Fez

Timeline

1. 1231–1237Fez el-Bali · FezFez handled the northern distribution function of the trans-Saharan gold trade; leather, pottery, and weaving industries flourished; the al-Qarawiyyin University and numerous mosque madrasas made the city a major center of Maghrebi Islamic jurisprudence and grammar, attracting exiled Andalusian scholars.
2. 1238–1240Fez · FezThe Almohad Empire declined amid losses in Andalusia and internal strife; the Marinid tribe grew strong in the Rif Mountains and penetrated Fez; the city's scholarly institutions and artisanal base laid the conditions for the later Marinid establishment of the capital, while the northern end of the trans-Saharan trade routes kept functioning.
3. 1244–1350Fez · FezAfter the Marinid sultans made Fez their capital, they built mosque madrasas on a large scale (such as later structures like the Abu Inan Madrasa), making Fez a Maghrebi scholarly metropolis on par with Cairo and Damascus, and attracting West African Muslim scholars who visited via trade routes.