Moroccan Crafts & Artisans Guide

Hand-cut geometric mosaic for fountains, walls, floors and courtyards. Each small piece is chiselled from a larger glazed terracotta square, then assembled face-down into geometric patterns. The craft takes years of apprenticeship and a feel for geometry. Fes is the main centre, where master craftsmen (maâlems) still run workshops.

Zellige reached a high point under the Marinid dynasty in the 14th century. Its patterns come from Islamic geometric art, which uses repetition to suggest the infinite.

Buying tip: Visit workshops in the Fes medina to watch the cutters. Small pieces and coasters travel well; tables and fountains can be made to order and shipped.

The tanneries of Fes are among Morocco’s best-known sights. At the Chouara tannery, believed to date back centuries, hides are soaked in lime to remove hair, then worked in stone vats of dye under the open sky, with workers standing in the vats to turn the leather by hand.

Fes has been a centre of leather production for centuries, and “Morocco leather” became a byword for fine goatskin in European bookbinding.

Buying tip: Shops on the terraces overlooking the Fes tanneries have the widest choice. Smell the leather: vegetable-tanned leather smells earthy; a plastic smell suggests a chemical finish. Bags, belts and poufs are the classic buys.

Moroccan carpets vary by region and tribe. The best-known types are Beni Ourain (cream wool with bold black geometric lines, from the Middle Atlas), Boucherouite (colourful rugs of recycled fabric) and flat-woven kilims. Most are handmade on a loom by Amazigh women, with motifs tied to tribal identity and protection.

Carpet weaving is a pre-Islamic Amazigh tradition. Each region and tribe has its own patterns, passed down through generations.

Buying tip: Turn the carpet over: handmade rugs show small irregularities on the back, machine-made rugs are perfectly uniform. Ask about the wool and whether the dyes are natural or synthetic, and visit cooperatives for fair-trade buys.

Fes is known for its cobalt-blue-and-white ceramics. Safi, on the Atlantic coast, is the other great pottery centre, with polychrome pieces in greens, yellows and reds. Both towns have potters’ quarters where you can watch pieces thrown, painted and fired.

Buying tip: Visit the potters’ quarter in Fes or the Colline des Potiers in Safi. Check that plates and bowls are food-safe if you plan to eat from them. The best pieces have fine hand-painting and an even glaze.

Copper and brass workers make pierced lanterns that throw patterned shadows, along with tea sets, trays and door knockers. In the metalworking souks of Marrakech and Fes, you hear the hammering before you see the workshops. Place Seffarine in Fes is the coppersmiths’ square.

Buying tip: Lanterns are the classic purchase. Heavier usually means better metal; check the precision of the piercing, and make sure the wiring suits your home country. Tea sets and trays make good gifts.

Moroccan silver jewellery is largely an Amazigh tradition with protective symbolism. Tiznit in the Anti-Atlas is its historic centre, known for fibulae (large ornamental brooches), heavy bangles, pendants and headpieces decorated with stars, moons and geometric motifs.

Jewish silversmiths in the mellahs shaped much of the craft for centuries. When most Moroccan Jews emigrated in the mid-20th century, Muslim artisans carried the tradition on.

Buying tip: Look for a 925 stamp for sterling silver. Older Amazigh pieces are often lower-purity silver with historic value. Tiznit’s souk and the silver section of the Marrakech souks have the most choice.

Pressed from the kernels of the argan tree, native to south-western Morocco. Culinary oil comes from roasted kernels and tastes nutty; cosmetic oil comes from unroasted kernels and is used on skin and hair. Women’s cooperatives in the Souss produce much of it.

Amazigh communities have used argan oil in cooking and medicine for centuries. UNESCO declared the argan forest a biosphere reserve in 1998.

Buying tip: Buy from certified women’s cooperatives. Cosmetic oil should be pale gold and almost odourless; culinary oil is darker and smells of toasted nuts. Very cheap oil is often diluted.

Calligraphers in Morocco write Maghrebi script, a rounded, sweeping North African hand. Illumination (tezhib) frames the text with geometric and floral borders in gold leaf and mineral and plant pigments. Together they appear on Qurans, royal decrees and the inscriptions of mosques, palaces and madrasas.

Maghrebi script developed in North Africa from the 10th century. In 2021 UNESCO inscribed Arabic calligraphy, in a joint nomination that included Morocco, on its intangible heritage list.

Buying tip: Look for studios in the Fes medina. Hand-lettered work on handmade paper is worth far more than prints; ask to watch the calligrapher at work. A name or phrase written to order makes a personal souvenir.

Luthiers make the oud, the guembri (the three-stringed bass lute of Gnawa music, its body covered in camel skin), the bendir frame drum and the rebab fiddle, along with the metal qraqeb castanets the Gnawa play.

Gnawa music was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2019.

Buying tip: Essaouira is the home of Gnawa music and a good place for a guembri. Always play or listen to an instrument before you buy: a well-made one has a warm, resonant tone; tourist versions often do not.