Inside the Marrakech Medina: A Leather Worker's Day
The call to prayer has barely faded when Hassan arrives at the tannery. At 5:30 AM, the Marrakech medina is still cool, the narrow passages between buildings casting long shadows. By noon, the temperature will climb above 40 degrees, and the smell of the tanning pits will intensify into something visitors find overwhelming but Hassan barely notices anymore.
"My nose stopped working properly thirty years ago," he laughs, pulling on thick rubber boots. "But my hands remember everything. They know the leather better than my eyes do."
The Ancient Pits
The Chouara tannery is a sight from another century. Dozens of circular stone vats, each filled with different liquids, are arranged in a honeycomb pattern. Some contain quicklime for removing hair and fat. Others hold pigeon dung, which is surprisingly effective as a softening agent. The final vats contain natural dyes: saffron for yellow, poppy for red, indigo for blue, mint for green.
Hassan learned this craft from his father, who learned from his father before him. The family has been working in this exact tannery since the French protectorate era, though the tannery itself dates back to the 11th century.
From Raw Hide to Art
Our partner Amina Benali met Hassan when she was sourcing leather for the hand-bound journals we carry on Heritage Souk. She was struck by the paradox of his work: it is simultaneously one of the hardest and most beautiful crafts in Morocco.
In the medina, everything old is also everything new. The same hands, the same pits, the same dyes. Only the customers change.
The journals that bear Hassan's leather take three weeks to complete. After the hide is tanned and dyed, it is cut, tooled with traditional geometric patterns, and sent to a bookbinder who fills it with handmade paper embedded with flower petals and herbs. The result is an object so beautiful that many buyers tell us they are almost afraid to write in it.
But Hassan would prefer they use it. "Leather wants to be touched," he says, folding a skin with the ease of someone handling silk. "It gets more beautiful with use, not less."
