The "Arms Museum" in the city of Fez is one of the most important tourist attractions in the scientific capital, as it is intended by more than 40 thousand people annually, and the date of the construction of its edifice, known in the history books in the Tower of Fire, dates back to five centuries ago.
The museum was one of the towers that guarded the city of Fez, in the Old Testament, from the attacks of the enemies, before its restoration and convert it into a special weapons museum in 1963, with a limited number of pieces offered, to become, today, embracing about 8000 museum weapons from 35 countries, in additionTo Morocco.
The exhibition halls inside the weapons museum in Fez were arranged by respecting the chrome sequence of the emergence and use of various types of weapons, and each of its 13 halls allocated to the 13 exploited halls, to display the various weapons that characterized each period separately, starting with white weapons, through the weapons that used the first regimeTo shoot in history, to automatic firearms.
Incalimated precious precious
The weapon museum in Fez abounds with war pieces dating back to various countries of the world, such as weapons, manuscripts, pictures and documents, whose value is valued, including some gifts from foreign missions, including a gift from “Wei Yogo Atamazamari Mont”, one of the Jakarta rulers in Indonesia, which is itA sword called "Chris".
However, a large number of preserved antiques in the museum belongs to the weapon factory in Fez, which is known as the "machine", located next to the Bab Al -Makanah Square, which hosts the activities of the Fez Festival for Spiritual Music and the International Festival of Amazigh Culture.
Other antiques were also brought from the Al -Batha Museum in the same city;While the late Hassan II was placed at the disposal of this parameter, several old pieces belonging to the Royal Guard, as well as a group of other pieces..
And for the various pieces, which are stored by the Museum of the weapons in Fez, a historical, archaeological, ethnographic and extremely important value, as it dates for important periods of time, starting from ancient times to reach the visitor to the beginning of the twentieth century, and enables him to discover various forms of weapons and enlighten them through the ages, some of which are made of stoneOr bones, and what is made of minerals, such as bronze, gold and silver.
Swords
The first hall was devoted to listing the date of the use of white weapons;And by displaying several pieces of them to the attention of visitors;It appears that the swords at the beginning of the Middle Ages were straight, small and sharp on both sides (a double -edged sword), and they have simple horizontal hand, but during the 13th and 14th centuries she knew several changes in order to obtain better handles of hand during the fencing.
Beginning in the 15th century, the development of the mineral gears, which covers the entire body, led to the use of more effective white weapons to violate these condoms, from Nebal multi -blad..Also, long heavy swords have been developed with complicated hand, holding two hands together.
The visitor can also see in this hall an Italian sword of the 15th century, a tip and an Italian sword of the 16th century, and a pin from the same country from the 17th century.
And before the visitor moves to the depth of the museum to discover the rest of his exhibits from firearms and others, he must stop in Chamber 3 in front of a page of the Spanish manuscript, “Aticoas de Alfanusa”, which dates back to the year 1250 AH, and it can be made to make a comparison between the weapons of the Almohad army (Moroccan (Moroccan) The Spanish (European) Army: The Almohad Army is mainly made up of a light fiction division that forms colored leather shields (the gendarmerie) and the long arrows are its basic weapons..
According to the museum's clarifications, the Almohad and Marabitian armies (11th, 12 and 13 century) were consisting of light and fast -movement cucumbers, whose weapon is mainly formed from leather shields and long asphalt, to which the sword swords (freckles), and straight and short swords (liquidity) are added to it..Morocco remained associated with this type of white weapon for many centuries.
The museum's documents show that white weapons factories have been established in several Moroccan cities since the year 1160 AD, during the era of the Almohad Sultan.During the 15th century, the weapons factories in Fez were famous for the industry of shields, swords, and repetitions..Some of the swords offered to the museum are attributed to the era of Saadiyin.
“Morocco has remained until the end of the 19th century, loyal to its local white weapons, from swords, daggers, spears and mountain.The sword of Al -Namash has had a clear impact on some French and Italian European swords, including for example the swords of the Napoleoni officers, ”according to what a banner I wrote in the door of Hall 3, which states that the rest of the Islamic world was dominated by the Ottoman and Persian character..The most traded white weapons were until the end of the 19th century, the swords of “Al -Yatghan”, “Al -Qalij” and the Turkish “Jambia” daggers, as well as the Iranian Shamshir swords.
