An account of the empire of Marocco, and the districts of Suse and Tafilelt; compiled from miscellaneous observations made during a long residence in, and various journies through, these countries. To which is added an account of shipwrecks on the western coast of Africa, and an interesting account of Timbuctoo, the great emporium of Central Africa

by James Grey Jackson

FAS.

This city (which is divided into old and new, called Fas Jedide, and Fas El Bâlee) is the most celebrated in West Barbary; it was founded about the 185th year of the Hejira (A.C. 786) by Idris,[67] a descendant of Mohammed. It stands for the most part upon gentle hills, except the centre, which is low, and in winter very wet and dirty. It is not so extensive as Marocco, but the houses being more lofty and spacious, it contains more inhabitants. The houses have flat roofs ingeniously worked in wood, and covered with terrace, on which the inhabitants spread carpets in summer, to recline upon, and enjoy the cool breezes of the evening; a small turret, containing a room or two, is also erected upon them for the use of the females of the family, who resort thither for amusement and pastime. In the centre of each house is an open quadrangle surrounded by a gallery, which communicates with the staircase, and into which the doors of the different apartments open; these doors are both wide and lofty, and are made of curiously carved wood painted in various colours. The beams of the roofs of the different apartments are whimsically painted with gay colours in the arabesque style. The portals of the houses are supported with pillars of brick plaistered over. The principal houses have (Mitferes) cisterns under them, containing water used in the baths, which are built of marble or stone. Every house is also supplied with water from a river which rises in the Atlas, and enters the town in various places by covered channels. The hospitals, colleges, and houses of the great and wealthy have, withinside, spacious courts, adorned with sumptuous galleries, fountains, basons of fine marble, and fish-ponds, shaded with orange, lemon, pomgranate, and fig trees, abounding with fruit, and ornamented with roses, hyacinths, jasmine, violets, and orange flowers, emitting a delectable fragrance.

In the city are a great number of mosques, sanctuaries, and other public buildings; about fifty of these are very sumptuous edifices, being ornamented with a kind of marble, unknown in Europe, procured in the Atlas mountains.[68]

The maintenance of professors and students in the mosques, has lately become very scanty, the wars having destroyed many of the possessions by which learning was promoted. The students are mostly employed in reading the Koran; if any one read a text which he does not understand, the professor explains it to him in public; at other times they dispute among themselves, and the professor finally explains the passage.

A public bath is attached to each mosque, for religious ablutions; there are also public baths in various parts of the town, whither the common people resort;[69] the men at one hour and the women at another; when occupied by the latter, a rope is suspended from the cieling of the first apartment, as a signal to the stranger not to proceed farther; and so particular are they in this respect, that a man would not be here permitted to speak to his own wife, such regard have they for their reputation. These baths produce a considerable sum annually. Besides these there are chalybeate, sulphureous, and antimonial baths; there is also a bath celebrated as a specific for the venereal disease, which is said to be an infallible cure in three months.

The hospitals which have been mentioned by early writers as being in Fas, must have fallen greatly into decay, as there are now very few; in these the poor are fed, but no surgeon or physician is attached to them; women attend the infirm and sick till they recover, or death terminate their sufferings. There is a Muristan, or mad-house, where deranged people are confined; they are chained down, and superintended by men who use them very harshly; their apartments are disgustingly filthy.

There are nearly two hundred caravanseras or inns, called Fondaque, in this city; these buildings are three stories high, and contain from fifty to one hundred apartments, in each of which is a water-cock to supply water for ablution and various other purposes. As the mode of travelling is to carry bedding with one, they do not provide beds in these inns, but leave you to make use of what you have got, providing only a mat: and if you want any refreshment you cannot order a meal, but must purchase it at a cook’s shop, or procure it at the butcher’s, and get it dressed yourself, paying so much per day for your apartment, the master of the Fondaque supplying charcoal and Umjummars, or portable earthen fire-pots, &c.

There are a great many corn-mills in Fas; for the inhabitants being mostly poor, and unable to lay up corn sufficient in store, they purchase meal of the millers, who make great profit by it. The rich buy their own corn, and send it to the mills to be ground.

Each trade or occupation has its separate department allotted to it; in one place are seen several shops occupied by notaries or scriveners, two in each shop; in another stationers; in another shoe-makers: here a fruit market, there wax chandlers; another part is allotted to those who fry meat, and make a light kind of bread called Sfinge, fried in oil, and eaten with honey. Animals are not suffered to be slaughtered in the city; this is done at a distance from it, near the river, and the meat is sent from thence to the different shops in the town, but first to the Mutasseb, or officer who superintends the price of provisions, who, after examining it, sets a price upon it on a piece of paper; this the venders show to the people, who buy at the rate affixed.

The inhabitants of Fas are fond of poultry, which they rear in cages to prevent them from running about the house, and dirting the rooms.

The Kasseria is a square place walled round, and divided into twelve wards, two of which are allotted to the shoe-makers, who work for the princes and gentlemen; the others consist of silk-mercers and cloth and linen shops. There are sixty (Dellel) criers, or itinerant auctioneers, who receive from the various shops, pieces of cloth, linen, &c. and going about crying (al ziada) “who bids more,” sell the lot to the highest bidder.

Fas Jedide, or New Fas, which lies contiguous to Old Fas, is a well built town, in which are the looms and other machinery for the different trades. The gardens here abound with all sorts of delicious fruits; and roses and other odoriferous flowers perfume the serene air, so that it is justly called a paradise. Westward, towards the Emperor’s palace, stands a castle, built by one of the princes of the Luntuna family, wherein the Kings of Fas kept their court before the palace was built; but when New Fas was begun by the sovereigns of the Marin dynasty, the castle became the residence of the Governor of the city.