or Fez Arabic Fās
City (pop., 1994: 541,162), northern Morocco.
The oldest of Morocco's four imperial cities, it was founded on opposite banks of the Wadi Fès by Idrīs I с 789 and Idrīs II с 809. The two parts were united by the Almoravid dynasty in the 11th century to become a major Islamic city. Fès reached its zenith under the Marinid dynasty as a centre of learning and commerce in the mid-14th century and has kept its religious primacy through the ages. The site of the oldest mosque in northern Africa, it is also the seat of an Islamic university founded in 859. A centre for trade and traditional crafts, it was until the late 19th century the only place where the fez hat was made.