When you say "pottery" in Morocco, you say Safi. Not a cliché: a fact. Seven hundred years that the kilns have not gone out.

Safi (Asfi in Darija) is an Atlantic port probably founded in the 11th century, occupied by the Portuguese between 1488 and 1541, retaken by the Saadians, then modernised under the Alawites. The town became in the 17th century one of the leading export ports of Moroccan sugar and ceramics. It was under Moulay Ismaïl that the Potters' Hill (Jbel Lahdid) took shape as a specialised guild quarter, with its traditional conical solid-brick kilns, its throwing workshops and its open-air drying yards.

I. The Potters' Hill

The Bab Chaâba quarter — known as the Potters' Hill or Jbel Lahdid — concentrates almost all of the Safi production. There one sees, climbing the slope from the lower medina: the clay-kneading workshops (the clay extracted from the neighbouring hills of Sidi Bouzid), the wooden potter's wheels worked with the foot, the open drying yards where the pieces rest twenty-four to seventy-two hours, then the conical solid-brick kilns — each with its own mark inscribed in chalk on the lintel.

The traditional Safi kiln, fed with olive stones or eucalyptus wood, reaches temperatures between 900 and 1050 °C. The firing lasts 12 to 18 hours, followed by a slow two-day cooling during which no one touches the kiln. Each firing gathers between 200 and 800 pieces — plates, dishes, tagines, vases — for a success rate that rarely exceeds 80%.

II. Portuguese imprint, Morisco heritage

Safi was occupied by Portugal from 1488 to 1541, a short but marking period. The Portuguese built there the Castle of the Sea (Ksar al-Bahr) still visited today, and the Portuguese Cathedral of which the underground chapel survives — one of the rare Gothic architectures on African soil. But the lasting influence comes above all from the Moriscos, those Muslims of Spain expelled in 1609-1614, who settled in Safi with their ceramic know-how — the art of majolica received in Cordoba and Seville. Cobalt blue on a white ground, floral motifs of Sephardic-Andalusian inspiration, is their most visible heritage.

This double influence explains the specificity of Safi ceramics: technically Muslim (manual wheel, conical kiln, alkaline glazes), but formally and chromatically hybrid between the Hispano-Moorish codes (blue, white, floral) and the Berber-Saharan codes (green, yellow, geometric). The great Safi couscous dish — 60 to 80 cm in diameter — systematically combines the two registers: a figurative floral centre, a geometric star-shaped rim.

III. Boujemâa Lamali and the modern age

The modern turn of Safi ceramics came from one man: Boujemâa Lamali (1890-1971). Trained at the National School of Decorative Arts of Paris, son of a great Safi potter, he returned to Morocco in the 1920s and founded in Safi a school and an experimental workshop that reinvented the Safi palette — ochre-green-purple colours, more refined forms, artist signatures on the pieces. Lamali is celebrated as the father of modern Safi ceramics and his pieces today reach record prices in salerooms for Moroccan craft.

His legacy continues through the National Ceramics Museum, housed in the Castle of the Sea, and through the Potters' Corner — a promotion space opened by the Safi Chamber of Crafts at the entrance of the hill. Several great potter families (Lamali, Sernaj, Berchache) maintain signature workshops where one can order pieces from a catalogue.

IV. An economy under pressure

Safi pottery is today living a crisis. Chinese and Turkish competition on the mass market, the running-out of breath of the European markets, and the cost of energy (wood and olive stones tripled between 2018 and 2024) make the economy of the hill fragile. The Ministry of Crafts, within the framework of the Crafts Development Plan 2021-2025, has launched a programme of kiln modernisation (introduction of thermally regulated gas kilns), of training in online marketing, and of geographical protection of the terms "Safi pottery" and "Safi glaze."

A PGI (Protected Geographical Indication), recognised within the framework of law 25-06 on distinctive signs of origin and quality, is under study for Safi ceramics — as it was obtained for argan, the rose of Kelaât M'Gouna, or the saffron of Taliouine. Several potter cooperatives — El Mouahidine Cooperative, Saâda Cooperative — are jointly preparing the file.

V. To see, to learn

Essential places to understand the crafts of Safi.

• Potters' Hill Bab Chaâba — 200+ potters, traditional conical kilns, free visit.
• National Ceramics Museum Castle of the Sea (Ksar al-Bahr) — Reference collection.
• Potters' Corner Entrance of the hill — Chamber of Crafts, direct sales.
• Ksar al-Bahr Seafront — Portuguese fortress 1508-1541.
• Portuguese Cathedral Medina — Underground Gothic chapel, rare in Africa.
• Serghini Workshop Hill — A signature potter family for four generations.

VI. Sources

1. National Ceramics Museum — Castle of the Sea, Safi — National Foundation of Museums..
2. Maison de l'Artisan — Marrakech-Safi / Pottery branch. — link.
3. Ministry of Tourism and Crafts — Sectoral action plan — Pottery 2021-2025..
4. Law 25-06 — Distinctive signs of origin and quality — Official bulletin..