Fez, or more properly Faz, the second capital of the sultanate of Morocco, lies in a hill-girt valley, 100 miles E. of Rabat on the Atlantic. With crumbling walls, and narrow, dirty, sunless streets, Fez has for over a thousand years been one of the sacred cities of Islam, renowned for its university and schools of learning. The university, attached to the venerated mosque of the Cherubim or of Muley Edris, is frequented by 700 pupils from all parts of the Mohammedan world, and has about forty professors. Attached to this mosque is a library, containing 30,000 MSS. The extensive palace of the sultan is now partly in ruins. Although thus falling into decay, Fez is nevertheless one of the busiest commercial towns of north-west Africa; its merchants import European manufactured wares, which they despatch by caravans to Timbuktu and the interior of Africa, and export fruits, gums, gold, morocco leather, fez caps, pottery, and gold and silver wares. The pop. is very variously estimated from 150,000 to 54,000. Fez was founded by Muley Edris in 808. From 1086 it was the capital of an Almoravid independent kingdom, and ranked, both as a sacred city and for its learning, as one of the first cities of Islam. But from the date of its incorporation with Morocco, in 1548, it began to decay.