Berber veils

Between 1998 and 2002, when the international market developed a strong interest in Moroccan henna textiles, the veils of the Ahel Telt were among the most sought-after types. The Ahel Telt live in the northernmost part of the Middle Atlas as part of the Beni Ouarain confederation. Their territory is situated east and southeast of the Jebel Tazzeka and south of the Oued Msoun valley. Like the neighbouring groups of the Beni Ouarain confederation, the Ahel Telt traditionally lived mainly from semi-nomadic cattle breeding.

It is interesting to note that, among all the Beni Ouarain tribes, examples of the complete set of textiles used in traditional female costume have survived to the present day only in this group’s small region. While women’s shawls called ‘tabrdouhte’ or ‘tabbnoute’ (Arabic: handira) continued to be produced until the 1970s or even the 1980s, production of the large wrapping textiles (‘tahraoukht’), veils (‘taritat’ or ‘tarredat’), headbands (‘tachedat n’tritat’) and traditional belts (‘abkass ouziza’) had been abandoned much earlier, generally in the 1920s and 1930s. Between 1998 and 2002, when the international market developed a strong interest in Moroccan henna textiles, the Ahel Telt veils (‘taritat’) were among the most sought-after types.

The information in this text about Ahel Telt women’s veils is based on field-documentation trips to the region that I undertook with my long-time partner Mustapha Hansali between 1994 and 2001. A trained linguist, Mustapha Hansali is also a native Tamazight speaker who lives and works in Morocco. The regional terminology used for Ahel Telt textiles is in Tamazight, the regional Berber language, unless otherwise noted. The contribution concerning the veils of the Ait Haddidou was provided by Henri Crouzet, Paris.

The Quest for Clarity

Gebhart Blazek and Henri Crouzet

Following the ‘hype’ around Moroccan Berber textiles in the late 1990s and the first years of the following decade, the publication of ‘Costumes Berbères du Maroc’ by Marie Rose Rabaté and Frieda Sorber in late 2007, gave us hope that this book would bring much needed clarity and structure to the matter.

Such clarity and structure was the stated goal of this opus, at least according to Marie Rose Rabaté, who does not tire of asserting her claim to them in her chapters. Unfortunately her claim is met in very few areas, and chapters that from their titles promise much, offer mainly speculative assumptions and even misinformation. In ‘Berber Style’, for instance, Rabaté boils the entire iconography of Berber textiles down to a few basic motifs, especially anthropomorphic figures. But this interesting idea remains nothing but an assertion, and it is unsupported by any in-depth argument.

Even more problematic is her attempt in ‘Seduction and Pitfalls of Authenticity’ to clarify the differences between ‘authentic’ Berber textiles and those which have in the broadest sense been made for the market. This is an honourable effort, but there are good reasons why no one has ever succeeded in dealing with this subject in the requisite depth and breadth, which would involve accurate observation of a multitude of cultural traditions, stylistic characteristics, technical processes and other factors. In contrast to Rabaté’s reductionist analysis, one would need to produce comprehensive documentation and analysis of at least thirty securely known types of genuine traditional textiles, as well as many others that have emerged on the market in recent times for which a traditional source and usage are not traceable.

Let us take a closer look at two of the many types of Berber tribal textiles addressed by Rabaté: the ‘tarredat’ or ‘taritat’ veil of the Ahel Telt from the Beni Ouarain Confederation in the northeastern Middle Atlas and the tie-dyed ‘agounoun’ shoulder scarf of the Aït Yazza, an Aït Hadiddou sub-tribe living in the central High Atlas around Imilchil (1).

For the ‘agounoun’, Rabaté asserts a conspiracy by traders who imported textiles from Libya to Morocco to sell to gullible tourists and dealers as rare and expensive items of Moroccan origin. She is clearly unaware of the research on Aït Hadiddou tribal practices undertaken between 1970 and 1990 by the Austrian ethnologists Norbert Mylius Sr. and his son Norbert Mylius Jr. who, in 1970, filmed a documentary entitled Aït Haddidou (North Africa, High Atlas) – Dyeing a Cloth with the Plangi Technique (released in 1974 by IWF Wissen und Medien, Göttingen ). This shows in detail how an Aït Hadiddou woman produced a tie-dyed ‘agounoun’ using a piece of fabric cut from an old weaving (2). In 1985, Mylius also filmed the last mass wedding ceremonies of the Aït Hadiddou. His film, Timghriwin: Mass Marriage of Berbers in the Atlas Mountains – Marriage Destined for Divorce, clearly shows how the ‘agounoun’ was worn on the bride’s shoulders, over her handira (shawl) and under her hair. No more than a brief internet search and a little time was required to find this work, which more than confirmed our own field observations in 2001.

