The Mellah of Fez () is the historic Jewish quarter (Mellah) of Fez, Morocco. It is located in Fes el-Jdid, the part of Fez which contains the Royal Palace (Dar al-Makhzen), and is believed to date from the mid-15th century. While the district is no longer home to any significant Jewish population, it still contains a number of monuments and landmarks from the Jewish community's historical heritage in the city.
History
Background: the Jewish community before the Mellah (9th to 14th centuries)
Fez had long hosted the largest and one of the oldest Jewish communities in Morocco, present since the city's foundation by the Idrisids (in the late 8th or early 9th century). They lived in many parts of the city alongside the Muslim population, as evidenced by the fact that Jewish houses were purchased and demolished for the Almoravid expansion of the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque (located at the center of the city), and by the claims of Maimonides' residence in what later became the Dar al-Magana (in the western part of the city). Nonetheless, since the time of Idris II (early 9th century) the Jewish community was more or less concentrated in the neighbourhood known as Foundouk el-Yihoudi ("hotel/warehouse of the Jew") near Bab Guissa in the northeast of the city. The city's original Jewish cemetery was also located near here, just outside the gate of Bab Guissa.
As elsewhere in the Muslim world, the Jewish population lived under the protected but subordinate status of dhimmi, required to pay a jizya tax but able to move relatively freely and cultivate relations in other countries. Fez, along with Cordoba, was one of the centers of a Jewish intellectual and cultural renaissance taking place in the 10th and 11th centuries in Morocco and al-Andalus (Spain and Portugal under Muslim rule). A number of major figures such as Dunash Ben Labrat (poet, circa 920-990), Judah ben David Hayyuj (or Abu Zakariyya Yahya; grammarian, circa 945-1012), and the great Talmudist Isaac al-Fasi (1013-1103) were all born or spent time in Fez. Maimonides also lived in Fez from 1159 to 1165 after fleeing al-Andalus. This age of prosperity came to an end, however, with the advent of Almohad rule in Morocco and Al-Andalus. The Almohads, who officially followed the radical reformist ideology of Ibn Tumart, abolished the jizya and the status of dhimmi, enforcing repressive measures against non-Muslims and other reforms. Jews under their rule were widely forced to convert or be exiled, with some converting but continuing to practice their Jewish faith in secret.
The decline of the Almohads and the rise of the Marinid dynasty's rule over Morocco in the 13th century brought a more tolerant climate in which the Jewish community was able to recover and grow again. Following the pogroms of 1391 under Spanish rule, in places like Seville and Catalonia, a large number of Spanish Jews (also referred to as Megorashim) fled to North Africa and settled in cities like Fez.
Creation of the Mellah (15th century)
In 1276 the Marinids had founded Fes el-Jdid, a new fortified administrative city to house their royal palace and army barracks, located to the west of Fes el-Bali ("Old Fez"). Later in the Marinid period the Jewish inhabitants of Fes el-Bali were all moved to a new district in the southern part of Fes el-Jdid. This district, possibly created after the 1276 foundation, was located between the inner and outer southern walls of the city and was initially inhabited by Muslim garrisons, notably by the Sultan's mercenary contingents of Syrian archers. These regiments were disbanded around 1325 under Sultan Abu Sa'id. The district was first known as Hims, but also by the name Mellah ( or 'saline area') due to either a saline water source in the area or to the former presence of a salt warehouse. This second name was later retained as the name of the Jewish quarter. This was the first "mellah" in Morocco; a name and phenomenon that came to be replicated in many other cities such as Marrakech. (A notable exception being the nearby town of Sefrou.)