan of cultures.

Fez is full of living, visible history. The modern and the old old sit side-by-side as you move through the city, and even the medina, which was located along a major trade route, still continues to function as a major marketplace, albeit with some modern updates. There is a sense of permanence here in a world filled with impermanence where the old is destroyed in order to be replaced with the new. Fez has a history of building the new alongside the old. And old buildings aren’t closed off to be preserved; they’re still in use.

Fez is full of beauty. The handiwork produced here is some of the most intricate artwork I have seen. The tiling and the woodwork that appears everywhere throughout the medina were always in the lens of my camera.

Finally, Fez is full of FEZination :)

All images and text on this page are by Danielle Harms unless otherwise noted.