Into the Imperial City

This morning I left Rabat for Fes, the city I will call home for the next ten months. The first stage of my Morocco experience has come to an end. Orientation is over. Now it's time to get to work.

Since arriving here, we've been busy. After our trip to the desert, we started intensive Moroccan Arabic classes at Qalam wa Lawh, an Arabic language center in Rabat. On top of that, we attended about a half dozen lectures about the linguistic and educational situations in Morocco. I also shared a homestay weekend with Monica in Casablanca.

After this intense orientation, I feel equally prepared and unprepared for my job as an English teacher. I know more Arabic and more about Moroccan culture and society than I did prior, but I still don't know the details of my work and we only received pointers as to how we should manage a classroom that could hold anywhere from 50-150 students. Despite some anxiety over my job, I am extremely excited to begin teaching. I am also excited to begin my life in Fes, a city rich in culture, tradition and history.

Fes al-Bali. My new home?

Last weekend I learned that most good things in Morocco come from the former Imperial capital. Fes is home to some of Morocco's best artisans and handicrafts. If you want to buy an excellent pair of babouches, traditional slippers, you go to Fes. If you want to buy the best pottery, you go to Fes. If you want to dine in Morocco's best restaurants, you go to Fes. If you want to experience the world's largest car-free urban zone, you go to Fes. All the city lacks is a coastline. This means no seafood, hot summers, and frigid winters.

Leather is one of Fes' main handicrafts. Tanneries, like this one, are found all over the old city. Their smell is very recognizable (and foul) because of the use of bird poop as a softening agent. Disgusting, but very effective.

Fes is also known as 'the city of 'ilm', or knowledge, particularly religious knowledge. It is home to Al-Qarawiyin University, one of the oldest in the world, and still operating within Morocco's public university system. Al-Qarawiyin, was once a great center of learning not only for Muslims, but people of all faiths. Famous Islamic scholars, like Ibn Khaldun and the Sufi master Ibn Arabi studied there. So did the great Jewish mystic Maimonides. This religious diversity extended beyond the university. Fes al-Bali, or the old city, houses many historically Jewish neighborhoods. After the Spanish Reconquista and subsequent Inquisition cleared the Iberian peninsula of both Muslims and Jews, many of both faiths made Fes their new home. Until this century, the Jewish community of Fes, and Morocco as a whole, thrived within the nation's Muslim society.

A close-up of Al-Qarawiyin's main doorway. Moroccan Islamic architecture features geometric designs carved or painted onto plaster and wood surfaces, as well as geometric tile work, which is not featured here.

The politics of colonization and independence greatly affected Fes' prestige. The city was Morocco's capital until 1912 when the country became a French protectorate. The French chose Rabat to be the new capital, a decision maintained after Independence in 1956. And though King Muhammad VI has taken more interest in Fes than his father or grand-father, it is unlikely the once Imperial city will regain its due status anytime soon.

As I begin my life here I hope to bridge Fes's new and old worlds. I will work at Sidi Mohammed ben Abdellah University, teaching English to university students. The university is located on the edge of town, surrounded by the newest areas of urban growth. During orientation, the speakers we heard described Morocco's universities as very similar to Western universities, except for overcrowding. As I mentioned earlier, I may very soon teach classes of up to 150-200 students. The lack of qualified teachers was a common theme in the lectures we heard about Morocco's education system, which is one reason why we're here. However, most universities are equipped with modern facilities and technological resources.

I will work in new Fes, but hope to live in old Fes. Fes's medina, also called Fes al-Bali, is the world's largest car-free urban zone. It is the pre-colonial Islamic city, and houses several hundred thousands Fessis (people who live in Fes). Living in the medina is a little like going back in time. Its streets are really serpentine alleyways that seldom follow a straight line. Without cars, people use donkeys to transport goods, much like was done centuries ago, except today they carry mini-fridges and flat screen televisions as well as rugs, spices, and anything else a person can't carry him or herself.

I have a lead on an apartment in a riad very near to Al-Qarawiyin University in the medina. A riad is a house with a courtyard, which typically houses a garden. This design is a Moroccan tradition, and while my potential home lacks a garden and is not as fancy as what you'd see if you enter 'riad morocco' into Google Image Search, living there would immerse me in a culture and environment that has changed relatively slightly in hundreds of years. We'll see what happens in this department.

What else is there to look forward to? Well, as you've noticed, I haven't been writing much lately. That will change, hopefully, as such has been the case due to a lack of time, not of ideas or experiences. I have much to say about Morocco's language situation, food culture, shopping culture, and general society. But the bigger thing to watch for is my gradual Moroccanization. As I seek to integrate myself into my work and living environments, I will surely change. I will become less American and more Morrocan. To what degree that will happen and how it will manifest itself remains to be seen...