Regarding These Royal Cities, We Sum Up Our Observations.
The destinies
of Fez and Mequinez are inseparable.
United, they contain one hundred
thousand inhabitants, the most polished and learned in the Empire. Fez
is the city of arts and learning, that is of what remains of the once
famous and profound Moorish doctors of Spain. Mequinez is the strong
place of the Empire, an emporium of arms and imperial Cretsures. Fez is
the rival of Morocco. The two cities are the capitals of two kingdoms,
never yet amalgamated. The present dynasty belongs not to Fez, but to
Morocco; though a dynasty of Shereefs, they are Shereefs of the south,
and African blood flows in their veins.
The Sultan generally is obliged to give a preference to Fez for a
residence, because his presence is necessary to maintain the allegiance
of the north country, and to curb its powerful warparty, his son in the
meanwhile being left Governor during his absence. But all these royal
cities are on the decline, the "sere and yellow leaf" of a well nigh
defunct civilization. Morocco is a huge shell of its former greatness, a
monster of Moresque dilapidations. France may awaken the slumbering
energies of the population of these once flourishing and august cities,
but left to themselves they are powerless, sinking under their own
weight and uncouth encumbrances, and will rise no more till
reconstructed by European hands.
CHAPTER VI.
Description of the towns and cities of the Interior, and those of the
Kingdom of Fez.
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