The interior of the city is far from pleasing; the walls are lofty, and the streets are narrow and dirty. In the old town, where is the chief emporium of trade, there is one long narrow street running the entire length of the town. It is irregularly paved with round pebbles about the size and shape of a cocoa-nut; these worn smooth by the tread of slippered feet are sore stumbling blocks to the few equestrians who chance to ride through the town. Compared to its fellows this is a wide street,—that is, it varies from 6 to 9 feet in breadth.

The tradesman usually sits cross-legged in a corner of his shop, with his goods so arranged that he can reach them without moving. As a rule, men of a trade congregate together, using the cellars underneath the shop as working places. No stock of goods is kept on hand; they are only made to order. The houses generally consist of two or three stories, with a trellis-work verandah on the roof. They are lighted with wooden gratings in the side streets. The windows all look into the courtyards, so that the traveller sees only the gloomy prospect of a lofty blank wall.

In olden times Fez was the great seat of learning in western Africa. Leo Africanus states in his work that there were not only 700 mosques, but a large university, numerous theological schools, and one of the finest libraries in the world. Now, however, all that is changed. Dr Leared, who visited the city in 1877, endeavoured in vain to gain access to some small collections of ancient books and manuscripts in connexion with the mosques. The two chief mosques are the Caroubin, which is very large, and is said to contain a glass lustre holding 500 lamps, the spoil of some Christian church, and one named after Edris, the reputed founder of the city. The latter is a place of refuge for criminals, and the former has a special court for women to pray in—a most unusual thing in mosques. The palace gardens are fairly well kept; one of them, a beautifully wooded plot of ground on the banks of the river, contains some magnificent myrtles, rising to a height of 40 feet, with trunks like forest trees, and there are fruit and other trees in great variety. The palace, called Lallah A1mina, built as usual of a mixture of clay and lime, is situated about two miles from the town; the courtyard, which is 100 paces long by 50 wide, is paved with highly glazed and very effectively coloured tiles. This palace is said to have been built by Christian slaves, among whom were many English captives.

As a commercial town Fez is a great depot for the trade of Barbary, where also are collected wares brought from the east and south by caravans. The chief exports are almonds, gums, raisins, dates, caraway seeds, anise seed, citrons, capers, olive oil, honey, tallow, hides, tanned leather, ostrich feathers, lead, some gold, ivory, and gold dust, silken goods (such as bright-coloured scarfs, turbans, and sashes), coarse linen, carpets, and saddlery. The “fez,” or national head-dress of the Turks, is largely made. Until recent times, the city had a monopoly of the manufacture, for it was supposed that the dye which imparts the peculiar dull crimson hue of these skull-caps could not be obtained elsewhere; now, however, they are manufactured both in France and in Turkey. The dye is obtained from the juice of a small berry which grows in large quantities in the immediate neighbourhood of the town, and is also extensively used in the tanning of morocco leather, one of the chief articles of export. Some gold work is made, the precious metal being brought from the interior of Africa by caravans which trade regularly with Timbuctoo. These start in the spring and autumn, and are usually about 140 days on the journey, of which only 54 are actually spent in marching. The merchants of Fez send by this means to the cities in the interior of Africa various articles of European manufacture and foreign produce, linens, muslins, fine cloths, silks, beads, brass nails, coffee, tea, and sugar, and in return they receive, gums, gold, elephants’ tusks, ambergris, ostrich feathers, and slaves.

It is believed that Fez was built in the year 793, by a prince named Edris; and, having soon become a city of much importance, it rose to be the capital of the Mahometan states of western Africa. The Moors considered it the finest city in the world; and it is held in extreme veneration also by all Moslem inhabitants of Africa. Leo Africanus mentions it as one of the most famous resorts of pilgrims in the 16 th century, as well as the principal Arabic university in the world. It is filled with tombs of holy men, which impart to it an air of sacredness. In the 10th century, when the road to Mecca was unsafe, pilgrimages were performed to Fez, instead of to the tomb of the prophet. Subsequently its schools of religion, philosophy, and astronomy enjoyed a great reputation in Africa, and also throughout southern Europe, and were attended even by Christians. On the expulsion of the Moors from Spain, refugees of all sorts flocked to Fez, partly on account of the asylum it afforded as a sacred city. These bringing with them some knowledge of arts, sciences, and manufactures, for a time the city flourished; but the vices and traditional conservatism of the Moslem religion prevented permanent improvement, so that it gradually sank to the unknown and unimportant position it now occupies.

