i. The UNESCO decree

On 7 December 2023, at the 18th session of the Intergovernmental Committee, UNESCO officially inscribed "Arts, skills and practices associated with engraving on metals (gold, silver and copper)" on the Representative List. Morocco thus joins a select circle of countries whose metalwork is recognised as a living heritage of humanity.

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The inscription covers a broad range of techniques: hammering, chasing, repoussé, damascening, niello, filigree. It also recognises the guild organisation — the hantas — which has transmitted the craft in urban settings since the Middle Ages.

ii. The Sefarine square of Fès

If one place sums up this craft, it is the Sefarine square in Fès — named after the coppersmiths (saffārīn). A few dozen open-air workshops, ringed with plane trees, where the hammering of copper has set the rhythm of the medina since the 12th century. Trays, pots, teapots, samovars and arabesque lamps are still made there.

The founding gesture is hammering: a sheet of red copper, stretched with round hammer blows (matraqua) on a horned anvil (arzala). The thin metal becomes a hollow object. Then comes chasing: a punch (chisel) struck in small repeated taps engraves the arabesques on the surface. No template: the motif circulates, memorised, in the maâlem's eye.

iii. Three workshops, three metals

Copper

King of Moroccan brassware. Fès, Marrakech and Tétouan are its capitals. The most emblematic pieces: the siniya (tea tray), the khel'a (samovar), the great pierced chandelier.

Silver

Tiznit, Essaouira, Taroudant — capitals of jewellery. Fine filigree, niello (inlay of silver sulphide in grooves), Berber adornments: khellal fibulae, louh pectorals, khellala bracelets.

Damascened steel

Meknès is the only Moroccan city where damascening survives — the inlay of gold and silver threads in patinated steel. Vases, boxes and ornaments for ceremonial saddles are produced there.

iv. The gesture, transmitted

The apprenticeship is long: three to five years to become a sani' (journeyman), about ten to earn the title of maâlem. Transmission happens in the workshop, in the repeated gesture, without a manual. The young start with sweeping, then polishing, then lighting the fire, then finally hammering the simple pieces.

Copper obeys the hand, not the plan. You listen to it, and it takes the shape it is willing to take. Maâlem Hassan, Sefarine, Fès