When you travel to Fez, you not only travel to a busy Moroccan city but also travel back in time for about 1,000 years. The modern world has barely intruded into the labyrinthine warren that makes up the medieval medina (Old City) of this ancient city, where donkeys carry merchandise to and from the souks through the crammed alleyways overshadowed by minarets, and the stench of the tanneries permeates the air.

Fes is the third largest city in Morocco and one of the four so-called "imperial cities". It is separated into three parts, Fes el Bali (the old, walled city), Fes-Jdid (new Fes, home of the Mellah), and the Ville Nouvelle (the French-created, newest section of Fes). The Medina of Fes el Bali is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Fes was founded by Idris I in 789 and his son Idris II in 810. The first was the founder of Idrisid dynasty and the latter is considered to be the real founder of the dynasty. During Yahya ibn Muhammad rule the Kairouyine mosque, one of the oldest and largest in Africa, was built, and the associated University of Karueein was founded in 859. Arabs emigration to Fes, mostly from al-Andalus after a rebellion which took place in Cordoba in 818 and Tunisia after another rebellion that took place in 824, gave the city a definite Arab character.

‘Adwat al-Qarawiyyin and ‘Adwat al-Andalus, the two main quarters of Fes, was called respectively after the Arab immigrants to the new city. After Ali II came to power, the tribes of Madyuna, Gayatha and Miknasa, which were Sufrite Kharijites, formed a common front against the Idrisid and defeated Ali’s armies and occupied Fes. Yahya ibn Al-Qassim, drove the Sufrite out of the city and declare himself as Ali’s successor.

The city was populated by Muslims from elsewhere in North Africa, the Middle East, Moriscos, as well as many Jews, who had their own quarter, or Mellah, in the city. It is believed Fes was the largest city in the world from 1170 to 1180 and the center of the Kingdom of Fez. Fes became the scientific and religious center, where both Muslims and Christians from Europe came to study. Many Muslim refugees came to Fes after the reconquest of Spain in 1492.

Fes became part of the Moroccan Empire in 1548. In 1579 the capture of Fez completed Ottoman conquests in Morocco that had begun under Süleyman the Magnificent. Fes became the center of the Alaouite Dynasty in 1649, and it was a major trading post of the Barbary Coast of North Africa. Until the 19th century it was the only source of Fez hats, before they began to be manufactured in France and Turkey; originally, the dye for the hats came from a berry that was grown outside the city, known as the Turkish kizziljiek or Greek akenia. Fes was also the end of a north-south gold trading route from Timbuktu.

Fez was a prime manufacturing location for leather goods such as the Adarga. Fes was the capital of Morocco at various times in the past, the last such period ending in 1912, when most of Morocco came under French control and Rabat was chosen to be the capital of the new colony, a distinction that city retained when Morocco achieved independence in 1956.

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