The craftsman was alone in his workshop, a cubbyhole barely larger than a closet. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of such stalls in the medina in Fez, an ancient Moroccan city within a city of winding paths and centuries-old artisanship, where vendors tout their leather and oils on every corner. But this stall stood out. It was nearly bare, not crammed as most of the others were with doodads to be negotiated over.
A few tools hung on the wall, alongside some old photos of the craftsman, now white-haired and wearing a traditional long robe. It was early afternoon, and the craftsman sat on the floor, a few feet above the sidewalk, his wares spread out before him: delicate combs and spoons, in pearlescent cream and black, seemingly crafted out of bone.
Suddenly, he rose, stepped out of his shop and shuttered it. My photographer and fellow traveler, Ben Sklar, and I thought that perhaps it was time for midday prayer, or tea, and that our interaction was over. But the man beckoned us to follow him as he walked up the street in his orange djellaba, pausing to talk to a man outside a cafe, who turned to us. And so off we went, trailing after our new host β whose name, we later learned, was Mohammed Saili β as he led us through this labyrinthine North African city, toward a meal with his family.
Traversing Fez, as many visitors have noted, is like stepping back in time. Laid out in the ninth century, its acre medina, Fez El-Bali, was a scholarly and commercial center of North African and Muslim life, and claims to be the home of the oldest university in the world, University of Al-Karaouine, founded in Once the capital of Morocco, Fez remains a cultural and spiritual locus.
To navigate this bustling walled area, many visitors hire a guide. But Ben and I were used to doing things on our own, and preferred self-guided adventure. The twisting cobblestone paths will not be enlarged or smoothed out, the tight jumble of sand-colored mosques, bazaars and homes β their colorful tiled courtyards rendered invisible by imposingly thick outer walls β will not be broken by a sleek, modern building.
