Morocco has been home to Amazigh peoples for centuries. Varying from semi-nomadic pastoralists to sedentary farmers, many Amazigh tribes have settled in Morocco. The jewellery of Amazigh women is abundant, colourful, and widely admired. The late Yves Saint-Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé, for example, were avid collectors of these jewellery pieces, many of which can be admired today in the Musée Berbère at Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech.

Fibulas and fabric

The most visible testimony to the long history of North Africa is the use of large clothes-pins or fibulas, called tizerzai or tisernas in Tamazight. These were already in use some two millennia ago. Worn in pairs at shoulder height, they serve to keep the outer wrap of clothing in place. These objects range from simple pins to elaborately decorated pieces and communicate identity, as they differ per tribe, valley and village. This pair of silver fibulas, for example, was worn by the Ihahen on the Atlantic coast, around Essaouira. Their shape echoes pastoralism in the horns of a ram, while their decoration technique is reminiscent of city jewellery: a testimony to how jewellery reflects changing lifestyles.

Some of these fibulas used for outer garments are large and heavy objects, weighed down even more by the chains connecting the fibulas and the sometimes-heavy decoration suspended in between. This tells the observer a lot about the economic and social standing of the lady wearing them, but it also shares information about the textiles they were used on. Both the weight of the fibula as well as its sturdy pin reveal a fabric that must be able to withstand the pulling force of the pin, and with a weave that allows the pin to be inserted without damaging it. This belt pin in silver, used in the area around Siroua, reflects another type of fabric in its slender silver pin: it was pinned into a belt.

Techniques

Throughout the country, fibulas are created and decorated in a variety of techniques. Around the area of Tiznit, in the western Anti-Atlas, a distinctive green and yellow enamel is found that makes jewellery items from this region instantly recognisable. The colours for the enamel were originally obtained by grinding yellow and green glass trade beads produced in Bohemia and Murano, while later ready-made enamel powder was used. Even though the custom of wearing fibulas has virtually disappeared, Tiznit continues to be an important centre for the art of enamelling. Also in the western anti-Atlas as well as in the central anti-Atlas, jewellery is decorated with niëllo, resulting in black decorations on a silver background. First, the silver is engraved, after which it is covered in black enamel. The upper layer is removed so that the engraved sections appear in black. Moving on to the southern Atlantic coast, fibulas are decorated with engraving and fine embossing, techniques also found in the Middle Atlas and the southeast of Morocco.        

Fibulas and everyday life

Fibulas do not only hold clothing together, they form an integral part of everyday life. This connection goes both ways. Fibulas display decoration and colour schemes found in other items that are used in and around the house, but also reflect their landscape and environment. This fibula from Zerhoun, for example, echoes the shape of the tomb of a saint as well as arched doorways, a motif that is also found in shrine work of the area. The protrusions on Tiznit fibulas, as depicted above, reflect the crenellations on top of kasbah walls.

Geometrical designs on the fibulas and other jewellery also feature on carpets, blankets and other textiles, the delicate use of colours in Siroua jewellery is present in their stunning outer wraps called tahaikt. The other way around, the image of fibulas features on beauty products, doors and chests: a beautiful visualisation of the world of these characteristic pins, that once formed the central part of a woman’s’ appearance.

This post was written by Sigrid van Roode, jewellery historian, ethnographical researcher, and author. For the last 25 years, she has worked and travelled extensively in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. She is currently working on her PhD research into jewellery and ritual, at Leiden University.

She is a member of the Society of Jewellery Historians and serves on the advisory board of The Zay Initiative.

Read more about her work, research and books at https://www.bedouinsilver.com/