Berrad and glasses

What it is

In Moroccan Arabic the teapot is called berrad (plural brared), the drinking glass kas (plural kisan).¹ The siniya (plural swani) is a metal tray, above all for the tea service; all the equipment for preparing and serving is called l-iqama or ʿmara de-s-siniya.²

The glasses and teapot stand on the tray; it gives the ritual its stability and is at the same time regarded as a sign of power.³ Trays of copper, nickel silver or silver were long a sign of prosperity and today adorn homes in all walks of life.⁴

The siniya is often double, two trays with three feet each: on one stand the glasses and teapot, on the other, the la’mara, boxes for sugar and tea, a bowl for the mint and a glass for the water in which the tea leaves are washed.⁵

History

The word siniya is related to ṣīnī, “Chinese”, and in the past could also denote porcelain and copperware.⁶ Large metal platters that served as tables have been made in Morocco for almost a thousand years; the tea tray proper arrived only around two centuries ago, together with tea.⁷

At the end of the 18th century the court and the wealthy drank tea, from 1830 the townspeople, and by the 1890s the countryside too; in the 18th century foreign embassies brought tea and tea services as gifts for the highest dignitaries.⁸ Le360 dates the arrival of tea to the middle of the 19th century and already names Moulay Ismaïl in the 17th century as a tea drinker.⁹

Around 1900, teapots in wealthy households preferably stood on English silver trays.¹⁰ A Moroccan merchant in Manchester, together with the silversmith Richard Wright, had trays, teapots, tea caddies and sugar boxes made for Morocco whose decoration mixed English and Fez motifs; in Moroccan this silver is called rayt.¹¹

How it is made

Most of the tea service for the Moroccan market is made by the swâiniya, the “tray makers” of the medina of Fez, whose guild arose around 1910; according to Buob (2006), in the high season around ten thousand metalworkers work there in almost six hundred locations.¹² In 1946 a craftsman brought the lathe to Fez; with it the Et Taj firm faithfully copied the Wright teapots from Manchester, except that in Fez the patterns are chased and punched by hand instead of being pressed in moulds.¹³ Engraving on gold, silver and copper has been on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage since 2023, as a joint entry of ten states including Morocco; according to UNESCO, the engraved pieces are jewellery and household objects.¹⁴

When

When friends or relatives visit, it is often still the head of the family who pours, or who decides who may take the handle of the teapot.¹⁵ When pouring, the teapot is raised high so that froth forms; in the Sahara and along the Ziz and the Draa, guests accept three glasses so as not to offend their hosts.¹⁶ Until a few decades ago, at weddings the bride was carried to the guests on large round copper trays.¹⁷