The Beni Ouarain and some neighbouring Berber tribes in the northeastern Middle Atlas are the weavers of a distinctive type of large, archaic-looking, white-ground pile carpet. These 'white giants' represent a direct link to the earlier weaving traditions of the Zenata Berber, and in their turn have had a fundamental influence on the development of the textiles woven by Morocco's mountain nomads.

The Beni Ouarain are a confederation of seventeen Berber tribes (*1), whose ancestors may already have been settled in the most northeasterly part of the Middle Atlas by the 9th century AD. Some trace their origin to the area of southern Tunisia, others to the northernmost part of present-day Mauritania (*2) They speak a Berber language called Ruafa, also known as Zenatiya or Thazighth (*3) Their presentday settlement area is bordered in the south and southeast by the Jebel Bou Iblane Range, and in the north by the Jebel Tazekka, Oued Inaouène and Oued Msoun; there is no such natural border in the west (*4).

(1) Beni Ouarain rug (Zerarda), ca. 1930, 255 x 175 cm (8' 6'' x 5' 10'') 

The Beni Ouarain heartland has an annual rainfall similar to that of the Rif Mountains, which means that both migratory animal husbandry and settled agriculture are important (2). There have always been settlements built from stone and clay in the valleys (3), and the level of rainfall even allows for some unirrigated agriculture (*5).  However, the zone east of the Middle Atlas foothills is so arid that agriculture is possible only along the rivers, as in some areas of southern Morocco.

(2) River valley in Ait Abd el Hamid territory

(3) painted decoration on a house in the Ait Abd el Hamid region

One part of each family used to cultivate fields in the valleys, while the others migrated with their flocks and tents to the mountains in summer, descending in winter to the hill country around Tahala or the Guercif Plateau (4) (*6).  Since the 1970s, however, the tribes have shown a strong tendency to settle. Cultivators have taken over the good lower grazing ground from the pastoralists, who have begun building permanent homes in the mountains up to a height of around 1,800 metres and are now planting winter cereals even at these heights. In these mountain regions one can nevertheless still find the ancient breed of small sheep whose excellent wool is responsible for the quality of Beni Ouarain rugs and textiles (5).

(4) Beni Ouarain (Beni Jelidassen) nomadic family with their tent

(5) A flock of the old Beni Ouarain breed of sheep grazing at the northern slopes of the Jebel bou Iblane Range.

The Beni Ouarain pile-weaving tradition may date back as far as the tribe's arrival in their present settlement region around the turn of the last millennium. This suggestion is based on the need for these tribes to produce textiles for protection against winter cold in the highland areas. Until very recently, one group, the Beni bou Zart, continued to make loop-pile textiles called bnchgra which  are widely recognized as  precursors of pile-woven  rugs (*7).  The Beni Ouarain flatwoven textile tradition may be even older, since it  is possible to establish a clear design relationship with Tunisian textiles, pointing to a common source.

The carpets, known as tihlasine (sing. tahlast), are produced largely in the Atlas Mountains and the western regions; the tribes in the arid eastern sector only have a relatively small rug production of their own. As is true of most tribes in the Middle Atlas, the Beni Ouarain did not use carpets as floor covers, but rather as beds and bedding. This explains the loose structure of the rugs, which adjust to the shape of the body and offer effective protection against the cold.

Owing to their voluntary retreat into remote mountain regions, the Beni Ouarain tribes were not subject to urban Arab influences until well into the 20th century. It is therefore not surprising that formal similarities of design and palette are to be found not in the urban rugs of the Maghreb, but rather in rural ceramics, which have retained an archaic decorative system of black lines on a white base, as well as production methods unchanged since Neolithic times.

The classic Beni Ouarain carpet design has a network of diamonds made up of relatively fine black lines on a white ground (6). Borders are uncommon, and even the secondary guard design elements along the sides (7) appear to be the result of external influences.

(6) Beni Ouarain carpet (Oulad el Farh), ca. 1940, 355 x 220 cm (11' 10'' x 7' 4'')

(7) Beni Ouarain rug (Ait Assou), ca. 1960, 300 x 180 cm (10' x 6'), exhibited at the Musée de Marrakech during ICOC, Marrakech 2001

Because the oldest documented rugs of the Beni Ouarain and of related tribes in the northeastern Middle Atlas have extremely rich designs, one may gain the impression that their creative culture has lost its vigour during the 20th century. The carpets in the Musee Batha in Fez, those in the Musee National des Arts d'Afrique et d'Oceanie in Paris (MAAO), as well as those illustrated by Prosper Ricard and the oldest examples shown here (8, 9), support this impression. But in the course of my field trips I have managed to document a few older fragments with much simpler designs, which suggests the parallel production of both richly decorated and more austere rugs (1, 10). The survival of more of the richly designed pieces may be due to the fact that they were considered more precious, both in their place of origin and by museum curators, and have thus been treated with greater care.

(8) Ait Seghrouchene carpet (western area, south of Fez), ca. 1920, 465 x 180 cm (15' 4'' x 6'), exhibited at the Musée de Marrakech during ICOC, Marrakech 2001 + the Paul Klee Zentrum, Bern, Switzerland, 2009 in the exhibition 'Carpet of Memory'

(10) Beni Ouarain carpet (Beni bou Zart / Ait Abd el Hamid), ca. 1930, 420 x 190 cm (14' x 6' 4'')

The warp of Beni Ouarain carpets is always Z-spun white wool, as are the wefts, of which there are normally between four and fifteen shoots, but occasionally up to thirty. The pile yarn is Z2S with a pile height of up to 7cm. The Berber knot is the norm, but the Beni bou Zart, Ait Assou, Zerarda and Ait Ighezrane tribes in the west, as well as the Beni Jelîdassen in the southeast, also use the symmetric knot or a mixture of both types.

The symmetric knot is tied over four, very rarely six, warps, the Berber knot over three warps, more rarely two or four. The number of knots varies from 6-10/dm vertically and from 13-18/dm horizontally; if the Berber knot is tied over two warps, this figure is correspondingly higher. One also occasionally finds pieces throughout the tribal region where a symmetric knot, twisted 90°, is wrapped around three warp threads in a similar manner to the Berber knot.

Older pieces often have several rows of knots with black and white dots which protrude from the back of the rug in rows on the weft axis. They are particularly common in the short kilim ends. These pile elements on the back are also found running parallel to the sides in Beni Jelîdassen and Oulad el Farh rugs, as well as among the neighbouring tribes to the south, the Ait Youb and Marmoucha.

Selvedges are formed from two to four warp cords, Z2-10S, and normally just wrapped by the weft shoots, as the pile almost always continues to the edge of the rug. One finds rugs throughout the tribal region with a great variety of knot configurations on the back along the sides. These are rare to the west but particularly common among the Oulad el Farh.