Reading Semiotics of a Madinah: A Discourse of the Topography of Fas

Baber Johansen's, "The All Embracing Town And Its Mosques: Al-Misr al-Jami", reveals a debate among the Hanafi jurists on the legality of Friday prayer and the legal definition of a madinah. Similar attention has not been given to the Maliki jurists or cities in the Maghrib. The present essay will examine the city of Fas (madinat Fás) as a legal concept. It results from the legal opinion (fatwa) of the mufti of Fas, Abu al-' Abbas Ahmad b. Yahya al-Wansharisi (d. 914/1508), and the opinions of the Maliki jurists in the Maghrib, with respect to a debate concerning the expansion of the congregational mosque [masjid al-jami '] in madinat Fás.