During the summer the heat is intense, but in winter the climate is excellent. Travellers differ much as to the number of inhabitants. Dr Leared computes them at from 45,000 to 50,000, but without sufficient data. Berbers, Arabs, negroes, and Jews are the principal races dwelling in the city. The Jews suffer great persecutions and many indignities, but many of them contrive to amass money.

The best method of reaching Fez is from Tangier, the total distance being about 160 miles. The road, though a mere bridle path, is quite practicable for camels and horses. There are numerous towns and villages at suitable distances, which afford convenient halting-places for travellers.

Authorities.— Leo Africanus, Barth, Rohlfs, Edmondo de Amicis, Dr Vogel, and Dr Leared. ( C. B. N.)

The Jebel-es-Sυda is described by M. Duveyrier as an isolated volcanic mass in the midst of a hammada or bare desert plateau of white limestone. Its length E. to W. is about 170 miles. At a point near the pass by which M. Duveyrier crossed it, a summit reaches a height of 2415 feet; where Rohlfs (Quer durch Afrika, Leipsic, 1874) passed over it between Tripoli and Murzuk he found its height to be 2982 feet. The volcanic mass of the Haruj continues the line of the Soda in a S.E. direction for about 150 miles, and is crossed obliquely by the caravan routes from Fezzan to Egypt. Where Von Beurmann crossed the Haruj on the route from Zella to Murzuk he estimates its height at 1660 feet. The plateau of which these ranges mark the northern edge appears to be a continuation of the great desert plateau of Tripoli called the Hammada-el-Homra, and to have a general width of about 70 miles; where it is crossed on the western route over the Soda it is described as shingly broken table-land, scattered over with large sandstone blocks; in the neighbourhood of the Haruj on the east it presents a series of ridges running in different directions 8 to 12 feet above the intermediate land. The wadis or periodically filled rain-channels which drain northward from these heights are for the most part tributaries of the Wadi-Um-el-Cheil, which is called Wadi Bel where it opens on the coast of the greater Syrtis, and of the Wadi Tarnet east of the former.

The southern edge of the plateau behind the Soda descends to the Wadi-e-Shati running east and west; then follows a latitudinal belt of about 70 miles in average width, occupied by the sand dunes of Edeyen which run across the frontier from the north of the Tuareg plateau in the west, and in the east by Serir, the name applied to districts which differ from the hammada or true plateaus, in being less elevated and everywhere covered with coarse gravel or rounded water-worn stones, in contrast to the sharply broken blocks scattered on the higher table-lands. To this follows southward the narrower belt called the Hammada of Murzuk, of inconsiderable elevation, marked out on the north side by the Amsak ridge which falls to the Wadi-el-Gharbi and its continuation the Wadi-e-Sherki at its base, and which descends on the south to the line of Hofra, or slight depressions iu which lie the oasis groups of Murzuk, Zuila, and Wau. Along the northern side of the Wadi-e-Sherki and Wadi-el-Gharbi, about 60 miles N.W. of Murzuk, lie the celebrated Trona lakes of Fezzan, which were first described by Dr Vogel. They are situated in a desert of drift sand in which the camels sink up to their bellies; one of them, the Bahr-el-Daud (Dauda = “worm ”), contains the remarkable shrimp noticed below. In general the surface of Fezzan does not vary greatly in elevation; its numerous wadis do not lie much below the level of the Serir; the height of Murzuk, for example, is estimated by Rohlfs at 1804 feet, or little below the general level of the hammada in the north.

Climate.— The average temperature of Murzuk was found by Rohlfs to be 70° F., or 6° lower than that of Ghadames on the borders of western Tripoli. This difference he accounts for by the greater winter cold, for the heat of summer is probably greater here than in Tripoli; and his meteorological tables show such low temperatures as 25° F. at sunrise on the 20th of December, or 23° F. on the 30th of January, the thermometer having fallen below the freezing point 24 times within three months. As in ail the rest of the desert, the climate is a very regular one, and is in general healthy, the dryness of the air in summer making the heat more bearable than on the sea coast, where the moisture of the atmosphere hinders evaporation from the skin. Although Fezzan does not lie within the zone of the tropical rains, and scarcely touches the limit of the winter rains supplied by the Mediterranean, it is visited at rare intervals by showers from the south. An almost perpetual blue sky overhangs the desert, and the people of Fezzan are so unaccustomed to and so ill-prepared for wet weather that, as in Tuat and Tidikelt, they pray to be spared from rain. They are not dependent upon it, for water is found almost everywhere at small depths, and little trouble is required to draw it from wells worked by men or camels for the purposes of irrigation; the palm groves, indeed, require no artificial watering, since their roots strike deep enough to reach the water-bearing stratum.

