Moroccan crafts produce, each year, more than fifty thousand items in the official registers alone, and their export volume crossed in 2024 the symbolic threshold of one billion dirhams. But behind the figures hide hundreds of thousands of hands, dozens of materials, techniques some of which have been transmitted since the 12th century. This magazine chooses to take the time to listen to a few of them, without haste.
The blue secret of Chouara
A day in the millennial tanneries of Fès, between poppy, henna and indigo. How a quarter of 1,200 vats keeps dyeing the world since 859.
Hassan, the last filigree-maker
At the Bab El Mâader workshop, a 67-year-old maâlem draws silver into wires of five hundredths of a millimetre. Chronicle of a threatened transmission.
What is a Beni Ouarain rug worth?
From the Middle Atlas to the galleries of Brooklyn, the anatomy of a value chain. Why the weaver gets 4% of the final price, and what the Maison de l'Artisan is preparing.
Clay thinks
On the seventy minerals of Fès clay, and what they tell of the millennial chemistry of zellige. A conversation with a geologist from UH2C.
The wood that refuses to die
Under the control of the Water and Forests department, the thuya of Essaouira is one of the last Moroccan woods to survive its own exploitation. A visit to the 1948 cooperative.
The hill that speaks copper-green
Four hundred kilns on a hill. In Safi, high-fire pottery is handed from father to son since the 13th century. An heir tells of the 2024 turning point.
The caftan, after UNESCO
Inscribed in December 2025, the Moroccan caftan is now protected by an international convention. What does the inscription change for the King's seamstresses and the workshops of Fès?
The henna road
From the Tafilalet to a Tangier wedding, following a henna leaf from the palm grove to the hands that draw it. The account of a journey in six stages.
→ Submit a topic
The magazine remains open to proposals from journalists, researchers, photographers and anthropologists working on Moroccan or Maghrebi crafts. We favour long narratives, original research and displaced perspectives. Write to salam@snaatbladi.com with a 500-word synopsis and a sample of your work.