the capital of a kingdom of the same name in Barbary, in Africa. It is described as a very large place, surrounded with high walls, within which there are hills and valleys, only the middle being level and flat. The river which runs through the city, is divided into two streams, from which canals are cut into every part of the town: so that the mosques, colleges, palaces, and the houses of great men, are amply supplied with water. They have generally square marble basins in the middle of the court of their houses, which are supplied with water by marble pipes that pass through the walls. They constantly run over, and the stream returns back into the street, and so into the river. The houses are built with brick or stone; and are adorned on the outside with fine mosaic work, or tiles like those of Holland. The wood work and ceilings are carved, painted and gilt. The roofs are flat; for they sleep on the tops of the houses in summer. Most of the houfes are two stories high, and fome three. There are piazzas and galleries running all round the court on the inside, fo that you may go under cover from one apartment to another. The pillars are of brick, covered with glazed tiles, or of marble, with arches between. The timber work is carved and painted with gay colours, and moft of the rooms have marble cifters of water. Some of the great men build towers over their houfes feveral flores high, and fpare no expence to render them beaufiful; from hence they have a fine profept all over the city.

There are in this city 700 moftques, great and fmall, 50 of which are magnificent, and fupported with marble pillars and other ornaments. The floors are covered with mats, as well as the walls to the height of a man. Every moftque has a tower or minaret, like thoife in Turkey, with a gallery on the top, from whence they call the people to prayers. The principal moftque is near a mile and a half in circumference. The middle building is 150 yards in length, and 80 in breadth, with a tower proportionably high. Round this to the eafh, weft, and north, there are great colonnades 30 or 40 yards long. There are 900 lamps lighted every night; and in the middle of the moftque are large branches, which are capable of holding 500 lamps each. Along the walls are feven pulpits, from which the doctors of the law teach the people. The buflnels of the prieft is only to read prayers, and diftribute alms to the people; to support which, there are large revenues.

Besides the moftques, there are two colleges built in the Moorifh manner, and adorned with marble and paintings. In one of them there are 150 rooms, besides a magnificent hall. In this there is a great marble vafe full of water, adorned with marble pillars of various colours, and finely polifhed. The capitals are gilt, and the roof fhines with gold, azure, and purple. The walls are adorned with Arabic verfes in gold characters. The other colleges are not near fo beaufiful, or rather are all gone to ruin fince the neglect of learning.

There are hofpitals in the city, where formerly all strangers were maintained three days gratis. But the eftefts belonging to them have been confiscated for the emperor's ufe. There are above 100 public baths, many of which are ftately buildings. People of the fame trade or buflnel live in streets by themfelves.

Though the country about Fez is pleasant and fertile, and in many places abounding with corn and cattle, yet a great part of it lies waite and uncultivated, not fo much for want of inhabitants as from the opprefion of the governors; which makes the people choofe to live at fome diftance from the high roads, where they cultivate juft as much land as is neceffary for their own fubfiftence.

Round the city there are fine marble tombs, monuments, and gardens full of all manner of fruit trees.

Such are the common accounts of this city. The following are given by M. Chenier, in his Recherches Historiques fur les Maures.

Fez was built in the end of the eighth century by Edris, a defendant of Mahomet and of Ali; whose father, in order to avoid the procriptions of the caliph Abdalla, retired to the extremity of Africa, and was proclaimed fovereign by the Moors. Sidy Edris, having fucceeded to the throne of his father, built the city of Fez in the year 793. He caufed a moftque to be erected, in which his body was interred, and the city ever afterwards became an asylum for the Moors, and a place of devotion. In the firft moments of fervour, which a new worfhip inspires, another moftque was built called carubin, which is perhaps one of the largest and moft beaufiful edifices in Africa. Several others were fucceffively built, besides colleges and hospitals; and the city was held in fuch veneration, that when the pilgrimage to Mecca was interrupted in the fourth century of the Hegira, the western Mahometans substituted that of Fez in its flead, while the eastern people went to Jerufalem.

When the Arabs had overpread Asia, Africa, and Europe, they brought to Fez the little knowledge they had acquired in the sciences and arts; and that capital conjoined, with the schools of religion, academies where philofophy was taught, together with medicine and astronomy. This laft gradually degenerated; ignorance brought astrology into repute, and this quickly engendered the arts of magic and divination.

Fez soon became the common refort of all Africa. The Mahometans went thither for the purpofes of devotion; the affluence of strangers introduced a taste for pleafure; libertinifm quickly followed; and, as its progrefs is moft rapid in warm countries, Fez, which had been the nurfe of sciences and arts, became a harbour for every kind of vice. The public baths, which health, cleanliness, and cuftom, had rendered neceffary, and which were everywhere refpefted as sacred places, became fenes of debauchery; where men introduced themfelves in the habits of women: youths in the fame difguife, with a diftaff in their hands, walked the fleets at funfet in order to entice strangers to their inns, which were lefs a place of repofe than a convenience for profition.

The ufurpers who difputed the kingdom of Fez after the 16th century overlooked these abuses, and contented themfelves with subjefting the masters of the inns to furnish a certain number of cooks for the army. It is to this laxity of discipline that Fez owed its firft splendour. As the inhabitants are beaufiful, the Africans flocked thither in crowds; the laws were overturned, morals defpifed, and vice itfelf turned into an engine of political refoerce. The fame spirit, the fame inclinations, the fame depravity, still exift in the hearts of all the Moors. But libertinifm is not now encouraged; it wears there, as in other places, the mark of hypocrify; and dares not venture to show itfelf in the face of day.

The Mahometans of Andalusia, thofe of Granada and Cordova, migrated to Fez during the different revolutions that agitated Spain; they carried with them new cuftoms and new arts, and perhaps fome flight degree of civilization. The Spanish Moors carried from Cordova to Fez the art of staining goat and fheep fkins with a red colour, which were then called Cordova leather, and now Morocco leather, from that city where the art is lefs perfeft. They manufacture gauzes at Fez, filk ruffles, and girdles elegantly embroifered with gold and filk, which fhew how far their ingenuity might be carried if induftry were more encouraged.

There is ftill fome taste for study preferved at Fez, and the Arabic language is fpoken there in greater purity.