Djellaba

What it is

The djellaba is a sewn, long garment with a hood and sleeves that is open at the front¹. In town it is made of fine wool or factory-made cloth, usually white or light-coloured, reaches to the feet and is worn under the burnous². In the countryside it is a heavier outer garment that often replaces the burnous³. Besides the zellaba, a North African hooded garment, Harrell’s dictionary of Moroccan Arabic (1966) knows the genbaz, a djellaba of the mountain dwellers, and the qessaba, a woollen garment of the djellaba type⁴.

The djellaba was originally worn by men; the fabrics from which it is cut today clothe women and men⁵. The hood usually lies folded back on the shoulders, and a shepherd or farmer without a bag can carry a simple meal in it⁶; for pulling the hood up over the head so that it hides the face, Moroccan Arabic has a verb of its own, genber⁷.

Where it comes from

The djellaba is worn throughout North Africa; in Morocco’s mountain dialects it is called tadjellabit⁸. Where the name comes from is not settled: W. Marçais thought of djilbab, in old Arabic a draped garment, G. S. Colin of the Latin gausapa⁹.

What it is made of

The rural djellaba is made of thick wool or goat hair, brown, red or black, often with dark brown stripes on a lighter ground¹⁰. For finer pieces, the Maison de l'Artisan, the state body for promoting crafts, names handwoven fabrics such as bzou and saissi, as well as silk and ouazzani¹¹.

The djellaba bziouia comes from the area of Bzou near Beni Mellal; women weave it by hand from pure silk yarn, cotton and the wool of the Sardi sheep¹². Depending on the pattern and colours, one piece can take several months; the traditional colour is white¹³.

How it is made

In Figuig women spin and weave the wool, and men sew the woven cloth into djellaba and selham; five women work on one piece for about ten days¹⁴. The buttons are a craft of their own too: in a women’s cooperative in Sefrou they are woven with a needle from twisted rayon over a small paper core¹⁵. Anyone ordering a made-to-measure djellaba chooses the fabric, braid, buttons and the silk thread for the decorative seams¹⁶.

When

Before Ramadan many people take their fabric to the tailor so as to have a new traditional garment at the start of the month of fasting; among the women customers of one tailor in Casablanca, the djellaba is the most requested¹⁷. Other occasions are the middle of Ramadan and the Feast of Breaking the Fast¹⁸. Before this feast in 2025, the djellaba was the best-selling garment in the medina of Rabat, in demand for women and children too¹⁹; in Chefchaouen as well, people have a new djellaba made for the feast, as a study of the women goat keepers of the medina notes in passing²⁰.

How to recognise it

The length varies greatly: in the eastern Rif the djellaba is very short, wide open at the front and belted like a jacket; most commonly it reaches to mid-calf and has side slits²¹. In the woven djellaba the sleeves are very short and woven in one piece with the body; the forearms come out through slits below them²². Among the Jebala of the western Rif, the short woollen djellaba with turban and yellow babouches is part of the typical men’s dress²³.