Rug with Green Monolith
At the 9th International Conference on Oriental Rugs, which gloriously took place in Milano in 1999, Mustapha Hansali presented his research based on field trips to the Azilal region. Hansali was the first ever to have researched the material culture of the area. He divides Azilal rugs in two groups: white ground rugs with designs in natural, undyed brown or black dyed wool, attributing these to the Ait Bougemez and Ait Bou Oulli tribes, and, originating from eastern part of the region and dating to the early 80’s, a group of red ground rugs with geometric patterns which he connects to the Ait Sokhmane and the Ait Bouzid tribes. He also notes that, starting from 1980, we see a more frequent use of industrial fibres and fabric remnants, initially used only for the warps and soon after for the pile as well. In this early example of the latter type, we see a blue-green monolith against an orange-red background with yellow striations occurring with random rhythm. Flanking this monolith, and in its same colour, are a pair of amorphous zig-zag lines which look like an extreme stylisation of a zoomorphic motif.