Fez

Who holds it

Name

Not pinned for 1 January 1200

Title

The caliph's governor of Fez

Since

Not pinned

Confidence

low

No governor named for 1199-1200 (see Fez).

Lord in 1200

The caliph's governor of Fez (not pinned)

Overlord

The caliph Muhammad al-Nasir

How things stand that morning

Held and quiet.

Wealth

Crafts, markets, mills.

Military

The governor's garrison; no walls.

Charter

None known: Almohad towns were ruled by the caliph's governor, judge and officers, not by charter.

Council

The governor, the town's judge and the Almohad shaykh beside the governor; the great families of scholars and merchants of the two banks (not named here).

Communities

Arabs and Andalusians of old descent in the two banks, Berbers of the surrounding tribes, Jews (forced converts in name), scholars and students.

Fairs and markets

Daily markets in the commercial heart round the Qarawiyyin (the qaysariyya); weekly markets of the surrounding tribes.

Militia

Not known; the townsmen had defended their walls before 1145.

Walls and castle

Walls razed by Abd al-Mu'min in 1145 and not yet rebuilt; an Almohad fortress (qasba) for the garrison (not pinned in detail).

Trade and crafts

Leather and tanning, textiles, pottery, metalwork, paper, flour mills on the river channels; trade with Sijilmasa, Tlemcen, Ceuta and Badis.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 600-601 AH (1203-1205)Al-Nasir stays about three months at Fez and has the walls rebuilt.Depends on: The eastern campaign starting from Fez. Stopped by: A change of plan.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The town is well known; its officers in 1200 are not named.

On the map: The town and its near gardens.

Primary sources for Almohads

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• History of the Two Dynasties, the Almohad and the Hafsid, al-Zarkashi (Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Lu'lu'i al-Zarkashi) (about 1490 to 1495, at Tunis). A short Hafsid-era chronicle whose Almohad opening gives, in a few lines a reign, the succession of al-Mansur and al-Nasir, the Banu Ghaniya's seizure of Ifriqiya and its recovery, and the sending of Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs to Tunis, which the Hafsids counted as the start of their house. Read online
• The Complete History: the passages on the Maghreb and al-Andalus, Ibn al-Athir (about 1220 to 1231, at Mosul). The year entries for 595 to 597 of the Hijra (late 1198 to 1201) record the death of Yaqub al-Mansur, the accession of al-Nasir and the opening of Yahya ibn Ghaniya's war in Ifriqiya; the following years follow Yahya and the Ghuzz captain Qaraqush through Tripoli, Gabès and Mahdia to al-Nasir's reconquest in 1206, with the best eastern account of Qaraqush's career. Read online
• The Garden of Pages: a History of the Kings of the Maghreb and of the City of Fez, Ibn Abi Zar al-Fasi (completed in 1326 at Fez, for the Marinid sultan Abu Said Uthman). The Almohad chapters give a brisk dated narrative of al-Mansur's death and burial, al-Nasir's accession and the Banu Ghaniya troubles, with the kind of detail (coinage, public works at Fez and Rabat, prices, plagues) that a Fez compiler cared about, and the annals of Fez supply the city's governors and markets. Read online
• The Wondrous Account of the History of al-Andalus and the Maghreb, Ibn Idhari al-Marrakushi (about 1312, at Marrakesh). The Almohad section is the fullest year-by-year narrative of the caliphate around 1200: the last campaigns and the death of Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur in January 1199, the accession of his son Muhammad al-Nasir, the renewed war of the Banu Ghaniya in Ifriqiya under Yahya ibn Ishaq and his ally Qaraqush, the Almohad losses of Mahdia and Tunis a few years later, and al-Nasir's reconquest of Ifriqiya in 1205 to 1206 followed by the appointment of Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs as governor. Read online
• Historical Monuments of Portugal: Writers (Annals of King Afonso, Chronicon Conimbricense, Chronica Gothorum and others) (12th to 15th centuries). The Portuguese annals in one volume. Read online
• Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile, Anonymous, probably Juan of Osma, chancellor of Castile (about 1223 to 1239). The chancellor's chronicle of Alfonso VIII's reign, detailed from the 1190s. Read online
• The Complete History, Izz al-Din Ibn al-Athir (about 1200 to 1231, at Mosul). The widest Muslim narrative for the years 596 to 597 AH (1199 to 1201): al-Adil's entry into Cairo and his taking of the sultanate from his nephew al-Mansur Muhammad early in 1200, the quarrels of the Ayyubid princes at Damascus, Aleppo and Hama, the Nile failure and the great famine of Egypt, Mosul under Nur al-Din Arslan Shah and the Jazira under Gokbori and the Artuqids, Baghdad under the caliph al-Nasir, the Khwarazmshah Tekish's death in 1200 and Muhammad's accession, the Ghurid wars in Khurasan, the Eldiguzids and Georgia, the Almohads in the west, and the Seljuks of Rum in passing. Read online
• Memoirs of the Mahdi Ibn Tumart and the Beginnings of the Almohad State, Abu Bakr ibn Ali al-Sanhaji, called al-Baydhaq (about 1150 to 1165). Nothing for the year itself: al-Baydhaq's memoir ends in Abd al-Mu'min's early reign.

17 more in the sources library for The Maghreb and the Sahara.