Moroccan Berber Rugs

 

The Amazighs have lived in Morocco for more than five millennia. The origin of carpet weaving by the Amazigh populations also goes back several millennia. The Amazigh carpet is emblematic of the culture, these carpets are handmade by women, their patterns and meanings are part of a very old tradition. The hand-spun fabric they created bore the name of the tribe concerned, and they used natural fibres to create coats, rugs and other fabrics.

Amazigh carpets originated in the Middle Atlas Mountains and the plains around Marrakech. It is said that their origins date back to the 2nd century B.C. These carpets are the traditional rural art practiced by the women of nomadic or semi-nomadic peoples. They are made from the virgin wool of the sheep and goats of their herds. The women make them during their rare hours of leisure to use them as mattresses and blankets. It is their most precious possession and their pride. In short, it is their work of art through which they have been able to express their creativity.

At the time, the loom was considered an animated being that was revered and feared. Empty, it was dead, but as long as the threads were taut, it was alive. Men were forbidden to use it. When it was time to remove the carpet from the loom, the women sang because it meant death and the need to mourn.

The indigenous Amazigh people created a specific knot called the Berber knot. It should also be noted that unlike oriental carpets, they are never made according to a model but according to the wishes of the woman who makes them.

The lines represented on the carpets evoke symbols found in rock art. The latticework, the diamond and the X succession each evoke in their own way femininity, mating and procreation. 

The Berber carpet has long been despised and copied without any consideration by European industry. It was not until the 1900s that several artists took an interest in it and gave it back its full value. In particular Paul Klee's paintings with geometric forms and the integration of these forms in the architecture of Le Corbusier. Henri Matisse (1869-1954) called them the "white giants".

In recent years, they have experienced a boom, particularly the carpet of Beni Ouarain. All brands of decoration make copies and sell the carpet "Berber style". Faced with this popular success, many Amazigh carpet experts share Timothy Wealon's thoughts:

"I don't see them as a passing trend, but rather as a decorative element that will always be present in interior design".

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History of the traditional Amazigh carpet

 

Since time immemorial, the rural Amazigh people and shepherds of Morocco have based their economy on sheep and the wool used by women to weave carpets, which fully reflects the importance of wool in all aspects of Amazigh life. The carpets are hand-made from sheep's wool using simple wooden looms, either vertical or horizontal, placed on the ground. The size of the loom limits the width of the carpet to about 2 meters, which is the size a family needs to sleep, and it is very rare to find an old carpet that is not long and narrow enough.

Traditionally, Moroccan carpets were made only by women to be used in their own homes, to decorate floors and to serve as seat covers, bedspreads or blankets during the coldest months. Rugs are full of symbolism and often tell the story of the woman who created each piece. Each rug takes about 20-30 days to weave by hand and the design is always completely original - no two rugs are ever the same.

During a visit to the Atlas Mountains, journalist Brooke Bobb from Vogue met Amazigh women weavers and discovered their age-old art and knowledge inherited from grandmothers :

"The woman and her fellow weavers use only a small picture of the design as a reference when making the carpet. Their understanding of where lines and shapes begin and end is based solely on instinct, a knowledge passed down to them by their Berber mothers and grandmothers. One of the carpets was bright pink and purple, decorated with traditional diamond patterns. Another was deep blue and grey, in the style of a Rothko painting. All the threads were hand-dyed and spun by hand with raw wool. Wright and Lobo-Navia studied the piles of fluffy yarns stacked on the floor of a room. They assessed how weak they were for some colours and how much they had too much for others. After examining the yarn, they began measuring the carpets halfway up the looms. Most of them were accurate; one was off by one or two centimetres".

Craftsmanship is still very important for Amazigh communities. Usually, while the men work in the mountains or on the farms, the women work in their huts, creating beautiful handmade ceramics or weaving carpets. All the finished products are then taken down to the big cities like Marrakech, where people auction their products to the owners of the souks. The buyers then sell the carpets, ceramics and other pieces in their shops to other locals and tourists. This process provides income for Amazigh villages, often their main source of livelihood.

Moroccan carpets represent the most characteristic aspect of the country's cultural heritage. The soul of the carpet seems to reflect the landscape of the Atlas Mountains. These carpets are like books filled with signs and symbols. One discovers a world of thought based on a palette of exuberant colours. These women living in rural villages have appropriated their textile creations as a space of freedom where they have developed personal creativity and surprising artistic expression. The carpet becomes essential, it is a link between past and present, between earth and sky. These magnificent carpets could be presented in different art museums.