Products.— In the oases and cultivated spots of Fezzan there are generally five grain harvests in the year: in the winter months wheat and barley are sown, and in spring, summer, and autumn the various kinds of durra, especially ksob and gafoli. Ksob, first sown in March, is planted and reaped four times successively, although the last harvest in December does not ripen, so that it is used only as fodder for cattle. From year’s end to year’s end all kinds of vegetables could be produced, but only a few sorts, such as melons and cucumbers in summer, turnips and tubers in autumn, beans in winter, &c., are grown. Among other cultivated plants are tobacco (small and bad) and cotton. The latter flourishes, is perennial for six or seven years, and gives large pods of moderate length of staple. Olives, figs, and almonds are the chief fruits, besides the date, which is the great wealth of the land. The number of sorts of date-palm found in the oases is very large: in that of Murzuk alone more than 30 varieties are counted, the most esteemed being named the Tillis, Tuati, and Auregh. In all Fezzan the date is the staple food, not only for men, but for camels, horses, and dogs. Even the stones of the fruit are softened and given to the cattle. The huts of the poorer classes are entirely made of date-palm leaves, and the more substantial habitations consist chiefly of the same material. The produce of the tree is small, 100 full-grown trees yielding only about 40 cwts. of dates, worth about 30s. at Murzuk, and about four times that sum at Tripoli. They may generally be preserved about two years.

Domestic animals include only the camel (in two varieties, the Tebu or Sudan camel and the Arabian, differing very much in size, form, and capabilities), domestic fowls, and pigeons,—for the few horses, perhaps 50 in all Fezzan, and the miserable cattle, sheep, and goats imported, scarcely deserve mention. There are no large carnivora in Fezzan; even the hyena and jackal are absent. In the uninhabited oases gazelles and antelopes are occasionally found, but they are by no means abundant. Among birds are sparrows, swallows, ravens, falcons, and vultures; in summer wild pigeons and ducks are numerous, but in winter they seek a warmer climate. There are no remarkable insects or snakes. A species of Artemia or brine shrimp, about a quarter of an inch in length, of a colour resembling the bright hue of the gold fish, is fished for with cotton nets in the Bahr-el-Daud before noticed, and, mixed with dates and kneaded into a paste, which has the taste and smell of salt herring, is considered a luxury by the people of Fezzan.

People.— The inhabitants of Fezzan are undoubtedly a mixed people, derived from the surrounding Teda and Bornu on the south, Tuareg of the plateaus on the west, Berbers and Arabs from the north. In colour the people vary from black to pure white, but the prevailing hue of skin is a Malay-like yellow, the features and woolly hair being negro. The chief languages in use in Fezzan are, first, the Kamiri or Bornu language, which is spoken by little children before they learn Arabic, and, secondly, Arabic itself. Many understand Targish, the Teda, and Haussa languages. If among such a mixed people there can be said to be any national language, it is that of Bornu, which is most widely understood and spoken. The people of Sokna, north of the Jebel-es-Sôda, have a peculiar Berber dialect which Rohlfs found to be very closely allied to that of Ghadames. The natives of Fezzan are mild and conciliatory. As soon as one has passed the frontier of their country there is no more need to fear robbers; and this is the more remarkable since Tebus, who bear a thievish character in their own country, are very numerous. The men wear a haik or barakan like those of Tripoli, and a fez; short hose, and a large loose shirt called mansaria, with red or yellow slippers, complete their toilet. Yet one often sees the large blue or white tobe of Sudan and Bornu, and the litham or shawl-muffler of the Tuareg, wound round the mouth to keep out the blown sand of the desert. The women, who so Jong as they are young have very plump forms, and who are generally small, are more simply dressed, as a rule, in the barakan, wound round their bodies; they seldom wear shoes, but generally have sandals made of palm leaf. Like the Arab women they load arms and legs with heavy metal rings, which are of silver among the more wealthy; a single one of these rings sometimes weighs a French pound. The hair, thickly greased with butter, soon catching the dust, which forms a crust over it, is done up in numberless little plaits round the head, in the same fashion as in Bornu and Haussa. Little children run about naked until they attain the age of puberty, which comes very early, for mothers of ten or twelve years of age are not uncommon. Morality is at a very low stage, and the Fezzanians live a careless and happy life: every evening the sounds of music and dancing are heard.

