Discovering...
Where to find genuine journals, how to tell real leather and quality paper from tourist copies, indicative prices in MAD — and how to walk out with your initials pressed into the cover.
Omar Benali· Sahara & Southern Routes Editor
A former desert driver turned writer, Omar has guided and travelled the routes from Ouarzazate to Merzouga and Zagora for years. He writes about the Sahara, kasbah roads and the Draa and Dades valleys. Ouarzazate · 14+ years covering Morocco
Published 13 June 2025 Last updated 4 March 2026
A handmade Moroccan leather notebook is one of the easiest good purchases to make in a medina — and one of the easiest to get wrong. The real thing is satisfying in the hand: cover slightly supple from the tanning, pages cream-coloured and faintly rough, stitching visible at the spine. The imitation version looks identical in a dim souk alley but starts shedding pages within a week of serious use.
Morocco has been producing hand-stitched leather stationery for centuries, and the craft is still alive in small workshops tucked off the main souvenir lanes in Marrakech and Fes. The problem is that the tourist market has also filled those lanes with PU-leather lookalikes at prices that undercut the real thing by half. This guide tells you where to look, what to look for, and roughly what to pay.
If you want to visit an actual leather workshop — not just a stall — a private guide is the most reliable way in. Workshop owners tend to be more forthcoming with a local introduction, and you skip the detour through commission-hungry souvenir shops.
The medina sells a spectrum from genuine artisan work to mass-produced imports. Here is what you will actually encounter.
The most common style: a wraparound soft cover of hand-dyed goat leather with a cord closure. Usually A5 or A6 format. Pages are cream-coloured recycled or cotton-rag paper, slightly rough to the touch. Good for writing; fountain pens bleed a little on the thinner paper.
Slightly heavier cover in tan or chestnut camel leather with pressed geometric or floral motifs. Thicker, smoother pages (around 120 gsm) better suited to watercolour washes and pencil sketching. Hinges lie flat, which matters if you draw on location.
Cover in cotton or sabra (cactus silk) fabric rather than leather, with hand-cast recycled paper inside. Lighter and more compact. The paper has inclusions — flower petals, tea leaves, fragments of fabric — that make each page unique. Ink sits on the surface rather than soaking in.
Made-to-order or picked from a finished stock in a dedicated leather workshop. Thicker full-grain cowhide or sheepskin, hand-stitched with waxed thread. Often A4 or larger. Can include pockets, pen loops, and multiple paper inserts. Embossing takes 15–30 minutes while you wait.
Starting prices below are for workshop-purchased pieces, not the first price quoted in a busy souk. Expect to haggle by 10–20% in tourist lanes; less so in dedicated stationery workshops where prices are often fixed.
| Format | Cover material | Fair price (MAD) | Approx USD |
|---|---|---|---|
| A6 pocket | Goat leather | 80–150 MAD | $8–15 |
| A5 medium | Goat / sheep leather | 150–280 MAD | $15–28 |
| A5 embossed | Camel leather | 220–400 MAD | $22–40 |
| A4 folio | Full-grain cowhide | 400–700 MAD | $40–70 |
| Bespoke large | Any, custom-stamped | 500–900 MAD | $50–90 |
| Sabra-fabric notebook | Cactus silk / cotton | 50–120 MAD | $5–12 |
All prices indicative as of 2025–26. USD equivalents at ~10 MAD = $1.
Most of these take about thirty seconds in the shop and shift the conversation from tourist price to honest price.
Real goat or sheep leather has a faint animal musk, especially just inside the cover. Synthetic PU leather smells faintly of plastic or is odourless. If a "leather" notebook costs less than 40 MAD, it almost certainly is not real leather.
Genuine hand-stitched notebooks open flat without cracking the spine. Cheap glue-bound imitations resist opening past 90° and often shed pages after a week of use.
Ask if the pages are unlined — many tourists assume all Moroccan notebooks are lined. Unlined or dot-grid options exist in the better workshops. Lift one page to the light: handmade cotton-rag paper is visibly irregular; laser-printed recycled paper has a very uniform surface.
A quality journal is sewn in signatures (small folded sections) rather than just stab-bound through a stack of pages. You can see the thread at the spine fold. More signatures generally mean better durability.
Traditional mineral dyes (pomegranate rind, henna, saffron) are used in artisan pieces and will mellow slightly with age. Chemical dyes are more uniform but can rub off on clothing if the leather gets wet. Ask and you will usually get an honest answer — most vendors are proud of the traditional process.
Both cities have genuine notebook workshops — they are not the same experience.
The widest range, but also the most tourist-inflated prices. The best workshops are a block or two off the main Souk Semmarine lane.
