If yellow slippers and painted tagines are all the craze within the souks, textiles and weaving are really at the guts of true Moroccan art. Textile production is that the most vital artistic tradition in Morocco. the amount of Moroccans involved in textiles and therefore the range of materials used are immense. Textile production on an outsized scale in Morocco dates back to 1500 B.C. when the Amazighs of North Africa made use of fundamental weaving techniques used for practical, magical and non secular 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 good range of symbols, designs and artistic motifs. within the 7th century, textiles became an important a part of the Moroccan economy, which continues to the present day.
The techniques created by Moroccan women are preserved over the centuries, mainly because weaving and embroidery are a fundamental a part of people’s daily lives, but also because they’re seen as a source of magic, protection, survival and power.
Moroccan tribal textiles are among the foremost dazzling and impressive in Africa. The variations in patterns, vivid colors, and sort of textures set them aside from other Islamic and African textiles.
The traditional weavings of Morocco are used for practical purposes. The weavings were intended to be employed by the family to furnish the house or tent, and as personal clothing. Textiles also can function an indicator of the weaver’s wealth, social station , and non secular background, also because the lifestyle of her tribe. Weaving allows her a rare freedom of expression, even within the bounds of strictly conservative design traditions.
The city of De Sefrou, within the Middle Atlas, became within the 12th century a flourishing trade center where producers from the northern regions of Morocco and people from Tafilalet met to exchange crops, handicrafts and skins. it had been also the start line for the famous sub-Saharan caravan trade which Morocco exchanged salt and skins for gold from the hard-packed mines of Sub-Saharan Africa , a trade that’s now referred to as “unfair trade”.
For centuries, this trade was financed by Jews who ran small “bank stores” referred to as “Hwanet tale'” within the medina of Sefrou and were the sponsors of the caravans that traveled for 44 days to Timbuktu in present-day Mali, led by Jewish guides respected for his or her leadership, fairness, patience, courage and initiative. They were referred to as azettat (because they carried long sticks displaying the azetta, a carpet cloth with the distinct patterns of every Amazigh tribe traveled in peace (aman)), which within 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 yesteryear.
For the non nomadic peoples of Morocco, textiles are often used as furniture or interior decoration like a bed, a chair, a blanket, a coat, a pillow, a trunk or a saddle. For the nomads, the carpet could become the roof, the doors, the walls or the partitions of a house. The “table” of most Moroccan households, whether a house or a tent, takes the shape of an outsized rectangular carpet covering a couch. the colourful colors and patterns of the carpets brighten houses and therefore the generally dimly lit Riads of villages and towns.
Traditional loom
Many decorative textiles are utilized in ceremonies and have a sacred status. A Handira, is employed to wrap a bride on her thanks to her new home, it’s a sort of protection against the ayn, the look of the jealous, petty and wicked. Some blankets are used as funeral gifts. the best carpets, blankets and cushions are wont to decorate the tents of guests during festivals or worn and carried to graves to honor the saints and therefore the dead.