The culture and traditions of each Amazigh community can be very different from one region to another. Thus, depending on the tribe, carpets may have different styles, colours and weaving techniques, or even belong to the same generic type. The origin of the Amazigh carpet can be found in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, where people used different techniques from those used for oriental or Persian carpets.

If you compare the patterns of the Amazigh carpet with the signs of the rock arts and the artefacts of the primitive cultures of mankind, you will find the same signs and forms used and you will discover surprising similarities and links that you can also trace back to the Upper Paleolithic period in Europe and the Neolithic period in the East and the Mediterranean basin, which explains why the Amazigh carpet can be considered as the last testimony of the archaic world.

The abstract and geometrical language of the Amazigh carpet comes from the origins of the body and the form and functions of the human sexual organs. Based on the duality and relationship of man and woman, it became the expression of universal fertility including all of nature. The carpet is an artistic creation of the woman and reflects above all the phases of her life, her timeline and her sexual experience: as a virgin, a new bride, through marriage, pregnancy and childbirth. During the 12th and 13th centuries, Morocco was already known for the beauty of its Amazigh carpets, rugs and wall hangings ( Hanbel ).

In the Middle Ages, the carpet was one of the gifts of foreign embassies or was used in the princely caravan where beautiful silk fabrics with gold thread and "zarabi" carpets were mounted on camels. Among the different meanings of "zarabi" (carpet) that come from Arabic are "flowerbed" and "that which is laid on the ground and on which one leans". The Berber word for this is "tazerbit". In Morocco, one can also use the word "gtifa" which comes from the same origin, which is the name of the woollen carpets often knitted in the high altitude region, Marmoucha or Ait Ouaouzguite for example.

In the 16th century, Jean Léon L'Africain (Hassan al-Wazzan) explained that the carpet was one of the gifts of the brides of Fez: "We always give a woollen carpet of about twenty cubits and three blankets of which one side is a sheet" . The carpets were also sold at auction in Fez and exported, in particular to black Africa. 

The oldest carpet preserved in Morocco dates from the 18th century. 

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A history of textiles

If yellow slippers and painted tagines are all the rage in the souks, textiles and weaving are really at the heart of true Moroccan art. Textile production is Morocco's most important artistic tradition. The number of Moroccans involved in textiles and the range of materials used is immense. Textile production on a large scale in Morocco dates back to 1500 BC, when the Amazighs of North Africa made use of fundamental weaving techniques used for practical, magical and religious purposes.

The Amazigh woman wove textiles used for shawls, blankets, carpets, tents, bags, pillows and mats. With time and practice she eventually learned more specialized weaving and dyeing techniques, adding a wide range of symbols, designs and artistic motifs. In the 7th century, textiles became an essential part of the Moroccan economy, which continues to this day.

The techniques created by Moroccan women have been preserved over the centuries, mainly because weaving and embroidery are a fundamental part of people's daily lives, but also because they are seen as a source of magic, protection, survival and power.

Moroccan tribal textiles are among the most dazzling and impressive in Africa. The variations in patterns, bright colours and variety of textures set them apart from other Islamic and African textiles.

The traditional weavings of Morocco are used for practical purposes. The weavings were intended to be used by the family to furnish the house or tent, and as personal clothing. Textiles can also serve as an indicator of the wealth, social status and religious background of the weaver, as well as the daily life of her tribe. Weaving allows her rare freedom of expression, even within the limits of strictly conservative design traditions.

The town of De Sefrou, in the Middle Atlas, became in the 12th century a flourishing trading centre where producers from the northern regions of Morocco and those from Tafilalet met to exchange crops, handicrafts and skins. It was also the starting point for the famous sub-Saharan caravan trade in which Morocco exchanged salt and skins for gold from the hard-packed mines of Black Africa, a trade that is now known as "unfair trade". 

For centuries, this trade was financed by Jews who ran small "bank shops" known as "Hwanet tale'" in the medina of Sefrou and were the sponsors of the caravans that travelled for 44 days to Timbuktu in present-day Mali, led by Jewish guides respected for their leadership, fairness, patience, courage and initiative. They were known as azettat (because they carried long sticks displaying the azetta, a carpet cloth with the distinct patterns of each Amazigh tribe travelled in peace (aman)), which in the down-to-earth language means prepaid tithes of passage in peace. The colours of the carpets, azetta, and their different patterns were synonymous with peace and concord among the Amazigh people of old.

