You do not learn Fès, you decipher it. Its medina — Fès el-Bali — is the largest inhabited car-free zone in the world, and the densest conservatory of artisan gestures the kingdom holds.

Founded in 789 by Idriss I and then developed by his son Idriss II from 809, Fès became under the Idrissids the first capital of Muslim Morocco. The town welcomed in two waves — 818 and 823 — Andalusian families from Cordoba and Kairouani families from Tunisia, who established their crafts: weaving, brassware, tanning, ironwork. This double heritage shapes the Fassi craft DNA. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1981, the medina today holds more than 10,000 living workshops.

I. A capital founded twice

Idriss I chose the site in 789, on the right bank of the Fès river. But it was his son Idriss II who, from 809, made the settlement a true town, by welcoming two waves of exiles: eight hundred Andalusian families driven from Cordoba in 818, who settled on the left bank (Adwa al-Andalus); then two thousand Kairouani families come from Tunisia in 823, who occupied the right bank (Adwa al-Qarawiyyin). Each bank developed its mosque, its souks, its guilds. The two quarters would be unified in the 11th century by the Almoravids.

This double settlement explains the Fassi craft wealth: the Andalusians brought refined leatherwork, repoussé copperwork and embroidery; the Kairouanis introduced wool weaving, architectural ceramics and calligraphy techniques. No other Moroccan town concentrates, on so small a perimeter, so many different guilds: the twenty-two traditional trades are all represented in Fès.

II. Chouara, one of the oldest workplaces in the world

The Chouara tannery — the most visible of the three historic tanneries of Fès, with Sidi Moussa and Aïn Azliten — has operated since the founding of the town, that is nearly 1,200 years. Ali ibn Abi Zar, in his Rawd al-Qirtas written around 1325, counted at the time eighty-six active tanneries in the medina. Today three survive, of which Chouara remains the most emblematic with its circular vats hewn into the stone itself.

The process has not changed since the Middle Ages: soaking in a bath of lime and pigeon droppings to soften the skin (the uric acid tenderises the collagen), rinsing in the river water, then dyeing in vats containing natural pigments — poppy for red, indigo for blue, henna for orange, mint for green, saffron for yellow. Three days of drying on the terraces are enough to fix the colour. The French word maroquin — which in French denotes a goat leather tanned with sumac — comes directly from Maroc.

III. Cradle of zellige

Zellige was born in Fès around the 10th century, under the Berber Zenata dynasty, but it was under the Marinids — between 1244 and 1465 — that it reached its artistic fullness. The Marinid medersas of the medina preserve the finest pages of this history: Medersa Attarine (1325), Bou Inania (1350-1357), Medersa Sahrij. Each wall is a geometric manuscript inscribed with eight-pointed stars, sixteen-pointed stars, thirty-two-point rosettes.

The clay of Fès, particularly rich — more than seventy distinct minerals are counted in it — gives Fassi zellige its reputation. The maâlems still work today without plans or written measurements: the composition is elaborated directly on the ground, from memory and by eye. The transmission of the craft follows the path of the sila — filial companionship — where the apprentice accompanies his master for ten to fifteen years before being allowed to sign a piece.

IV. Heritage in peril, living heritage

Fès lives today a double tension: to conserve without museifying. The medina rehabilitation programme, supported since 1989 by UNESCO and the World Bank, has restored more than forty major monuments and more than a thousand house-fondouks. The Nejjarine, El Yhoudi, Talaa Sghira fondouks have recovered their original function: workshops and caravanserais for the artisans.

But the youth flee the medina. Learning a craft — seven to fifteen years depending on the speciality — no longer appeals in an economy where the smartphone opens other careers. The Fès Chamber of Crafts estimates that nearly 40% of Fassi master-artisans are now over sixty, and that a third of the rarest specialities (silver filigree, nassij silk brocade, ceremonial saddlery) rest on fewer than ten practitioners each.

V. To see, to learn

Essential places to understand the crafts of Fès.

• Chouara Tannery Medina, Fès el-Bali — View from the leather shops overlooking the vats. Open to the public, free entry through the shops.
• Medersa Bou Inania Talaa Kbira — Built 1350-1357 by the Marinid sultan Abu Inan Faris. Zellige, carved stucco, chiselled cedar wood — an absolute masterpiece.
• Medersa el-Attarine Near the Quaraouiyine — 1325, Marinid dynasty. The most refined of the Fassi medersas.
• Al Quaraouiyine University Fès el-Bali — Oldest university in the world (859). Mosque accessible to Muslims, library restored in 2016.
• Fondouk Nejjarine Nejjarine square — 18th-c. caravanserai turned into the Museum of Wood and Wood Arts (Karim Lamrani Foundation).
• Brassworkers' Souk (Seffarine) Seffarine square — The sound of hammers on copper, without interruption, since the 14th century.

VI. Sources

1. UNESCO World Heritage Centre — Medina of Fès — Criteria (ii), (v). Inscription 1981. — link.
2. Maison de l'Artisan — Mapping of the trades of Fès — Fès-Meknès region. — link.
3. Ali ibn Abi Zar — Rawd al-Qirtas — Chronicle of Fès, written around 1325..
4. ADER-Fès — Agency for the de-densification and rehabilitation of the medina of Fès..