Amariya

What it is

Richard S. Harrell’s dictionary of Moroccan Arabic explains ʿammariya as a canopied seat carried on a camel¹. At weddings today the amariya is a litter set with ornamental stones, in which the bride sits and which the men of the family carry².

A report from 2008 describes the entrance: four young men in jabador, selham and red tarboosh carry the bride in the amariya on their shoulders while the song “Lalla l-ʿarusa jat” is played³. The jabador is explained there as traditional clothing of jacket and trousers⁴.

History

As early as the early 16th century, Leo Africanus described for Fez an octagonal wooden box covered with silk, in which the bride was brought by bearers, accompanied by trumpets, drums and torches; Edward Westermarck reproduces this description in 1914⁵.

Westermarck himself describes the ʿammariya as a simple wooden frame with a conical roof, draped with sheets and gauze⁶. In Tangier it was carried by a mule; the bride’s brother or uncle lifted her in, and the neggafa lifted her out again, the woman who dresses the bride for the wedding and directs the course of the celebration⁷. In the north the ʿammariya was used in towns and in the countryside alike⁸.

In the past the amariya was made of plain wood and reserved for the nobility and the elite; today it is part of almost every wedding⁹.

When

The amariya belongs to the wedding, when the bride is brought into the hall¹⁰. Instead of the amariya, the bride may also be brought in on a decorated horse¹¹.

How to recognise it

The colour of the bride’s takchita is matched to the colour of the amariya: if the takchita is green, so is the amariya¹². A white takchita goes with a modern amariya called “Koukiyaja”¹³.