For the non nomadic peoples of Morocco, textiles can be used as furniture or interior decoration such as a bed, a chair, a blanket, a coat, a pillow, a trunk or a saddle. For nomads, the carpet could become the roof, doors, walls or partitions of a house. The "table" of most Moroccan households, whether a house or a tent, takes the form of a large rectangular carpet covering a couch. The vibrant colours and patterns of the carpets brighten houses and the generally dimly lit riads of villages and towns. 

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The history of Moroccan Amazigh carpet weavin

The Moroccan Amazighs have a long and illustrious tradition of making hand-woven carpets and rugs.  With one of the largest Amazigh populations, Morocco is today one of the most prolific producers of carpets. Each of the forty-five or so Amazigh tribes scattered throughout the country has its own distinctive design, its own style of weaving and embroidery and its own art. However, all the carpets of the different tribes share two common characteristics: simplicity of design and richness of colour, especially red and saffron.

Traditionally, carpets have been woven more for their utilitarian use than as decorative pieces. The carpets made by the tribes living in the Atlas Mountains region are thick with a heavy pile, while those made by the tribes living in the desert are light and flat woven, implying that the nature of the climate has an effect on the azetta, the weaving of the region. 

The history of Moroccan Amazigh carpets dates back to the Paleolithic, a prehistoric period characterized by the development of the first tools used by man. Traces of Amazigh motifs and tribal symbolism have been found in rock art and cave painting dating back several thousand years. In the absence of a written language, the weavers of antiquity recorded their myths and legends using glyphs and marks inlaid in their carpets and in caves.

Over the centuries, Tamazgha (Amazigh territory) was invaded and colonized by a series of empires that rose and fell over time, including the Romans, Ottomans, Arabs, Spanish, Portuguese and French. None of them managed to leave a more lasting impact than the Arabs, who succeeded in Islamizing the entire region and giving it an Arab identity by force. However, the Amazighs stuck tenaciously to their age-old and unique culture, mainly because they had been isolated for thousands of years before the invaders arrived.

Amazigh carpets of the 20th century have the same transfer of glyphs and marks as carpets of the distant past. Tribal weavers, who neither possess nor seek formal artistic training, continue to tell the same stories of yesteryear, passed down from generation to generation. Thus, looking at a traditional Moroccan Amazigh carpet gives the impression of looking at a century-old carpet preserved in a time capsule or an art and history book. This is their main attraction for Western buyers and collectors of rare pieces.

Moroccan Amazigh carpets from the 20th century still have the same design characterized by distinct knots, but they usually contain small dark flecks on a lighter background. Many of them have a mixture of plain colours without a pattern.

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The Amazigh carpet, cultural and artistic creation

 

Like any cultural, artistic and folklore act, the Amazigh carpet is an art object based on a knowledge of the ancestral civilization of peoples who have, throughout history, expressed their knowledge by decorative means: sculptures, pottery, carpets, jewellery, drawings, etc., by oral literature: poems, tales, proverbs, etc. or by music, song and dance.

The Amazigh Carpet is therefore an art object made by families with a great pastoral tradition and who generally live from livestock breeding and agriculture (thus rural families). The manufacture of these traditional carpets, in all their forms, requires the presence of certain conditions, means and basic materials, including :

- Pure wool of good quality, as raw material that will be transformed into yarns of different sizes and properties, 

- One hundred percent natural and organic dyes;

- Appropriate material (loom) in different shapes, depending on the desired use; and

- Competent staff mastering traditional weaving techniques and decorative patterns.

Amazigh carpet weaving is an essential activity in some contexts because it plays a vital economic role in the subsistence of families. In such cases, it is part of a traditional mode of commercialization, based on barter. In a household, men and women work together. The wife takes care of weaving and modeling carpets and the husband is responsible for marketing in weekly markets and, on the other hand, purchases food and other products they need to live.

From an artistic point of view, the best Amazigh rugs are still made in some regions from local natural products (wool, dyes, patterns, etc.). The decorative patterns used are an expression of the culture of the tribe from which the product originates. These motifs are linked to the spirit of cohabitation that has always existed in these Amazigh tribes since a distant history with people of different beliefs and civilizations (Muslims, Jews, Berbers, Christians). The Berber tribes are the most striking example of this spirit of tolerance and cohabitation.

