Zayan
The women of the Zayan, an Amazigh (Berber) confederation near Khenifra, weave bold rugs in warm ochre and deep red.
The Zayan hold the western Middle Atlas around Khenifra — the same mountains as the Beni M'Guild and Zemmour, but their own people with their own weaving. Their rugs have a plain-spoken confidence: large forms, few of them, set down without fuss.
The compositions are large and direct — lozenges, stepped diamonds, chevrons — in warm ochre, deep madder red, and dark wool over ivory. Less crowded than a Zemmour, less varied than a Beni M'Guild, a Zayan gets its authority from confidence rather than elaboration.
The protective marks are here too. A lozenge is not just a shape; it is placed where it is meant to be placed, in the number it is meant to appear. Old pieces are natural-dyed — walnut and pomegranate for the dark browns, madder for the red, saffron for the ochre — and the gap between a natural and a synthetic Zayan is wide.