small white ground rugs from the central High Atlas and eastern Morocco
AZILAL
Rugs from the High Atlas have hardly been known to the market and specialist scene until the early 2000s. The first region to appear on the radar of public attention has been the province of Azilal from where white ground rugs of around 4‘ - 5‘ width and lengths between 7‘ - 15‘ started to become popular in the souks in Marrakech from the year 2000 on. These rugs had been made from undyed wools, dark drawings on white ground, the designs being more expressive than the ones known from the larger and heavier white ground sleeping rugs from the Middle Atlas. Towards the very end of the 20th century the weavers started to incorporate coloured industrial yarns in their weavings to add lively accents and the rugs from the high valleys in the Azilal province started to become considerably more colourful.
Meanwhile rugs from more eastern parts of the High Atlas were still unknown or possibly ignored by the market.
It was only from around 2015 on that a previously unknown group of small rugs with mostly undyed white ground colour, sizes of around 3‘ x 6‘ and drawings in either black or various shades of undyed brown and grey wool started to appear. Not only in the souks of Marrakech but also in Fes and other cities. From 2018 on, larger numbers of this mysterious group came to the market, most often labeled as ‚Azilal‘.
Since they had not been discovered until recent years and had never been mentioned in literature it is quite obvious that these little rugs have not been part of the classical nomadic inventory when people still used to live in tents. It seems to be more likely that these rugs had been made for a particular function in houses after people became sedentary in the past decades.
Older examples are normally made with a pile from wool only. In younger examples the ground structure may contain cotton, industrial yarns or rag material and also the pile may be partly or dominantly made from industrial fibres or recycled old fabrics.
During the big draught from 1999 until 2003 up to 90% of the lifestock died or had to be slaughtered in many regions, particularly in Eastern Morocco what lead to a more frequent use of Ersatz materials in these small rugs.
