A Roof with a View: Fes's Al-Qarawiyyin University

This past weekend, some students and I took a day trip to Fes, Morocco’s city of superlatives. The city’s old medina, Fes el Bali, is the largest in Morocco and one of the largest pedestrian areas in the world, housing some of the world’s oldest tanneries and the world’s oldest continuously running university, Al-Qarawiyyin, which also serves as a mosque. This district is comprised of the city’s uniquely narrow streets, which seem to twist and turn with no end. In this sprawling layout, it’s easy to get lost while searching for the Fes’s main attractions, even if you’re only feet from the entrance.

The trip was my first to Fes and visiting with students meant I wanted to be sure we saw everything the city had to offer. But the morning’s half-hour search for a bathroom proved indicative of the afternoon’s activities, as we wound our way through the medina’s maze of streets to find Al-Qarawiyyin. Sitting at the end of Zanqa al-Attarine, the mosque and university weren’t too difficult to locate, but, as has been the case since Morocco’s French colonial period, most mosques are off-limits for non-Muslims. At this juncture, some of the Muslim students with me decided to stop and pray, but the rest wanted to see if we could find a better view of the building, as it was hard to see from the surrounding densely packed streets.

Near the entrance to the mosque, a street vendor explained that, while the mosque wasn’t open to non-Muslims, a nearby carpet store had a view from the roof where we could see Al-Qarawiyyin. The students and I then backtracked to a small alleyway branching off to the right. At a small coffee shop, we turned left to see a carpet shop, seemingly too small to offer anything in the way of fantastic views. But the store owner, seeing our confusion, gestured to the left of the store’s entrance, where there was a small passageway. Bent on finding this alleged view, I walked in and saw, to my relief, a small set of stairs at the end of the hallway. After what felt like eight flights of stairs, though may only have been three or four in retrospect, I began to see sunlight and we soon surfaced on a dusty roof with an empty chicken coop in the corner. Two tourists finishing up with their pictures excused their way past us and we were alone. And the view did not disappoint. The entire medina spread out below us, with the old city walls on a high hill providing a striking backdrop. Below us was the historic mosque with its famous green tilework and hitherto invisible university complex, which extended well beyond the obvious central structure.

I sighed in relief and the students got the pictures they wanted. We talked for a few minutes about the university’s history and significance to Fes while recuperating from the morning’s walking. Much to our surprise and delight, we got to have the conversation all over again when the Muslim students who had stopped to pray at the mosque came up from the stairwell. Having met with the same helpful vendor, they made their way to the carpet store and its rooftop. Their late arrival allowed us to enjoy the area a bit longer before making our descent. On one of the lower floors, we listened to the rug vendor’s sales pitch for a few minutes, but not having much money or any strong desire for a rug, we exited the store, excited for the rest of the afternoon’s activities and the wanderings they entailed.

Author: Charlie Johnson