#Fez Medina

Before the French Came, Fez Already Knew How to Govern ItselfReflections on a city, its institutions, and the meaning of civilizationWhen we speak of the histor...

The Boy from Fez: Morocco, Told from WithinAn anthropologist's childhood, a civilization remembered, and a human story for everyone.There are places in thi...

This is a chapter from my future book, The Garden of Reflections.

It may be the smell of bread your mother baked, the tree you climbed as a child, a schoolyard, a song, a father's expression, an old neighbor, a family table around which people once gathered.

A century ago, an early traveler could open a Guide Bleu, discover the Imperial Cities, and set out toward Marrakech, Rabat, Meknes, and Fez. Today, someone can open a telephone thousands of kilometres away and book essentially the same route in minutes.

Every country contains differences of ethnicity, language, religion, region, tribe, culture, class, or historical memory. Travel places us directly before these differences. A responsible traveler does not arrive merely to photograph buildings or collect destinations. Travel offers an opportunity

After more than a month of effort, the expedition finally reached the Sebou Bridge near Fez on 29 January 1912, only a short walk from the city itself.

If one day a young reader who has never walked through the alleys of Fez learns dignity from my father, hospitality from my mother, wisdom from my grandmother, or kindness from one of those forgotten neighbors, then something extraordinary will have happened.

Dhikr was never understood as an escape from reality. It was a way of returning to reality by freeing the heart from becoming imprisoned by fear, anger, pride, greed, or despair.