Moroccan Rugs, Moroccan Carpets, Vintage Moroccan Rugs, Vintage Moroccan Carpets and the Berber Tribe

Morocco has a long history of weaving some of the most beautiful rugs in the world. The ancient weaving started before the 7th Century with the Berber tribe, people of North Africa who settled in Morocco during this period. For thousands of years, the women of the tribe have woven exquisite handknotted wool rugs inspired by tribal ceremony and symbolism. The Berber tribe still exists today, living in the Atlas mountain regions of Morocco, where the ancient weaving techniques are preserved and passed down from mother to daughter. The Berber tribe is still responsible for producing the majority of handmade Moroccan rugs in our marketplace.

Moroccan rugs are unique in their designs, patterns and colors since each rug is woven without any diagram or pattern to follow. The weaver interprets important designs and patterns that are relevant to daily tribal life and reproduces these motifs in the rug. Rugs often tell a story of tribal ancestors or the weaver’s life combined with tribal superstitions that are a strong part of these remote rural regions. Characterized by geometric patterns that are often asymmetrical and rich vibrant colors reminiscent of church stained glass windows, Moroccan rugs work well to accent contemporary interiors and architecture. Bold colors like reds, oranges, yellows, blues, greens and purples are mixed with naturals, browns and blacks representing colors found in nature, plants and wildlife indigenous to the region of the tribe. The dyes that produce these vivid colors are made from plants and berries like henna, madder root, pomegranate, figs and tea leaves found abundantly in the mountains. The natural and black wools used comes directly from sheep and goats in the area, like the black-haired goats that roam and climb the Atlas mountain areas. Each weaver determines the design, pattern and color as the rug progresses, so no two rugs are ever alike and each rug can take years to weave.

A Moroccan rug is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece, a work of art, that will provide beauty for a lifetime. With proper care, colors will not fade and wool will not wear out, leaving a rug that can be passed down for generations.

Nomadic rugs

Nomadic Rugs – The term “nomadic” is often encountered in the rug world to distinguish weavings that were produced by the nomadic peoples of Central and Western Asia as opposed to the woven productions of urban centers. This distinction operates on multiple levels. Initially it simply identifies weavings that were produced by wandering, tent-dwelling peoples with a nomadic lifestyle, economy, and social organization, as opposed to those living in settled town or urban circumstances. But this involves much more than social distinctions. Nomadic weavings were functionally different than their urban counterparts. Both utilized rugs as interior furnishings, but while urban rugs are overwhelmingly floor coverings and less frequently cushions, nomadic rugs served a much greater range of needs, functioning as woven doors, structural tent reinforcements, horse and camel trappings, and storage containers of variable size and purpose.

Antique Central Asian
Rug 41407

In the world of nomads, rugs served as protection and insulation against the elements. Though highly decorative and aesthetic, nomadic rugs were literally part of the apparatus of survival. Rugs were therefore a far more widespread and integral feature of nomadic life than they were in the urban sphere, where they remained more an element of luxury and décor, much as they still are in the West today. Consequently the typology and development of rug weaving among nomads was far more complex and varied than it was in cities, towns, and villages.

Many scholars are in fact convinced that rug weaving was initially invented and developed by nomadic peoples, who then transmitted it to urban cultures in the course of time. The more culturally integral nature of rug weaving in the nomadic sphere also suggests that there rug designs had a greater significance and cultural function there than they did among urban peoples. Nomadic designs were cultural symbols such as tribal or clan emblems, and therefore they changed and developed slowly as highly traditional crafts. In the urban or village milieu designs were primarily decorative and more subject to changes in taste and market demand, which explains their greater variation and constant evolution of new patterns and types. All this helps to explain why nomadic weavings hold a privileged place among collectors not only for their technical quality and original designs, but above all for their cultural authenticity.