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carpets, the tradition of learning

 Mastery of the art of carpet weaving is passed on from mother to daughter, which is a tradition of learning in rural areas. The community's common traditional visual language and the techniques for skillfully knitting the threads of the weaving are also learned on the job, in confrontation with reality.

However, this tradition is under threat, as Amazigh women unfortunately do not earn much from their art because they are exploited to the full by hordes of middlemen. 

How can women make the most of their work? The Christian Science Monitor journalist Taylor Luck found an answer in the bustling Moroccan carpet market in Khemisset, an Amazigh town 80 kilometres south-east of the capital Rabat, by cutting out the mostly male middlemen:

"Over the past three decades, the women of the town have teamed up with relatives and contacts from outside villages to sell carpets and rugs directly to the vendors. The business has grown to include 40 local women vendors who evaluate and sell the goods of 400 women from the surrounding Berber villages. It is believed that every Tuesday, this small souk provides a livelihood for up to 1,000 people.

And he adds:

"Before dawn, Khemisset merchants like Fatima Rifiya gather at the market to wait for the dozens of women from remote Berber villages (locals refer to themselves as Amazigh, which does not mean "free people") who arrive by horse-drawn carriage at 4 a.m. The vendors and middlemen then rummage through the piles of carpets, evaluating each piece according to its size, colour, thickness, weaving and pattern. The women of Khemisset say the secret to their success is an eye for desirability - tailoring each carpet to the target audience and the buyer who never knew they still needed it.  "Every carpet already has its place. We're just acting as a matchmaker," says Rifiya as she rolls out a red kilim carpet for a customer who is trying to hide her impatience. 

Taylor Luck goes on to say that once the carpets are sorted, the female middlemen start selling to the male buyers: 

"The carpet dealers come from Marrakech and Fez. The men sneak in between the small stalls mumbling: "Really, it's too much" or "I swear to God I can get half that price somewhere else". But Mrs. Rifiya and her siblings hold out. She and some of the more experienced salespeople, like Faten, act not only as translators for the Berber weavers, but also as coaches in the way they barter and sell. Simple rules such as: Never appear desperate for a sale. Let the customer go, he will always come back. Add 20% to your preferred price to open the negotiation. A customer who buys one carpet is always more inclined to buy others".

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The decorative patterns of the different weaves

 

The decorative patterns of the different weaves are very significant and differ from tribe to tribe, making this art a true mosaic. The Amazigh carpet is a long-standing tradition in southern Morocco, and in the High and Middle Atlas, where it flourished under the name of tazarbit. 

The Ait Ouaouzguit Centre, in the province of Ouarzazate, is one of the main cradles of this craft production of high cultural significance. This world-renowned centre is located in the High Atlas Mountains, where carpet-making has been predominant for thousands of years. As a center of craftsmanship in general and Berber carpets in particular, Ait Ouaouzguit is in turn composed of several points of production including : Tamassin - Ait Semgane - Ai Waya - Ait Ougharda - Tidili - Taznakht - Ait Ouchen - Ait Ameur, Znaga and Sektana as contiguous points.

The carpet of Amazigh tradition is the most important and most representative category in the world of Moroccan carpets. It is a typical Atlas production with exceptional decoration and patterns, specific to each tribe. It can be subdivided as follows:

- Carpets from the Middle Atlas (Meknes region, Rabat): Zemmour, Zaer, Zaiane, Bani Mtir, Ait Sgougou and Beni M'guil ;

- Middle Atlas carpet (Fez-Taza region): Beni Ouarain, Ait Ighezzrane, Beni Alaham, Ait Halli, Ait Youssi, Ait Seghrouchène and Marmoucha; and

- Tapi des Ait Youb, Ait Izdeg and Ait Yaâcoub.

The carpets of the Haouz of Marrakech are part of the rural Amazigh carpets, there are the Rehamna carpets, the H'mar carpets, and the Bousebaa carpets. In these three tribes, the knot used is the symmetrical knot. The warp threads are made of goat hair or a mixture of goat hair and black wool, the rows of knots are separated by four to twelve weft threads, the weft is often made of red wool. The weave of these carpets is loose, there is the same number of knots in length and width. One of the characteristics of the Amazigh carpets of Haouz is their saw-toothed edge, penetrating the knotted velvet, these edges are woven of goat hair. In general, their artistic composition uses simple motifs that take all possible forms.

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