Fes

Decorative Coin Slot on the Mosque Door.  Zaqat, or Alms is one of the 5 pillars of Islam

To try to describe Fes, founded in AD 789 by Idriss I,  with words is to fail from the start.  To add pictures will add color, but the texture or feel of the city can only really be described by using other senses.  The smell of the souq where fish and meat and vegetables are displayed without the advantage of refrigeration.  The sound of 1,000 mosques all sounding their call to prayer at exactly the same time.  The feel of the crush of people, all pushing to squeeze through the same narrow corridor between the stalls of the market.  The site of more colors of thread than you can name, stacked orderly in a shop, with 5 others just the same beside it.   Fes has long been the center of Moroccan life.  Until the French occupation, it was the largest city in the country, home to some of the oldest universities in the world, home to the largest car free area of any city in the world, home to a history where “New Fes” was founded over 700 years ago.  The artisans of Fes have been carving wood, throwing potter, dying leather and sewing slippers longer than imaginable.  The craftsmanship has passed from generation to generation in a seamless line weaving threads of history with pride of craftsmanship resulting an atmosphere so far removed from the modern city and modern shopping center not even 10 minutes away as to be dizzying.

Arriving in Fes after a long drive through the hills from Chefchaouen, after informative stops in Volubulis and Moulay Idriss, we were surprised to see the sprawl that surrounds the city. After skirting the walls of the city, looking for our “Bab” door in Arabic, but commonly used to name the large gates which allow access into and out of Moroccan ‘Medinas’, we found our parking lot and were met by the desk manager of the hotel who guided us into a parking spot, before we could blink an older gentleman had disappeared down an alley no bigger than a hallway with our luggage.  We followed our new guide down a series of narrow passageways where we entered a large doorway into our riad for the next two nights.

Anne is our Official Hotel Photographer

The Courtyard

As is typical, or riad was organized around a central courtyard, with each room overlooking the well-kept garden and fountain.  On the roof there was a sunning area with umbrellas, sun chairs, and even a roof top bar.  Prior to being shown to our rooms we were served Moroccan tea with mint and cookies.  We decided to stay in and enjoy to hotel for the evening, so we took our dinner at the hotel, and were served a modern take on Moroccan cuisine,  Anne didn’t make it past the first course, but because the riad was so small and private we were able to let Anne sleep in the room while we finished dinner.  We woke the next morning in order to see the main historical sights of Fes which conveniently enough are located within the souq.  We began by leaving the hotel and diving into the heart of the souq, where I am certain few tourists shop.

The smell of fish, warm, fresh slaughtered meat, rotting vegetables, and smoke was stifling, and we hurried through it as fast as possible.  We arrived at our first destination the Nejjarine Museum of Wooden Arts & Crafts, or the wood-working museum.

Beautifully Restored Woodwork in the Wood Museum

  Fes and Morocco in general have a long history of intricate wood working, everything from hand carved keys and locks, olive presses, ornamental ceilings, musical instruments to bowls, combs, and everything in between.  The museum is located in a restored riad, which also served as a jail.  It presents a rich history of the tradition of working with wood in the region.   Our path to the next historical sight fortuitously led us through the slipper and thread market.  Our room in the riad had a large glass jar of spools of thread of various colors which Anne immediately began playing with when we arrived, I told her that the next day we would pass through the tailor’s souq, where she would find stores specializing in thread of every shade of pink imaginable.  As we passed through the shops, we stopped at one with a friendly looking owner and his son.  He hoisted Anne over the counter, pulled over the ladder and allowed her to pick spools of thread of every shade of pink he had.

Picking Thread

  It was a really awesome experience.  We then passed through a street specializing in leather slippers, I’m not sure how Mary and Anne decided on exactly the perfect pair, (or should I say, the perfect six pairs) but after a couple rounds of ‘Moussouma’ or bargaining, we had them in hand.   

Slippers

 A short walk through the labyrinth arrived us at the Kairaouine Mosque and  Medersa el Attarine, Founded in 859 by Tunisian refugees it can hold up to 20,000 worshipers.  The Mosque which is so completely surrounded with the marked as to afford no perspective on its size or shape, is still in use, and the beauty inside is glimpsed only in passing through the open door by non-Muslims such as ourselves.  The University, established in 1325 an is a beautifu example of the traditional patters of zellij (tile work) stuccowork and cedar.

Intricate Stucco and Tile Work

More Beautiful Decoration

I can't read it, can you?

  After following our ears to the souq al hadidia or metal souq, where the cacophony of artisans hammering copper pots and sinks, silversmiths decorating trays for tea, and Berber musicians with spinning tassels and hand cymbals playing their traditional tune, we found the perfect ‘genie in a lamp’ for Anne and turned back for the calm and quiet of the riad.

Not a fan of the donkey

Mary had an appointment in the Hammam, which in Morocco can be interpreted two ways.  The Hammam, as in a room in your house is where the toilet is, to go out to the Hammam, or to ‘take’ a Hammam is to go to a public bath to scrub or be scrubbed, massaged, steamed and otherwise abused at the hands of a local woman or man who specializes in such things.  See Mary’s post for all the details.

The final event on our itinerary for our full day in Fes was dinner with a fellow FAO and his family.  Bill Parson’s and his family arrived in Morocco just a couple weeks ago, and are engaged in the same regiment of travel, language and immersion as we are, only based out of Rabat as opposed to Kuwait city as we are.  As it so happens Bill and I were supposed to be stationed together in Tunisia prior to all that transpired on Sept 11, 2012 in Libya and elsewhere, when as it so happens the embassy there was attacked and the English school that our children would have attended was burned to the ground, so Bill was redirected to Morocco and I was sent to Kuwait City.  Bill and his family were travelling locally in Morocco, and as we compared our schedules at the train station we realized that our paths would cross in Fes.  We arranged to have dinner at a restaurant in the medina called Clock Café.  Clock café is located across just across the aisle or street from the Medersa Bou Inania which is a stunning example of an Islamic school very similar to the Medersa al Attarine mentioned previously.

  As it was nearly closing time, as well as prayer time, I was able to arrange for a local gentlemen to waive the ticket fee, and just take us in a give us a quick 15 minute explanation of the school, as well as explain some of its particulars such as the purpose for the brass spheres on the top of the minaret (lighting rod) and the history of another building located directly across from the Medersa (university), the Water Clock.

 Constructed somewhere around 1400, the water clock worked via a steady source of water which, diverted from the surrounding mountains, flowed through the upper floors of the building filling up bowls of water connected somehow to a series of twelve windows which spanned the facade of the upper floors of the building, as each bowl filled over the course of the hour, the window was opened, and the passing citizens could glance up and see what time it was.  The clock is no longer in operation, the secret of its inner workings lost to the ages.  The name of the clock café located next door is of course borrowed from the water clock.  The café was a good choice for a meal, our table was high on the fourth floor overlooking the medina and the nearby mosque, and as we prepared to dig into our meals, the sound of a thousand minarets echoing the call to prayer filled the city with noise. 

The next morning, we woke up, enjoyed a fresh Moroccan breakfast,

and secured our belongings in the vehicle and drove across the city to the palace of the King.  The King of Morocco holds a place in the lives of the Moroccan people which cannot be overstated.  A King who can trace his ancestry back to the prophet Mohammed and a Monarchy which spans 8 centuries, he enjoys a legitimacy unlike any other modern monarch.

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