The greater number live in huts of palm leaves, which are set up in the simplest manner; sometimes there is a small outer hut, which is plastered outside with mud, and serves a3 a winter dwelling; the two are then surrounded by a little palm fence. Towns, like the capital Murzuk, are either built of stone or of lumps of earth, as these may be convenient to the site, but beyond the town wall nothing is to be seen but palm huts.

The houses are generally one-floored, and have one or two rooms; sometimes there is a little courtyard; all are windowless, and have only a low doorway. Dates, as has been already noticed, form the staple food, and camels’ flesh is only eaten in the towns. In Murzuk, on an average, three camels are slaughtered every day, with one sheep and one goat, which serve for the whole population without and within the walls of about 8000∙

With regard to the numbers of the population of Fezzan the estimates of various travellers, in the absence of any trustworthy data, are widely different. Hornemann gives 70,000 to 75,000, Richardson only 26,000, Vogel 54,000. Rohlfs, who visited Fezzan at a prosperous period in 1865, believes the number 200,000 to be a moderate estimate; but Nachtigal, in 1870, thinks the whole population cannot exceed 40,000.

Government.— Fezzan is governed by a kalmakam or lieu tenant-governor, under the governor of the vilayet, province, or regency of Tripoli. At the time of Rohlfs’s visit, the twelve mudirates or districts into which it had formerly been divided had been reduced to seven, but the Government was on the point of restoring the twelve districts, and of marking out their limits more distinctly. These districts are those of Bonjem, Sokna, Shati, Temenhint, Sebha, Wadi Sherki, Wadi Gharbi, Hofra, Sherguîa, Zella, Rhodua, and Gatron. All the mudirs are appointed by the kalmakam of Fezzan, and deposed by him, if he should see fit, without reference to the mushir of Tripoli. The government is like that of the other Turkish provinces, practically absolute—for the will of the kalmakam or the mudir is law— although in form constitutional, since a mijelis or council, in most cases only imaginary, is supposed to have a voice in the legislature.

Although the inhabited parts of Fezzan are naturally rich and fertile, the Turkish Government shows little skill in taking advantage of its resources. Under the most favourable circumstances the direct revenue of the country amounts to about 800,000 piastres, or about £72,000. Besides this, however, the Government receives a large sum from the sale of dates. Round Murzuk alone the number of palm trees belonging to the Government is reckoned by Rohlfs at a million. The direct receipts serve to salary the officials, including the kalmakam and the troops, who, however, are not very regularly paid. Except it may be a present of slaves or other articles sent by the kalmakam, not a farthing passes to Tripoli or Constantinople. On the contrary, all clothing, arms, even provisions, such as rice, sugar, and coffee for the soldiers, come from Tripoli or Stamboul. At the time of M. Duveyrier’s visit the garrison of Murzuk consisted of 250 men of the regular Ottoman army (redîf), nearly all natives of Fezzan or negroes. At a later date Rohlfs found a garrison of 500 men.

Trade.— The commerce of Fezzan is unimportant, and has never been great. The country serves as a depot or middle station between Bornu and its surrounding negro states in the south and Tripoli and Egypt in the north, the caravan routes between these countries passing through it and centring at Murzuk. In later times the slave trade seems rather to have increased than diminished: the slaves are partly sent on to be sold in Tripoli and Tunis, partly by Aujila towards Egypt. The whole number that pass northward by the main caravan route from Kuka in Bornu is estimated at 10,000 annually.

