"The largest urban setting without cars that still exists in full use today, [Fes'] honeycomb structure resists the zooming pace of modern life and hangs suspended, a tangible space that is both within and without of time. For a city whose foundations were laid in the 9th century and has changed hands over fourteen times since, this resistance to temporality is not new, but rather the result of careful planning of space and an oral tradition that has informed Fessi residents’ perceptions of themselves and their urban environment since the city’s inception."

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"The characterization of the 'labyrinth' of Fes as 'primitive', 'random', or 'poorly developed' is a relatively recent concept that originates in this imperialist mentality of superiority, and was developed from a perspective of Western ideals. Through this paper, I seek to challenge these generalizations about Moroccan urban life and argue that the urban fabric was instead developed as the synthesis of complex political, cultural, and religious ideals, and represents a fundamentally different understanding of monumentality and spatial organization than in traditional Western theory. At the center of this perception of urban space is not public monumental structures, but the basic unit of a courtyard home, or dar, which to the people of Fes is a physical manifestation of complex notions of religious and social life, and the place from which all interactions with the world and Allah radiate."

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"The medina was, and remains:

'. . . a labyrinthine web of frequently narrow and half-lit streets, alleys, and cul-de-sacs that unites the urban infrastructure and does so much to define the space. . . Indicative of neither urban laissez-faire nor the indigenes’ purportedly irrational mind as once was held, this complex arrangement of partitioned thoroughfares and passages reveals a deliberately structured, readily defensible, and environmentally efficient habitat capable of supporting a large population.'

The winding passageways and countless courtyards of the medina are not merely bordered by walls, but are actively shaped by them. Ali Djerbi, a Tunisian architect and scholar, notes that the walls of the medina 'steer our changes of place; enclose, delimit, and protect our activities, objects, and tools; receive us and make us pass from one location to another. They separate and structure the architectural space, and by way of this they allow us to dwell'.

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"The visual importance placed on walls and boundaries within the medina is not solely an aesthetic choice, but one founded in the traditional principles of social and religious organization that dominated everyday life for Fes’ residents. [...] One only has to look at an aerial view of the medina to see the cell-like structure of walls and courtyards that crawls across the valley and the domination of domestic architecture. As observed by Stefano Bianca, 'The fabric appears as a crystallization of the internal laws that regulate society, transposed into architectural patterns.'"

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"This distinct difference between public and private life, as well as the spiritual importance of the courtyard, was represented through the ornamentation and structure of the exterior and interior walls. The dar’s external wall had two names: the first, ha’it, means “that which surrounds an area”, and is similar to the European conception of a wall. The second, however, is not easily translated and holds a complex symbolism of society, law, and religion. The word jidar is “the idea of the party wall and the accompanying concept of consensual contiguity, whereby the owner of a pre-existing dar is obliged to make a ‘gift’ of one or more of his external walls for his future neighbors to build on”. The profound effect of this concept on the urban fabric is easily grasped visually through the honeycomb-like structure of the residential areas. Inherent within this realization of the exterior wall is the concept of being physically connected with your neighbors through boundaries, and of a built universal link between all residents of Fes. It builds on the sacred notion of building blocks and the relationship of parts to the whole: there is no dar without a wall, and there is no labyrinth without jidar."

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"[...] domestic space is given significant careful thought and expression in Fessi homes, and 'given [the] importance accorded to domestic space in the Qur’an, Hadith, and Muslim thought, it is hardy fanciful to suggest that the rule of Islam is one of the house, not the castle or palace'. The history of European architecture is usually devoted to monumental structures; single buildings or spaces that have a gravitational pull on the culture that built them. In the city of Fez, however, the web of social relationships, the ties that one has to their own house, and the connection the built environment provides to everyone else in the city create a more abstract form of monumentality and distinct sense of place."