For the Beni Ouarain ‘taritat’ or ‘tarredat’ veil, documentation is more difficult and complex. Here again Rabaté assumes a dealer’s conspiracy to deceive naïve collectors. She states that counterfeit examples are easy to identify since the basic fabric is of recent origin, in good condition, with both lateral borders and fringes intact, whereas the ground fabric of authentic older pieces has been cut from a much larger wrapping cloth, and should thus show cut edges. In support of this argument she cites a 1938 article by Marcel Vicaire, the former Directeur des Arts Indigènes au Maroc, in which he describes the manufacture of these headscarves, mentioning that the ground fabric is usually cut from old wrapping cloths (“Le tissu, en mousseline de laine, armure toile, est généralement un vieux ’haïk dans lequel la femme coupe un rectangle d’environ 1 mètre sur 1 mètre 30”). Where objects are traded at high prices, when a product becomes sufficiently profitable, forgeries can appear. But it is unacceptable, and highly counterproductive, to assume overall imposture and counterfeiting, without detailed knowledge of the matter. Recent copies of these headscarves exist that attempt to imitate the technical and aesthetic qualities of the original old textiles on the market, and at least some of them were made from recently produced materials. But it’s also true that authentic textiles of this group exist. Condition alone cannot provide reliable information about the true age of the piece. It is apparent that during her ‘research’, Rabaté had access to very few pieces, all in good condition, which she found suspicious. At least a couple of dozen authentic headscarves from the Ahel Telt region from about 1900 and 1950 are known to survive, as well as a similar number of wrapping cloths (arab. ‘haïk’), a larger quantity of attendant headbands, and many shoulder covers or shawls of the ‘tabrdouhte’ or ‘tabbnoute’ type, which continued to be made in the traditional manner up to the late 1970s (3) - (19).

As can be seen in the above examples, such textiles survive in very varying condition: some are fragmented through use, mildew, moth or mouse damage, others are well preserved. The probability of a textile surviving to the present day is no different in the Ahel Telt region to elsewhere. If other textile types have survived for a century or more, so should ‘taritat’ veils.

Rabaté further deduces from the woven side borders and end fringes that the ground fabric must be of recent production. She evidently discounts Vicaire’s mention not only of old wrapping cloths (“un vieux haïk”), but also cloths “en mousseline de laine, armure toile” (of woollen muslin, balanced plainweave). This construction does not occur on Ahel Telt women’s haiks, which had to be opaque, and were most often made of very fine but relatively dense weft-faced plainweave (15), (16), (28), (29). Old men’s haiks have the same fine, slightly sheer structure as the veils, with a working width of some 100-120cm, which is why, even when made from old textiles, the headscarves show both side borders (18) and (19).

The headbands, undoubtedly made in the Ahel Telt region, have a similar fine plainwoven structure, but it is possible that some of the men’s haiks were bought in from professional craftsmen, presumably in Taza, the main market town north of the territory of the Ahel Telt. If some haiks were bought in or made on demand, the fine, loose plainwoven ground fabric for ‘taritat’ could have been produced the same way. But it is also probable that at least some of it was woven locally.

Most of the surviving textiles of this group, whatever their condition, have the same structure as the men’s ‘haïks’, which corresponds to Vicaire’s description (20) - (27).

Radiocarbon tests of certain textiles of the ‘taritat’ group, which are, due to their perfect condition, likely to be among more recently made examples, have shown that they were made in the late 1950s and early 1960s, during the era of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. These very specific results contradict Rabaté’s assumption of their even more recent production, from which she attempts to deduce proof of falsification.

In summary, we may say that this book introduces subjects well worth serious discussion, but fails to bring structure and clarity to the matter, thus leading to further confusion. The controversial chapters are driven, first and foremost, by Rabaté’s personal opinions, which are too often bold expressions of insufficiently or inaccurately researched facts, leading to errors.

Publication

This article was originally published in HALI, issue 158, London, December 2008.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Mustapha Hansali and Abdelaziz Ryahi for their help, knowledge and friendly cooperation in the research and preparation of this article.

Terminology

The correct transcription of the tribal confederation’s name is Beni Ouarain. Neither Beni Ourain, Beni Quarain nor Ait Ouarain are commonly used terms in the region. The term Ait Ouarain appears frequently in ethnological literature from the French Protectorate period, but seems rarely to have been used by the Beni Ouarain people themselves. Beni Warain is also commonly used in German transcription.

Photography

Photography by Gebhart Blazek, except image (2), which comprises stills from the film Ait Haddidou (North Africa, High Atlas) – Dyeing a Cloth with the Plangi Technique, used with the permission of Norbert Mylius Jr.