Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/170

154 forming an exchange. In some of the industrial suks where manual industry predominates, as well as in the manufacture of majolica and porcelain for the mosaics in houses and temples, the best merchants employ workers who hold and guard as heirlooms the formulas, designs and craftsmanship of the old, refined Andalusian art. These workers form a separate corporation, have their own mosque and their own patron saints and live on the farther bank of the river in that part of Fez el-Bali which was originally built and inhabited by Andalusian Moors, who for a long time were hostile to the emigrants from Kairwan. Some painters, weavers, designers and book-binders belong also to this corporation. They produce only repetitions of old historical patterns and, it is said, not one of these artists ever allows himself to create any independent or new design, a circumstance which has led to the preservation in their purity of the most beautiful old Moorish patterns. It is left to artisans and masters not belonging to the corporation to indulge themselves in "decadent" and modern creations. It is interesting to note that in the patterns used on majolica ware one finds Persian, Syrian and Chinese motives, as well as others from the pre-Greek period in Cyprus, an influence that can be explained by the mingling of the Moors with Eastern peoples during pilgrimages to Mecca or expeditions to Persia, India and even to China. Also I was interested to hear from Hafid that this potters' suk boasted its own saint, Sidi Mimun, who was at once a potter and a scholar and, when resting from his wheel, taught his pupils the divine language of the Koran.