Zillij: The Art of Moroccan Ceramics

Zillij: The Art of Moroccan Ceramics, by John Hedgecoe and Salma Samar Damluji, is a richly illustrated survey combining photographic documentation with craft history of the geometric tile mosaic tradition central to Moroccan religious and civic architecture. Its strength is descriptive and visual, tracing techniques, workshop practice and regional style across mosques, madrasas and palaces, drawing on direct observation of craftsmen and surviving buildings. It is not a work of Islamic art theology or a technical mathematics treatment of the underlying geometry, and readers seeking either the doctrinal rationale some traditions offer for aniconic geometric ornament, or a rigorous mathematical classification of the tiling patterns themselves, will need a source built for that purpose. Treat it as a craft and design history, authoritative on technique and visual record.