Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 7, ETM-GOA

FEZ [ 225 ] F I n
vour which a new worfhip infpires, another mofque was that have been afterwards made are copied : but its fi-
bui!t called Carubin, which is perhaps one of the larged tuation, its fchools, and the induftry and great urba-
and moil beautiful edifices in Africa. Several others nity of its inhabitants, are the only circumitances that
were fuccefiively built, befides colleges and hofpitals; give it any preference to the other cities of the em-
and the city was held in fuch veneration, that when pire. There are feme pretty convenient inns here*
the pilgrimage to Mecca was interrupted in the fourth confiding of two or three dories. The houfes have no
century of the Hegira, the wedern Mahometans fub- elegance externally : the ftreets are ill paved, and fo
flituted that of Fez in its dead, while the eadern people drait that two perfons riding abread can hardly pafs.
went to Jerufalem. The fliops are like dalls; and have no more room in
When the Arabs had overfpread Alia, Africa, and them, than is fufficient to ferve for the owner, who is
Europe, they brought to Fez the little knowledge'they always feated with his wares around him, which he
had acquired in the fciences and arts ; and that capital Ihows to the pad’engers. But though the Moors of
conjoined, w ith the fchools of religion, academies where Fez are more civilized than the red, they are vain, fu-
philofdphy was taught, together wi h medicine and perditions, and intolerant ; and an order mud be ob-
adronomy. 'Phis lad gradually degenerated ; igno- tajned from the emperor before a Chtiftian or a Jew
france brought adrology into repute, and this quickly can be allowed to enter the city.
engendered the arts of magic and divination. _ The fituation of Fez is exceedingly fingular. It lies
Fez foon became the common refort of all Africa. 10 the bottom of a valley furrontided by little hills in
The Mahometans went thither for the purposes of de- the fhape of a funnel j the declivities ".re divided into
votion ; the affluence of drangers introduced a tade for gardens planted with tall trees, orange ihrubs, and all
pleafure ; libertinifm quickly followed; and, as its pro- of fruit-trees; a river meanders along the declivity,
grefs is mod rapid in warm countries- Fez, which had and a number of mills, which difperfe the' water
been the nurfe of fciences and ans, became a harbour abundantly to all the gardens, and almolt to every houfe.
for every kind of vice. The public baths, wdiich health. The defeent to the city, which dands in the centre, is
cleanlinefs, and cudom, had rendered necedary, and l°ng 5 ar,d the road lies through thefe gardens, which
which were every where refpe&ed as facred places, be- it traverfes, in a ferpentine dire&ion.
came feenes of debauchery ; where men introduced The gardens, feen from the city, form a mod de-
themfelves in the habit of women ; youths, in the fame lightful amphitheatre. Formerly each garden had a
difguife, with a dtdaffin their hands, walked the dreets houfe in which the inhabitants fpent the fummer. Thefe
at funfet in order to entice ftrangers to their inns, houfes were dedroyed in the times of the civil wars,
which were lefs a place of repofe than a convenience and in the revolutions to which Fez has been fubjecl,
for proditution. and few individuals have reftored them. The fituation
The ufurpers who deputed the kinofflom of Fez after of Fez, however, cannot be healthful ; mold vapours
the 16th century overlooked thefe abufes, and content- fid the air in fummer, and fevers are exceedingly corn¬
ed themfelves with fubje&ing the madevs of the inns to mon.
furnidi a certain number of cooks for the army. It is On the heighth above Fez, in a plain fufceptible of
to this laxity of difeipline that Fez owed its fird fplen- rich cultivation, dands New Fez, finely fituated, and
dour. As the inhabitants are beautiful, the Africans enjoying excellent air, containing fome old palaces, in
flocked thither in crowds; the laws were overturned, which the children of the emperor live, and where he
morals defpifed, and vice itfelf turned into an engine fometimer refides himfelf. New Fez is inhabited by
of political refource. The fame fpirit, the fame incli- f°me Moorilh families, but by a greater number of
•nations, the fame depravity, dill exid,in the hearts of Jew’s.
all the Moors. But libertinifm is not now encouraged : Fez is feated on the river Cebu, W. Long. 4. 25.
it wears there, as in other places, the made of hypocri- N. Lat. ^3. 58.
fy : and dares not venture to fhow itfelf in the face of FEWEL. See Fut t.
dayt FIASCONh, a town of Italy in the territories of
The Mahometans of Andalufia, thofe of Granada the pope, rtmaikable for its good wine. E. Long,
and Cordoua, migrated to Fez during the different re- 13* I2, Fat. 4*. 20.
volutions that agitated Spain: they carried with them FIAT, in law, a diort order or warrant figned by a
new cudoms and new arts, and perhaps fome fiight judge, for making out and allowing certain proceffes.
degree of civilization. The Spanifii Moors carried FIBRARIiL, a clafs of foflils, naturally and effen-
from Cordoua to Fez the art of daining goat and fheep tially fimple, not inflammable nor foluble in water; and
fliins with a red colour, w hich were then called Cor- compofed of parallel fibres, fome diorti r, others longer;
dona leather, and now Morocco leather, from that city their external appearance being bright, and in iome
where the art is lefs perfeft. They manufatture gauzes degree tranfparent : add to this, that they never give
at Fez, filk fluffs, and girdles elegantly embroidered fire with fleel, nor ferment with or are foluble in acid
with gold and filk, which fflow how far their ingenuity menflrua
might be carried if induftry were more encouraged. ^ IBRE, in anatomy, a perfectly fimple body, or at
There is dill fome tade'for fludy preferved at Fez, Rad as fimple as any thing in the human drudture ;
and the Arabic language is fpoken there in greater being fine and (lender like a thread, and ferving to
puritv than in any other part of the empire. The rich form other parts. Hence fome fibres are hard, as the
Moors fend their children to the fchools at Fez, where bony ones; and others foft, as thoie detlined for the
they are better indrufted than they could be elfewhere. formation of all the other parts.
Leo Africanus in the 16th century, gave a magni- _ The fibres are divided alfo, according to their fitua-
ficent defeription of this city, from which mod of thofe ti°n> ‘nt0 luuh as a,e dt'a'ght, oblique, tranfverfe, an-
Vou VII. Part 1. ' F -f nular,