FROM CAPITAL TO CAPITAL
Fez, Marrakech, Meknes, Rabat, four imperial capital cities for one Kingdom!
Who can say better?
What was my surprise one day to witness a rather lively verbal exchange between two Moroccans, one from Fez, the other from Marrakech, against the backdrop of the country’s history!
The best enemies
The very friendly tone at the beginning, each giving news of their city, business, tourism and the weather they had, changed to become quite heated as soon as a thorny question was addressed that made the mayonnaise turn:
Which of the two cities had been more ‘capital’ of the Kingdom than the other?
The Marrakchi maintained that his city had been a capital city more times and besides, did the country Morocco really exist before the founding of the ochre city?
The Fassi retorted that this was false and that Fez, in any case, had been so for longer and that it was the first true capital of the kingdom.
Fez Medina
Everyone went about with their numbers and certainties to count the years, the centuries, the months, and name the reigning dynasties that had written the chapters of history and often disrupted the capitals.
If the whole thing was a bit confused, the passion that each interlocutor put in the debate left me speechless.
The Fassi, in a crushing tone, asserted that Fez had such cultural, academic, and religious superiority that one could not even imagine discussing it.
Fez Al Quaraouiyine University
The Marrakchi, upset but ironic, sent him back to the ring ropes while retorting that his contempt and pretension were only matched by his jealousy towards history and the sunny and irresistible charm of the people of Marrakech!
Marrakech Jemaa El Fna Square
Dismayed, Mr. de Fès sketched a smile and the duel ended in a brotherly hug!
The case was very interesting and revealing.
Two cultured people were touching on a historical point that I didn’t imagine being so sensitive nowadays.
Of course, there was a part of chauvinism, but also the question of a legendary rivalry between these two iconic cities of the Kingdom.
But the starting point of the argument had indeed been this capital question!
The debate was therefore not closed.
The complicated story
Let’s just try to put some order in the thread of a story with twists and turns!
These are the different successive dynasties that founded their capitals and shaped them in order to establish their prestige and power. It is in the eternal stone that the traces of their reign are engraved.
Ahmed al-Mansur-ed Dahbi
The Idrissides, Almoravids, Almohads, Merinids, Saadians and Alaouites have marked with their seals Fez, Marrakech, Meknes and Rabat, from the western Atlantic to the southern Sahara.
The cities that have become royal or imperial are growing, adorned with monuments of exceptional architecture and become the center of this world animated by the sovereign.
Rabat Oudaya Kasbah
It is the expression of its culture, its grandeur, its refinement and the place of its myths and legends.
The four Moroccan imperial cities have a lot in common if we consider the urban plan and architecture.
They are surrounded by ramparts, flanked by towers and doors that can be closed at night.
Marrakech the ramparts and the Atlas
Inside this belt, the medina, a labyrinth of alleys, illuminated by some wide lanes that connect the different doors. The activity is overwhelming and organized by neighborhoods.
Traffic is heavy in the middle of these arteries until the more remote dead-ends.
A large mosque marks the center, and the souks, in addition to their economic purpose, are a meeting point, rallying point, a nerve center.
The citadel of the Prince, the kasbah, is exterior or nearby.
Fez is undoubtedly the first capital of a kingdom in full construction, with still uncertain contours. The city was founded by Idriss I in the eighth century and then established by his son Idriss II. At the dawn of Arab-Islamic civilization, it quickly developed around the university mosque “Quaraouiyine” and became a spiritual and cultural center of prime importance.
Fes University Al Quaraouiyine
Moreover, it takes advantage of its location at the crossroads of trade routes. Its population accelerates with the families expelled from Cordoba or Kairouan.
It loses its status as a capital with the foundation of Morocco and Marrakech by the Almoravids in 1072.
She finds him in 1250 with the Merinides.
The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw a restless Morocco, prey to unrest and disorder and, with the decline of the Merinide dynasty then the Spanish, Portuguese and English occupations, the country finds itself divided into several territories.
In the 16th century (1511), the Saadiens take over, reunify and choose Marrakech as their capital (after Taroudant!) which regains its brilliance of the Almohad period (12th century).
At the end of the 17th century, Meknes entered the ballet of capitals for the 55 years of the reign of Moulay Ismail (1672-1727).
King builder, he creates the city in his image, a «Moroccan Versailles» illustrating well the precept «to great king, great city».
The enslaved prisoners and locked up in its jails will be used for the construction of the city.
Then Fez will take back his crown until the beginning of the French Protectorate in 1912. Under the impetus of Marshal Lyautey, Resident General of Morocco, it is the quiet city of Rabat that will finally be consecrated capital. She remained so until that day!
The city, on the banks of the Bouregreb river, is naturally the seat of all the embassies of the world in its modern districts. It is historically rich and offers beautiful monuments and several magnificent sites.
In addition, it is today with all its modernity in the urban landscape of the kingdom. The Mohamed VI Tower, the new theater are its recent emblems.
Through quarrels, splits, conquests and other colonizations, other cities like Taroudant, Salé, Tétouan or Tangier have played major roles and could appear in the charts but let’s not complicate the matter!
Between Fez and Marrakech, let’s decide that there is a draw!
Abundance of goods not harmful, a country that can pride itself on already having four imperial capital cities, it is not so frequent! In the country of the setting sun, the star is not stingy and continues to shine above the capitals, on the stones and dunes of the desert areas!
