Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 7, ETM-GOA

FEZ [ 224 ] FEZ
and it is faid they carry home as many as amount
to above 20001. a-year. The fifhermen will admit
, none to take up their freedom but married men.
FEVILLEA, in botany : A genus of the pentan-
dria order, belonging to the dioecia clafs of plants;
and in the natural method ranking under the 34th or¬
der, Cucurlitacea. The male calyx is quinquefid; the
corolla the fame; there are five ftamina; and the nefta-
rium confifts of five filaments conniyent or clefing to¬
gether. The female calyx is quinquefid; the ftyles are
three ; and the fruit is an hard trilocular apple with an
hard bark.
FEVRE (Tanegui le), of Caen in Normandy, born
1615, was an excellent fcholar in the Greek and Roman
learning. Cardinal de Richelieu gave him a penfion of
2000 livres to infpeft all the works publiflred at the
Louvre, and defigned to have made him principal of a
college he was about to ereft at Richelieu. But the
cardinal’s death cut off his hopes ; and Cardinal Ma¬
zarine having no great relilh for learning, his penfion
was ill-paid. Some time after, the Marquis de Fran-
ciere, governor of Langres, took him along with him
to his government, and there he embraced the Prote-
ftant religion ; after which he was invited to Saumur,
where he was chofen Greek profelfor. He there
taught with extraordinary reputation. Young men
were fent to him from all the provinces'in the king¬
dom, and even from foreign countries, while divines
and profelfors themfelves gloried in attending his lec¬
tures. He was preparing to go to Heidelberg, whi¬
ther he was invited by the prince Palatine, when
he died, aged 57. He wrote, x. Notes on Anacre¬
on, Lucretius, Longinus, Phaedrus, Juftin, Terence,
Virgil, Horace, &c. 2. A Ihort account of the lives
of the Greek poets. 3. Two volumes of letters; and
many other works.
Fevre (Claud le), an eminent French painter, was
born at Fountainbleau in 1633, and iludied in the pa¬
lace there, and then at Paris under Le Sueur and Le
Brun ; the latter of whom advifed him to adhere to
portraits, for which he had a particular talent, and in
his ftyle equalled the beft matters of that country. He
died in England in 1675, a8ec^ 42-
FEZ, the capital of a kingdom of the fame name in
Barbary, in Africa. It is defcribed as a very larg£ place,
furrounded with high walls, within which there are hills
and valleys, only the middle being level and flat. The
river, which runs through the city, is divided into two
ftreams, from which canals are Cut into every part of
the town ; fo that the mofques, colleges, palaces, and
the houfes of great men, are amply fupplied with wa¬
ter. They have generally fquare marble bafons in the
middle of the court of their houfes, which are fupplied
with water by marble pipes that pafs through the
walls. They conttantly run over, and the ftream returns
back into the ftreet, and fo into the river. The houfes
are built with brick or ftone ; and are adorned on the
outfide with fine Mofaic work, or tiles like thofe of
Holland The wood-work and ceilings are carved,
painted, and gilt. The roofs are flat; for they fleep
on the tops of the houfes in fumjper. Mott of the
houfes are two ftories high, and fome three. There are
piazzas and galleries running all round the court oh the
infide, fo that you may go under cover from one apart¬
ment to another. The pillars are of brick, covered
N° 126.
with glazed tiles, or of marble, with arches betweert.
The timber-work is carved and painted with gay co¬
lours, and moft of the rooms have marble citterns of
water. Some of the great men build towers over their
houfes feveral ftories high, and fpare no expence to ren¬
der them beautiful; from hence they have a fine pro-
fpe<tt all over the city.
There are in this city 700 mofques, great and fmall;
50 of which are magnificent, and fupported with mar¬
ble pillars, and other ornaments. The floors are covered
with mats, as well as the walls to the height of a man.
Every mofque has a tower or minaret, like thofe in
Turkey, with a gallery on the top, from whence they
call the people to prayers. Thfe principal mofque is
near a mile and a half in circumference- The middle
building is 150 yards in length, and 80 in breadth,
with a tower proportionably high. Round this to the
eaft, weft, and north, there are great colonades 30 or
40 yards long. There are 900 lamps lighted every
night; and in the middle of the mofque are large
branches, which are capable of holding yoo lamps
each. Along the walls are feven pulpits, from which
the doctors of the law teach the people. The bufinefs
of the prieft is only to read prayers, and ditiribute alms
to the people ; to fupport which, there are large reve¬
nues.
Befides the mofques, there are two colleges built in
the Moorilh manner, and adorned with marble and
paintings- In one of them there are 100 rooms, be¬
fides a magnificent hall. In this there is a great marble
vafe full of water, adorned with marble pillars of various
colours, and finely poliftied. The capitals are gilt, and
the roof fliines with gold, azure, and purple. The walls
are adorned with Arabic verfes in gold charafters. The
other colleges are not near fo beautiful, or rather all are
gone to ruin fince the negled of learning.
There are hofpitals in the city, where formerly all
ftrangers were maintained three days gratis. But the
eftates belonging to them have been confifcated for the
emperor’s ufe. There are above too public baths, many
of which are (lately buildings. People of the fame trade
or bufinefs live in ftreets by themfelves.
Though the country about Fez is pleafant and fer¬
tile, and in many places abounding with corn and cat¬
tle, yet a great part of it lies wafte and uncultivated,
not fo much for want of inhabitants as from the oppref-
fion of the governors; which makes the people choofe
to live at fome diftance from the high roads, where
they cultivate juft as much land as is neceffary for their
own fubfiftence.
Round the city there are fine marble tombs, monu¬
ments, and gardens full of all manner of fruit-trees.
Such are the common accounts of this city. The
following are given by M. Chenier in his Recherches Hi~
Jloriques fur les Mauris.
Fez was built in the end of the eighth century by
Edris, a defcendant of Mahomet and of Ali; whofe fa¬
ther, in order to avoid the profcriptions of the calif
Abdallah, retired to the extremity of Africa, and was
proclaimed fovereign by the Moors. Sidy Edris, ha¬
ving fucceeded to the throne of his father, built the
city of Fez in the year 793. He caufed a mofque to
be erefted, in which his body was interred, and the
city ever afterwards became an afylum for the Moors,
and a place of devotion. In the firft moments of fer-