The Rugs Berber Women Wove for Their Own Homes

It’s certain that Moroccan Berber rugs can make a beautiful style statement in your home. Yet in essence many genuine old rugs were born of domestic necessity and were hardwearing practical items for simple homes. Moroccan rugs boast a wonderful variety of styles, material and weaves and the truly authentic ones (rather than ‘vintage-fied’ creations woven for western tastes) will carry with them the heart of the place and peoples who skilfully created them for their own personal use, with intriguing variations and imperfections

Of Peoples and Communities

The Berber peoples, while sharing lots in common (like a language and cultural roots), were spread out geographically in Morocco and organised by tribe and sub-tribe. When Arab peoples came to Morocco in about the 11th century, many Berber groups resisted conquest and moved into the Atlas mountains and other remote rural areas. The rugs they wove were for life in these rural, often nomadic, communities, while it was the more urbanized Arab communities that wove carpets with ‘oriental’ and Islamic world influence: complex, fancy pieces with more in common with Persian or Turkish carpets. Isolated from these influences, Berber tribes wove deeply personal rugs using the scarce resources they had to hand. These are rugs with strong characters and great individuality and not initially woven for sale in the open market

Colour is All

Genuine Berber domestic rural weaving had a common thread running through it - the bold use of colour. Apart from soft neutral cream and brown Beni Ouarain rugs and the pure natural white, brown, cream and grey kilims and blankets created by some tribes, rugs sang with colour. Women chose their own colours carefully, usually those linked to their tribal customs or local habits, to create handwoven textiles for everyday life. The washed-out peach, blush and ochre hues now commonly seen are, on the whole, a reaction to modern tastes - commercial production rugs woven to sell on, having been treated and faded to look old. Real old rugs are more likely to be simple, imperfect carpets that have been given life and soul with colour

The Art of Utility

One of the very understandable requests we get is for rugs to fit a modern room size - so quite square. Although some Berber tribes did weave relatively square rugs, lots of rugs were woven to fit long and narrow Berber home and tents. In particular, the oldest large rugs, from traditional large Berber homes, are exceptionally long and thin. When Berber women did weave square rugs these might be smaller pieces, easy to move around, to sit on while working, and to protect bigger and more valuable rugs. What we term a runner might actually have been woven to put on top of a long narrow Berber sofa, protecting it and making it soft and cozy!

Old rugs will have signs of how they were used in these homes. Very often there will be a patch of wear in the centre at each end - where the rug was grabbed and picked up to fold it in half to sit on. Or there will be repairs and patches where hot fat or hot coals fell while cooking and eating. Many rugs will still have little drops of candle wax, or tiny drops of fat from delicious food, embedded into the knotted pile. One area of an old rug might be much more worn and faded than another, where the family and guests sat or slept on it. Rugs born of everyday life

The Power of Women

Berber rugs come from a female culture forged more by pre-Islamic beliefs, like magic and otherworldliness, than on formal or religious traditions. These rugs were very personal and served family needs, and the rugs we source are the rugs that will tell a story about this past life. Yet we know that as each piece was so individual the exact meanings embedded in it might not be fully known to us. Design in genuine old domestic rugs drew on what was often a weaver’s loose memory of the meaning of symbols or tribal stories - so they were woven with the greatest freedom and true creative spirit