This New York Times article names Fez “the soul of Morocco,” a term which I’m sure my fellow, true Meknassis would dispute a bit. But I couldn’t put my finger on what bothered me about the article until this morning, when I opened Google Reader and came across this post in Morocco Time. The article, as Liosliath says, sounds as though it was written by a Fassi, rather than Seth Sherwood of the New York Times.

“Fez is the soul of Morocco. It’s the last bastion of what Morocco really is,” croons Sherwood. Oh really?

I love Fez for many of the things it is, but the last bastion of the true Morocco? Let me explain:

I speak darija. Quite well, actually, according to my in-laws. I certainly couldn’t discuss politics in it, nor could I write poetry, but when it comes to bargaining or discussing the mundane matters of the day, I get an A+. Which is good, because I hardly speak two sentences of French.

In Meknes, this matters a great deal - my easy exchanges with hanout owners often garner a small piece of free chocolate, my dealings in the souq guarantee the “Moroccan price.” Even in cities like Marrakech, which I visit as frequently as possible, I can get the taxi driver to put his meter on without a second look, and once I got a better price on a pair of pants than my mother-in-law.

But in Fez…Ho! Alas, in Fez, it goes like this:

Me: “Salaam aleykum.”
Shopkeeper: “Bonjour, mademoiselle.” or “Hello”
Me: “Sh-hal hadi?”
Shopkeeper: “Oh, you speak Arabe. How nice. For this, I give you good price…”

And so on. Before you accuse me of hating on the Fassi population or their English skills, I can assure you, this is a true exchange. A frequent exchange. I have never gotten a good price in Fez. No matter if I don’t speak a word of English. Not to mention the fact that every time I go, I get chased down medina alleys by men yelling “I show you around, good price” and “Just come look, just look” etc.

Now, I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent, but I’m getting to precisely my point, which is - Fez may look like a jewel in an abyss of globalisation, but where is the authenticity in these tourist-pouncing Fassis? You might say the same for Marrakech, or for that matter, of any city where tourists frequently roam, but for me, Fez is where it’s the most pronounced. And believe me, I am not ignorant of the hardships Moroccans (and in particular Fassis) face, not at all. Look to this excellent post by Everything Morocco if you want to know what I’m talking about.

So what I truly take issue with is calling Fez “the soul” of Morocco and seeking myths. Have you ever been to Meknes? I thought not. Meknes gets the fewest tourists of all four imperial cities (Rabat, Fez, and Marrakech complete the quad), and fewer than Tangier and perhaps even Ouarzazate and Essaouira as well. Most tourists who visit Meknes do so because it’s irresistibly close to Fez, or because they want to see Volubilis, the Roman ruins, or Moulay Idriss Zerhoun, a nearby holy city (both of which are undoubtedly beautiful).

Meknassis, for centuries, have had a bit of an inferiority (or perhaps, for some, a superiority) complex toward Fassis. Despite being only an hour apart, Meknassis and Fassis have distinctly different accents and appearance (Meknassis are somewhat diminutive, and darker-skinned, Fassis lighter and of stature), political views, etc - down to their abilities to speak English (perhaps many tourists avoid Meknes because of the fact that very few folks in the medina speak languages aside from Arabic and French).

Their histories are different as well. Moulay Idriss II established Fes in the late 8th century CE (or AD, if you will), Moulay Ismail violently established Meknes as the capital (although it had existed as a Berber city for quite some time prior) in the 17th century. After that, when Mohammed III moved the capital to Marrakech (and the rival capitals of Fez and Marrekech were in force for awhile), Meknes became a “backwater,” as the Lonely Planet puts it, and forgotten until the French moved their military forces in.

And Meknes is still a backwater compared to most. No major chain restaurants (except for one McDonald’s), very few non-Moroccan restaurants to speak of at all. Hardly any nightlife except the few aforementioned bars (but certainly no real nightclubs), no major tourist hotels - no Sofitel, no Meridien - or even hostels, and very few tourists. And because of that, none of the despised faux guides that linger around the gates of Fez and Marrakech.

That’s quite why I like it here. Meknes has soul. It has a beautiful medina, beautiful, well-maintained monuments (the Medersa Bou Inania of Meknes is unbelievably awesome - see next post), and traditional livelihoods which still exist, with far less poverty than its neighbors. It was the first city to get rid of the bidonvilles or slums. And now Meknes is fighting hard to get everything else in working order. There’s a new tourist office in Place Hedim, the main square which had its tiles replaced last summer. Bab Mansour (recently used in the aforementioned H Kayne video, incidentally) had a facelift last year. A new Meknes Museum has opened up, and the outdated carpet exhibit at the Dar Jamai has been replaced.

I’ll take old Meknassi soul any day.