Bags: MŻo/A/3989, MŻo/A/3992

Origin: Moors (Western Sahara, Morocco)

Dating: mid 20th century

Dimensions: MŻo/A/3989: length 38.8 cm, width 19.0 cm

MŻo/A/3992: length 36.0 cm, width 22.5 cm

Material: leather

Techniques: leatherworking

Acquired by: Adam Rybinski, MŻo/A/3989 – market, Sidi Ifni (Morocco), 2000,
MŻo/A/3992 – shop, Dakhla (Morocco), 2000

Description:

In the early Christian era, the Moors were referred to as Mauritius, which referred to all inhabitants originating from the Maghreb. Today, we can extend this term to the Berber peoples inhabiting the northern and western fringes of the Sahara. Today, the Moors are identified as Muslims in religious matters. However, it should be remembered that before the Muslim invasion, Christianity was dominant in North Africa. Eminent "Moorish" clergymen were Tertullian and St. Augustine. The name Maurycy comes from the 3rd century AD. in Egypt, the Christian saint of Mauritius.

The Moors, like other pastoral peoples, kill animals from their herds only in exceptional situations. One of such situations is the need to obtain leather from which various items are made. A large group of items made of leather are various types of bags, panniers, etc. The two presented bags were obtained by Adam Rybiński during his field research. From the practical side, they perform the same function, they are used to transport objects by a person, most often on the shoulder. Both bags show signs of use. There is a major difference between them, visible to the naked eye. One of them has a natural skin color, with visible anatomical parts of the animal. The second has an intense yellow-red color, is richly decorated with a painting and fringes in the lower part. Nowadays, the Moors, as followers of Islam, do not use figures of people and animals in decoration dominate so plant and geometric elements. It can be presumed that the former bag was used by the poorer part of the community and the latter by the wealthy.

Bibliography:

n.a., 2000, Entrée „Maure”, in: Le nouveau Petit Robert, Paris.
Bovill Edward William, 1966, Złoty szlak Maurów, trans. Edda Werfel, Warsow: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.

Edited by Lucjan Buchalik

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The purchase is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport as part of the National Institute of Museums and Collections' own program "Expansion of museum collections".