This article incorporates information from the revision as of October 2008 of the equivalent article on the French Wikipedia.

The imperial cities of Morocco are old capitals of one or more dynasties, e.g. Fès, which was the capital of Morocco several times, Marrakech that was the capital of the Saadiens, after being that of the Almohades and of the Almoravides, Meknès capital of Alaouites. Rabat is the current capital of Alaouites.

[edit] Fès

Fès is considered to be the arabo-Andalusian city par excellence of Morocco and the Arab World. Founded by Idris I between 789 and 808, the town of Fès was the capital of three dynasties:

It was founded by the first Sultan of Morocco Idriss I, by its Arab companiouns helped by the Berber tribe of Awraba. As of this time, Fès was the only city in North Africa equipped with an infrastructure allowing it to compete with the Eastern cities such as Kairouan, Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo or Jerusalem (al-Quds). It accommodated starting from VIIIe century of the thousands of refugees kairouanais and Andalusians. Consequently from its architecture and its civilization, this city became a pearl of arabo-Andalusian art. The first residences going back to this time were always inhabited and are located in Fès-el-Bali, the old working of the médina. The city saw the foundation of the university "Al-qaraouiyyin", the oldest university in the world, under the authority of a woman, Fatéma el-Fihriyya who was from the powerful family of Fihri.

Mérinide Dynasty: politically fallen due to disuse, the town of Fès preserved its role of the cultural, religious, spiritual and economic center of the country, lasting through the era when Marrakech had become the powerful capital of the country. The Mérinide dynasty gave all its power to the city, by building the ramparts, the citadels surrounding the city, several médersas (universities), baths, markets, palates and other jewels of architecture. The large-scale construction of the new Fès-El-Bali district painted in white illustrates the largely cosmopolitan population which oscillated between six hundred and eight hundred and thousand inhabitants during the XIV and XV centuriy, while at the same time of the cities like London or Paris counted less than 50.000 inhabitants (following the epidemics of Black Death). During this period the "Ilm" (science) and the "Aql" (reason) were erected, and the technological and scientific level of the city was high. The inventor of sociology, Ibn-Khaldoun lived there during his childhood and youth and identified himself as resident of Fez.

This was also the time where the Mausoleum of the founder of the city was built, after his tomp was discovered with great pomp during working, in the XIVe century. The discovery of the tomb of the saint patron of the city, respected and venerated by all the residents of Fez, allowed the reinforcement of the religious reference marks and the sherifat (institution sacrilizing the families going down from the prophet). This mausoleum is always present and active thanks to the donations, and particularly to the Alamiyyin family for managing it.

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