Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Kambiz Ghanea Bassiri, Competing 

Visions of Islam in the United States: A Study of Los Ange-

les (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997); Jane I. 

Smith, Islam in America (New York: Columbia Univer-

sity Press, 1999).

Fez

Fez is a city in northern m

orocco

 that has been 

the country’s political and intellectual capital for 

much of its history and remains famous for its old 

city (medina), declared a world heritage site by the 

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural 

Organization (UNESCO) in 1981. Today it has a 

population of nearly 1 million (2004), composed 

of mostly ethnic Arabs and Berbers. The majority 

of residents are Sunni Muslims, though there is a 

sizeable Jewish community that has lived there for 

centuries. The m

aliki

 l

egal

 s

chool

 is the predomi-

nant one in the city, as it is in most of the rest of 

North Africa.

The history of Fez began in the late eighth 

century, when the first leaders of the Idrisid 

dynasty (789–926) established the city at the edge 

of the Saiss valley. Possessing a strategic location 

in the western corridor between the Mediterra-

nean Sea and the Sahara, Fez became the northern 

terminus for the Saharan caravan trade and also 

benefited from its location near one of Morocco’s 

richest agricultural regions. Over the centuries, 

Fez was ruled by a number of different dynas-

ties, none of which left their mark on the city to 

the same extent as the b

erber

 Marinid dynasty 

(1196–1464). Between 1248 and 1465, the Mari-

nids embellished their capital with many of the 

exquisite architectural monuments for which it 

is known. In addition, Fez was the country’s 

intellectual capital, largely due to the presence 

of the Qarawiyyin University, which became the 

center of learning for western Islamdom. During 

this same period, the Spanish Reconquista drove 

Andalusian Muslims to North Africa, where many 

settled in Fez, making it the repository of the 

legacy of Hispano-Islamicate culture.

After the fall of the Marinids, Fez’s fortunes 

declined, although it has retained its reputation 

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