Defender, rifles and pistols
Before entering the museum door, the visitor looked at some heavy warfare, the most important of which is the huge Moroccan gun called "theus", a Swedish cannon, Mahdi by the King of Sweden, "Clasaf II", and the Moroccan cannon "oil" that dates back to the year 1571, which is a bronze cannon weighing 12 tonsHe was found in the areas of Larache, and it is likely that it was used in the battle of Wadi Al -Makhzen in 1578.
Inside the museum, Chamber 5 dates for the first use of firearms for military purposes in the history of mankind, and that was during the 14th century, and it was manifested..After that, this industry was developed to make light and individual firearms, and thus the wick gun appeared during the 15th century..However, this initial system, according to the written clarifications in a plate in the showroom, was known some shortcomings, among them the slow shooting system, the rapid combustion of the sheet and the need to put the gun on a pillar due to its weight.
However, during the 16th century, some of these problems were overcome, as the automatic plate with a cylindrical ring, in addition to the bullet and the gun, has been invented, and since then individual firearms, especially the "Arakkuz" rifles, have become an important role in the battles, and the armies began to adopt flexible roads inMilitary confrontations, gradually abandoning the narrow rows systems.
With regard to Morocco, the sources indicate, according to the museum, that the first use of rifles with a launch is due to the year 1517.It was also stated in some sources that Sultan Ahmed Al -Wattasi ordered the establishment of a weapon for making guns in Fez Al -Jadid in 1535.
Chamber 6 indicates that the qualitative shift in the firearms industry, after the invention of the amphibian plate, dates back to the end of the 16th century.This discovery has led to a fundamental change in the firearms industry, which during the 17th century led to a wide spread of rifles, which was used by all regular armies..
As a result, the pistol took an important place in the military fields, and this light weapon became widely circulated, and it can be used by one hand..For pedestrians, the pistol, and the pistol, replaced, in relation to the place of the bow and arrows.
Automatic firearm
Shipping systems have developed remarkably during the 19th century, as scratches and bullets were developed, and perhaps the most important achievement that was created in this framework is the shipping system from the rear insteadFor automatic weapons in 1880, which were developed after the First World War.
As a result of the development of Al -Khartoush and bullets, the innovation of fast charging systems, and the vertical charging system instead of the horizontal appeared;This is what Chamber 11 moved us inside the museum;Which the visitor can learn about the frequent fire weapons (Rivolphar).
The innovation of the mug regime has revolutionized firearms;This is in the manufacture of the pistol with a barrel of launch, or the countryside, in 1847.According to an explanatory document, the American "Collete" factories managed to a package of pistols displayed in the museum, and for the first time in history, to produce pistols of this type in a mechanical manner and by renewable spare parts.
"The machine" makes weapons of Morocco
In light of Morocco's dependency on Europe in the field of armaments during the 19th century, imported weapons were often overridden and expensive, and under these circumstances, and within the framework of the military reforms that the Mawla Hassan I started, at the end of this century, local weapons factories were established in Morocco, the most important of which is the factory."The machine" in Fez, which was devoted to its weapons inside the weapons museum in Fez a full room, which is room No. 13, which abounds in models of what the Moroccan "machine" produced from weapons and some of the means that were used in manufacturing.
Despite many difficulties in production, this factory, which established a technician framing from Italy, was able to produce a group of "Boughara" rifles (Martini), spare parts, beamshat, barood and some defender...However, the frequency of production, according to an explanatory document installed in this hallway, remained weak and unstable due to the circumstances that Morocco was experiencing before colonialism.
In the room designated for the "machine" weapons, the visitor can discover a marine gun (Boughara) with a shooting system through a stove and explosive capsule, and shipping from the back with a moving block;He can also discover a groove groin cannon, a vicious bulletin.
It is noteworthy that the Moroccans have always been retaining guns, as it appears through a number of pieces offered in the museum, including the imported, with beautiful Moroccan motifs, often used for decoration, which is what Chamber 12 in the weapons museum in Fez, which is the room designated for Moroccan weapons The traditional used in the manifestations of adornment and pride, from white and firearms, which, in addition to its defensive function, played an important cultural and social role, it is rich in its motifs and inscriptions, whether it comes to swords, daggers or gunpowder boxes, as well as firearms, from guns in particular, Which is still present in the traditional Moroccan equestrian as a cultural heritage rooted in history.