Tip: Go mid-morning on a weekday; the best workshops sell out of popular sizes by afternoon.
Better quality at the artisan level and closer proximity to actual tanneries — you can buy leather and paper from the same neighbourhood where they are produced.
Tip: Ask at your riad for a recommendation — the Fes medina is easier to navigate with a local contact.
Embossing is one of the few souq purchases that is genuinely worth the extra wait — and it takes less time than you think.
Most leather workshops with an embossing die set will press simple initials or geometric designs while you watch. The artisan dampens the leather very slightly, heats the metal die over a small flame or electric element, then presses it firmly into the cover for 10–15 seconds. The result is permanent, tactile, and darkens slightly as the leather ages.
For initials or a simple motif (stars, Berber triangles, khamsa), expect 20–40 MAD on top of the notebook price and a 15–30 minute wait. For Arabic-script names or a more complex design, the workshop may need to use a screw press and custom die — allow 24 hours and leave a deposit of around 50% of the total price.
A few workshops near the Fes tanneries have a wider die library than typical Marrakech stalls, including script fonts and regional geometric patterns. If a custom design is important to you, Fes is the better city to attempt it. In Marrakech, Rue Riad Zitoun el-Jdid has two or three workshops with reasonable die collections.
One practical note: bring a photo or sketch of what you want rather than describing it verbally. The language barrier is real, and a clear reference image prevents misunderstandings with an irreversible process.
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The best concentration of stationery and journal sellers is in Souk Semmarine and its side alleys off the main medina spine, roughly a five-minute walk north from Jemaa el-Fna. A second cluster sits near Bab Doukkala. For workshop-quality notebooks with on-site embossing, look for the leather-goods workshops on Rue Riad Zitoun el-Jdid — slightly further from the main tourist drag and noticeably better quality. In Fes, the lanes immediately north of Bab Bou Jeloud and workshops near the Chouara tannery viewing terraces stock the most impressive range.
Most genuine handmade Moroccan notebooks use one of two types. The first is cotton-rag paper, made from recycled cotton fibres (often fabric offcuts), which produces a cream, slightly textured sheet that takes ink well and doesn't yellow quickly. The second is recycled "sabra" or botanical paper, cast with inclusions like dried flowers or grass, giving a rougher, more decorative surface suited to light pencil or gel pen use. Neither type is acid-free in the archival sense, so if you plan to paste photographs or use it as a long-term archive, check with the seller.
Many are — but not all. The medina souks carry both genuine goat and sheep leather notebooks and PU-leather imitations that look nearly identical from a distance. Genuine leather notebooks will have visible hide texture variations (no two covers look the same), a characteristic animal smell, and usually visible hand-stitching rather than machine-bonded edges. The price is the quickest indicator: if a notebook is selling for under 50 MAD (~$5), it is almost certainly synthetic. Expect to pay from 80 MAD upward for real leather in a small A6 format.
Indicative prices: a small (A6) goat-leather journal with recycled paper runs 80–180 MAD ($8–18). A mid-size (A5) embossed cover with better paper costs 180–350 MAD ($18–35). A large bespoke folio with thick leather and hand-stitching — the kind a photographer or illustrator might use for years — ranges from 400–900 MAD ($40–90). Tourist-area markup can be 40–60% above what you'd pay in a neighbourhood workshop, so it's worth venturing one or two alleys off the main drag.
Yes, and it is one of the more satisfying experiences in a Moroccan medina. Many leather workshops offer hand-stamping of initials, names, or simple geometric patterns — the artisan heats a metal die and presses it into the dampened leather. This typically costs 20–50 MAD extra and takes 15–30 minutes. For a full custom design or Arabic-script embossing, allow 24 hours and confirm the design clearly before you leave a deposit. Some workshops near the Fes tanneries specialise in this and keep a wider range of dies than the general souvenir stalls.
Yes. Finished leather goods — notebooks, bags, wallets — are straightforward to export and import in almost all countries, with no CITES restrictions for common livestock hides like goat, sheep, or cow. The only potential issue is if a notebook is lined with feathers or bone (uncommon), or if the country of entry has strict biosecurity rules about untreated animal hides — Australia and New Zealand are the strictest. In practice, a finished and dyed leather notebook journal raises no customs concerns.
Fes is generally the better city for leather goods overall, and you often find workshop-quality notebooks at slightly lower prices than the heavily touristed Marrakech souks. The Fes medina also has more specialist stationery and book-arts workshops where you can watch the process. That said, the difference on a single notebook rarely exceeds 20–30 MAD — so if you're in Marrakech, don't wait. Shop in whichever city you're in and focus on finding a workshop rather than a souvenir stall.
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