Amazigh Carpets: Weaving Stories in the Atlas Mountains

In a stone house in the Middle Atlas mountains, a woman sits at a large upright loom. Her fingers move quickly, knotting short lengths of thick wool around the vertical threads, then beating the row down tight with a heavy metal comb. Slowly, over weeks or months, a pattern grows: black lines forming diamonds and zigzags on a creamy white field. She does not work from a drawing. The design is in her head, shaped by what her mother and grandmother taught her and by her own imagination. This is the art of the Amazigh carpet, one of Morocco's most celebrated crafts.

Who weaves them?

The Amazigh (Berber) peoples are the indigenous inhabitants of North Africa, whose languages and culture we described in our story on Tamazight and Tifinagh. In Morocco, many Amazigh communities live in the Atlas mountains, the Rif in the north, and the edges of the Sahara.

Carpet weaving among the Amazigh has traditionally been the work of women. Weaving skills are passed from mother to daughter, and a girl may begin by helping to card and spin wool before learning to weave. A woman's carpets were once part of her household wealth and, in some areas, of her marriage goods. Each carpet is unique, and many weavers say they put something of themselves into each one.

How the carpets are made

Most traditional Amazigh carpets are made from sheep's wool, often from the weaver's own flocks. The process includes:

1. Shearing and washing the wool.
2. Carding and spinning it by hand into yarn.
3. Dyeing, traditionally with natural dyes from plants and minerals, such as madder root for red, henna, saffron or pomegranate for yellows and browns, and indigo for blue. Many carpets use the natural colours of the wool: white, cream, brown and black.
4. Weaving on a vertical loom. Carpets may be pile rugs, with knotted tufts of wool, or flat-woven rugs (hanbel or kilims), without pile.

Famous styles

There are many regional styles. Some of the best known are:

• Beni Ourain. Woven by the Beni Ourain tribal groups of the Middle Atlas, these thick, shaggy carpets usually have a white or cream background with black or brown lines forming diamonds, zigzags and lattices. They were made to provide warmth in cold mountain winters, used as blankets, mattresses or floor coverings. They became hugely popular with interior designers and modernist architects in Europe and America from the mid-20th century.
• Azilal. From the High Atlas region around Azilal, these carpets often have a white background with bright, playful designs in red, blue, orange and other colours, sometimes asymmetrical and highly personal.
• Boujad. From the plains around Boujad, known for warm pinks, reds and oranges, with loose, freely drawn patterns.
• Boucherouite. A more recent style of rag rug, made from recycled strips of cloth, old clothes and plastic, rather than wool. Boucherouite (from the Moroccan Arabic word for torn or used clothing) emerged in the 20th century as wool became expensive and new materials became available. They are known for their wild, bright colours.
• Kilims and hanbels. Flat-woven textiles from many regions, often with bands of geometric patterns.

Symbols and meanings

Amazigh carpets are covered with geometric symbols: diamonds, triangles, zigzags, crosses, lines and dots. Many writers have tried to interpret them. Common interpretations include:

• The diamond or lozenge, often linked to femininity, fertility or protection.
• Zigzags, sometimes said to represent water, snakes or mountains.
• Eyes and cross-like symbols, said to protect against the evil eye.

But we should be careful. Meanings vary between regions, families and individual weavers, and some weavers say their designs have no fixed meaning, or that the meaning is personal: a memory, a feeling, a significant event. Some interpretations published in books for collectors have been criticised as speculation. The most reliable meaning of a symbol is the one given by the woman who wove it.

From home to world market

For centuries, Amazigh carpets were made for family use: for warmth, for sleeping, for prayer, for marriage and for ceremonies. In the 20th century, they began to attract foreign buyers. Today, they are sold in the souks of Marrakech and Fes and in design shops around the world.

This has brought both opportunities and problems. On the one hand, weaving provides important income for rural women. On the other, much of the profit often goes to dealers and middlemen, and the demand for certain styles can lead to mass production and imitation. Some cooperatives of women weavers have been formed to give weavers more control and fairer prices, and researchers such as the anthropologist Susan Schaefer Davis have worked to document the lives of weavers and connect them directly with buyers.

Buying an Amazigh carpet

If you are buying an Amazigh carpet:

• Ask where and by whom it was made.
• Consider buying from a women's cooperative or a trusted fair-trade source.
• Look for natural wool and dyes, and irregularities, which are signs of hand weaving.
• Be prepared to bargain in the souk, but remember the many hours of work involved.

Why it matters

Amazigh carpets are more than beautiful objects. They are a record of women's skill, creativity and knowledge, passed down through generations in the mountains of Morocco. Each carpet holds a story, often known only to the weaver herself. Appreciating them means valuing not only their beauty, but the women who make them.

Further reading

• Bruno Barbatti, Berber Carpets of Morocco: The Symbols, Origin and Meaning (ACR Édition, 2008)
• Dar Si Said Museum (National Museum of Weaving and Carpets), Marrakech — Fondation Nationale des Musées du Maroc