Towns.— Murzuk, the present capital, lies in the western corner of the Hofra depression, in lat. 25° 55' N. and long. 14° 10' E. It was founded about 1310. One of the earliest buildings was the kasbah in the west of the town. The Turks have restored it as well as the wall of the town, which forms almost a perfect square. The town is cut in two by a wide street, the deηdal, with shops on each side, which open at each end to the chief gates. The population within its walls is estimated by Rohlfs at 3000, excluding the garrison of 500 men; with its extra-mural huts it may have 8000 inhabitants. In its main streets a busy market is held in which provisions, meat, bread, and vegetables are bought; but it is insignificant in comparison with some of the other markets of the Sahara, such as that of Abuam in Tafilet. There are two Turkish coffee-houses which are busily frequented. Sokna, about midway between Tripoli and Murzuk, situated on a great gravel plain north of the Soda range, seems to stand next to Murzuk in point of importance. Its population was estimated by Vogel at 2500. The other noteworthy centres of population are—Zuila and Temissa, on the route towards Egypt, E.N.E. of Murzuk; Germa, or Djerma, a walled place in the Wadi Sherki, 70 miles N.W. of Murzuk, near which was the ancient capital of Garama, which gave its name to the nation of the Garamantes; Gatron (1000 inhabitants) and Tejerri on the southern route towards Bomu, the latter being the frontier castle round which a village of low mud huts has grown up; Sebha in its oasis 90 miles N.N.E. of Murzuk; Fughâa on the plateau S.W. of the Haruj-el-Aswad; and Zella at the northern base of that range.

History.— The group of oases in the south of the present country of Fezzan represents the ancient Phazania, which has had for its capitals at successive periods Germa or Djerma under the Garamantes, Garama under the Romans, Trâghen under the Nesûr, Zuila under the conquering Arabs, and Murzuk under the dynasty of Uled Mohammed, under Abd-el-Jelîl, and under the Turks. The capital of the Garamantes is found under the name of Djerma-el-Kedîma, south of the modern Djerma (N.W. of Murzuk), in a sort of bay formed by the hill edge of Amsâk. The capital under the Nesûr is represented still by the ruins of the ancient castle of Trâghen (40 miles E. of Murzuk). Of the Garama of the Romans there remains now only one well-preserved monument, which is depicted in M. Duveyrier’s work (Les Touaregs du Hord, Paris, 1864) situated amid ruins to the south of modern Djerma. Zuila, the Arab capital, remains as the chief place of the depression called the Sherguia, east of the Murzuk, through which the most direct Egyptian route leads. Tradition and history are in accord in representing the most ancient inhabitants of the oases to have been the Berâuna, a name under which the Arabs group the negroes of Bornu as well as the Tebu. The oldest dynasty of the Berâuna was that of the Nesûr, originally from the Sudan. Its kings reigned at Trâghen, and were long in power before they were conquered and dethroned by an Arab tribe, that of Khormân, who reduced the people of Fezzan to a state of slavery. During this period of bondage, a sherif of Morocco, Sîd-el-Monteser-uld-Mohammed by name, on a pilgrimage to Mecca, passed through Fezzan. Yielding to the supplications of the people, on his return from the sacred city, he gathered a force of devotees and set out to liberate the Fezzanians. He defeated and expelled the Khormân Arabs, and, being elected sultan, founded the dynasty of Uled Mohammed. This dynasty, which reigned for about 550 years, advanced the interests of the country, and gradually extended its borders as far as Sokna in the north. The last of these sultans was killed in the vicinity of Trâghen in 1811 by El-Mukkeni, one of the lieutenants of Yousef-Pasha, the last sovereign of the independent Karamanli dynasty of Tripoli. El-Mukkeni now made himself sultan of Fezzan, and became notorious by his slaving expeditions into Nigritia, in which he advanced as far as Borgu, the Bahr-el-ghazal, and Bagirmi. In 1831, after the lieutenant of the Karamanli had reigned for 20 years, Abd-el-Jelîl, the celebrated chief of the Uled-Slimân Arabs, usurped the sovereign authority, and held it for ten years, during which time he maintained a contest which kept all Fezzan in a ferment. In 1841, Tripoli having meanwhile been erected into a province of the Ottoman empire, Bakir Bey was sent at the head of a column of troops to subjugate Fezzan. A battle took place at El-Bagla, not far from the sea, in which Abd-el-Jeûl was slain, and soon after this Fezzan was made a kalmakamlik of the Ottoman empire.

From 1811 onward there is no doubt about the facts above enumerated. Previous to 1811, the documents preserved by the marabouts of Trâghen show that the dynasty of Uled-Mohammed occupied the throne of Fezzan for many centuries; but the date of its establishment, 1261, is perhaps questionable. Μ. Duveyrier adduces a number of proofs to show that the Berâuna above mentioned were identical with the Garamantes, so that it becomes almost a matter of certainty that at a very ancient date a negro civilization prevailed over the northern Sahara; and that this was very far advanced for its time is shown by the remains of remarkable hydraulic works, by tombs of distinct character, and by rock sculptures which...