The Complete Artist’s Guide to Morocco: Part I

I recently spent ten days in Morocco, not because I have family there or had any artistic background in Morocco, but because I knew almost nothing about it.

After trekking through gorges, medinas,and endless mazes of souks (markets), I reached a new level of understanding of their art, cuisine and culture as a whole.

Morocco is situated on the northwest tip of Africa and through the years has been a Berber kingdom, French colony, Spanish holding, and is now under Arabic rule. It presents an artistic conundrum with its Portuguese turrets, Muslim minarets, and endless Francophile references that linger in its cafes.

In a series of posts, I hope to introduce anyone who is curious (or simply confused, like I was) about Moroccan culture and history. As a point of entry, I’ll start with Moroccan doors, almost all of which beg you run your hand over their intricate designs before opening the latch into another world.

The first thing to know about Moroccan doors is that they serve a functional purpose. They let people into your home, but they also do a great job of keeping hot winds out of your inner courtyard oasis. This top photo is a perfect example of a typical Moroccan door of entry into a school or Mosque. It sits within a typical Muslim horseshoe arch that tapers at the top into a point (unlike Roman arches) and has two options for entry. The large doors serve as barn doors to let loads of air (and people!) inside, while the smaller doors serve merely to let smaller crowds and small gusts of wind inside.

Typical house doors that offer entry from the street are often another matter. They lack the larger barn style door, but make up for their lack in size by providing the pedestrian with a visual feast for the eyes. Incorporating stars, circles, squares, and triangles blended together in a myriad of ways, the Moroccan front door acts as an excellent precursor to the intricately tiled Moroccan interior.

Moroccan riads (or large houses that can host many visitors) are largely interior-focused. Since the temperatures can drop thirty degrees in one day and the winds have been known to blow Saharan sands, Moroccans have become masters of home climate control. This is why you will see very few windows in the typical Moroccan home.

Moroccan doors also incorporate the common West African practice of ‘fractal scaling’ or the repetition of a theme on large and small scales. This door (above) incorporates the Jewish six-pointed Star of David, frequently featured in Jewish districts of Moroccan cities such as Marrakech and Essaouira.

An important thing to know about any Muslim architecture is that animals and people are strictly forbidden. There is some leeway in a culture like Morocco, where European and Berber influences bring animals and body parts to the table (e.g. the hand Hamza symbol) but largely, figures are prohibited.

Some exceptions are below:

The swan’s head is barely a figure. From far away, it merely appears to be a curved line with an arrowhead. No harm of being heretical there.

The second object (the hand pictured above) is a ‘Hamsa’ (simply meaning ‘five) to Arabic speakers or ‘the hand of Fatima’ to Muslims. It serves an apotropaic function to ward off evil when the fingers are open and to bring good luck when the fingers are closed. The symbol pre-dates Christianity and Judaism, believed to have been found at sites of Mesopotamia.

Either way, it makes an enticing door knocker.

Moroccan doors can be any color and any design. They often bear a resemblance to the architecture of the building they occupy and more often are the most ornate and functional parts of a building. They ward off evil and let in guests. They can be symbolic, beautiful, and powerful.

Or, if you happen to be staying in a Berber camp in the Sahara desert, they can simply be a piece of fabric that keeps unwelcome sand gusts from disturbing your slumber.