Saturday, May 25, 2024 – 9am

The Quest for the Spirit of Al-Andalus.

At Fes Marriott Hotel Jnan Palace

Free Access

Rationale of the Fes Forum

This theme has been chosen for the 2024 forum due to its extensive scope and the expansive possibilities it unlocks across all realms of knowledge, discourse, ideologies, narratives, mythologies, and collective representations. It is not only relevant to Morocco and Spain but to all countries of the Mediterranean basin for over twelve centuries.

Beyond the critical question of scientifically determining the extent of myths, declarative speeches, and historical rewritings, multicultural Andalusia is celebrated worldwide, especially along the shores of the “Mare Nostrum”, as a magnificent saga. A past to be reinvented. An idyllic world of optimism, respect for difference, and brilliance in all arts and refinements, there’s even talk of a “peaceful, joyous, and serene dialogue of the three monotheistic religions”!

It’s an inexhaustible source of imagination fueling both theses and antitheses.

This grand utopia, which integrates and surpasses its history, has been inspiring all oracles of every obedience since the 8th century, conveyed, with or without nuances and critical view, as a Spirit builder, the spirit of al-Andalus.

Harmony, peace of the brave, mobility of people, ideas, and especially a deluge of artistic creativity, philosophy, poetry, sciences, and being.

This living together of the 10th and 11th centuries transcends all the myriad beliefs, affiliations, and identities.

Inspiring, the Spirit of al-Andalus questions and serves as an even more luminous model as it distances itself in narratives and discourses.

Myths? Realities? Tales? Utopias? History?

It’s all of these at once. Everyone draws from it what they dream of.

A mirror reflecting to each their version of that era and perhaps their hidden demons!

And all the better for it.

Let’s be clear, it is by no means a supermarket of illusions. It is called upon as a horizon of the past with multiple facets and intersecting illuminations.

Two veins will allow revisiting some areas of this creative utopia, indeed contradictory but very fruitful:

1- Universalism in the spirit of Al-Andalus.
2- Humanism in the spirit of Al-Andalus.

Forum Director: Professor Driss KHROUZ.

A translation into Amazigh can be provided if requests are made on the website of the Fondation Esprit de Fès.