Bibliography

Bonjour à tous

I have listed here some publications giving good informations about Moroccan weavings and rugs.

The most interesting subject is the berber weaving art whitch has roots reaching the neolithic times and for this reasons is, in my opinion, on the same level of historic and aethetic interest than the anatolian art of kilims.

The best book on the subject of "non regular" rugs and weavings of the berber women is "AZETA L'art des femmes bebères" by Paul Vandenbroek. This is a hudge catalog of an exhibition that has taken place in the Palais des beaux arts de Bruxelles in 2000.
This book contains many pictures of astonishing rugs and a very interesting text that explains the ancien roots of the motives and the anthropological meaning of them. It is really an important book on the subject. 275 pages, Ludion/Flammarion publ. French text.

We can find an other interesting approach of the berber life in the book of Margaret Courtney-Clarke, "IMAZIGHEN, the vanishing traditions of berber Women", Thames and Hutson publ. 1996

An other great book (with english and french text) is "Berber tribal carpets and weavings fromm Morocco, the HERSBERGER collection", by H. Reinisch and W. Stanzer. Private publ. Graz 1991.
This book contains a tribal classification of weaving products with good exemples of each tribe.

An other great exhibition catalog contains many pictures of carpets and of cloth weavings (capes...) with historical photographs of the weavings worn by the members of the tribes at the begining of the XX°. "Splendeurs du Maroc" Exhibition in the Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale de Tervuren (Belgium). 1998

The Museum of rugs and textile art of Clermont-Ferrand (France )(this is my city) has organized two good exhibitions on tribal weavings : "Au fil du desert, tentes et tissages des pasteurs nomades de méditerranée" Catalog by Arnaud Maurières, Eric Ossart (two great french collectors of weavings) and Cecile Lapeyrie. Edisud publ. 1996. In this catalog we can see many tribe weavings and rugs from the Syria to the Morocco.
The other catalog is "Maroc tapis de tribus" by Christine Bouilloc (museum curator), Henri Crouzet (french moroccan carpet dealer and collector) and Arnaud Maurières. Edisud 2001. In this catalog the whole berber tribe products are sampled with good pictures and technical analysis.

The more recent book on berber rugs is the one of Alfred and Suzanne S. Saulnier about AIT BOU ICHAOUEN "Weavings of a nomadic berber tribe" that depicts the weavings of a recently discovered weaving tribe of the moroccan mountains. The colours of the printings are unfortunatly not the real ones. It is published by the authors. 2003.

I don't know if these books are easily consultable in USA.

Meilleures salutations à tous.

Louis Dubreuil

Ait Bou Ichaouen

Bonjour Louis and All- find below a link to the Cloudband article
by the Saulniers and exhibitimg some beautiful weavings. It is my impression this this freeform style of design is somewhat more of an Arab tradition, yet now pretty much inextricable. Both being Mediterranean peoples, I imagine that the primordial inhabitants of what is now known as Turkey have much in common with Berbers. Saulniers Berbers - Dave

Hi Dave,

Fact is: WHO are the primordial inhabitants of what is now known as Turkey? Not the various Turkic people, for sure.

The only ancient populations whose identity still survives today are the Kurds (which have lived in the region since they invaded it, perhaps in the 2nd millennium BC) and the Armenians.
Older populations disappeared or were absorbed.
Best Regards,

Filiberto

One of the Great Mysteries

Filiberto- Good question. The Berbers, of which my sister in law



depicted here on the right is a good example,seem to be the primordial peoples of the region of the Meditteranian. But as seems to always be the case, the further back in history we go
the less we understand.

But I think it's safe to assume that the primordial people of what we now call Turkey were not Mongolian

These people of Morocco really challenged my perceptions of race and ethnicity. They have lived in such close proximity for so long, as opposed to here in the states where most everyone is a recent arrival. - Dave

Primordial of Primordial

Filiberto and All- I know it has been quite time, but if memory serves me correctly the oldest human remains of the Sapiens Sapiens variety were discovered in a cave along with some oddly formed remains which seemed to demonstrate a type of Neanderthal hybrid, placing these fossils somewhere within the
30-50 or 40-60,000 (?) thousand year range. Beside representing the oldest known remains of modern humans, this find was singular as in that it seems to prove some familial relationship between Sapiens Sapiens and Sapiens Neanderthal- and bearing most directly upon the discussion at hand due to the fact that these were found in a cave- in Iraq.

Bibliography

All- Have found what appears to be an excellent compilation of references about Mamluk Carpets - Dave

Bibliography