The Tile Fountains of Morocco

These tile fountains represent a traditional eleventh century Moorish technique in which handmade terra cotta tiles, called zillij, are cut and arranged. More than a thousand years later, Spaniards and North Africans continue to appreciate this technique in both indoor and outdoor locations for its beauty and ability to withstand variable weather conditions. In this post, we present a several domestic examples of these multicoloured tile fountains and their beautiful compositions.

In later years in Muslim Spain, or al-Andalus, zillij reached artistic heights that have never been surpassed, evident especially in the Alcazar and Alhambra palaces. The eventual expulsion of the Muslims from Spain in 1492 benefited al-Maghrib territories: It provided the cities with an influx not only of great craftsmen, but also a new class of patrons, who sustaining the art of zillij.

The Moroccan artisans or master craftsmen in ceramic mosaics, also knew in Arabic language as zlayji, meticulously arranged each piece to form circular, geometric patterns representing flowers and other plants. These geometric patterns reflect the Islamic belief that life is ordered by cosmic intelligence, even if people cannot always understand it. The abstract patterns reflect the Islamic desire to understand God’s creation through study rather than copy creation through representational art, which is shunned as a pathway to idolatry. Zillij patterns are constructed from archetypal shapes that have been refined by centuries of scientific study, artistic tradition, and religious belief.

In Morocco, zillij is used to decorate water fountains, home interiors, add architectural details, and cover tombs. It is rarely, if unsuccessfully, liberally applied to the exterior of buildings.

The main traditional colors used are black, white, green, blue, and yellow-ochre. The most common pattern is a coloured square, surrounded by black squares, surrounded by coloured squares, etc., with white in-between. There is always an alternation between dark colors (green and blue) and light (yellow).

Throughout the Moroccan old cities, from Fez to  Marrakesh, as example, the zillij work decorate otherwise blank walls and fountains with their small mosaic panels and narrow running bands, refracting the sunlight...

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