black with a mount · Fez · Founded 859
The Lending Room
Qarawiyyin · Founded 859 · Fez
- Giclée on 200gsm archival matte, pigment inks
- Printed to order in Europe and posted to you
- Framing is optional, and framed prints arrive ready to hang
About this piece
Carved cedar shelving, a zellij floor, light from a high grille falling onto one open book on a stand. The library at the Qarawiyyin was founded by Fatima al-Fihri, who also founded the university, and it has been lending manuscripts continuously for eleven hundred years.
Cedar, zellij floor, one shaft of light
A living tradition
This comes from a craft people still practise. It is nobody's private property and it is not nobody's work either: it was made, over centuries, mostly by women whose names were never written down. We say so rather than call it anonymous.
