Zerbia (pile carpet); alloucha (natural-wool style); mergoum and klim (short-nap styles)
Hand-knotted pile carpets (zerbia) and short-nap flatweaves (mergoum, klim) woven by women in Kairouan, Tunisia's oldest and most renowned carpet center. Pile zerbias feature a central floral motif bordered by arabesque patterning, the design responsible for Kairouan's international carpet reputation; the alloucha style — woven purely in the natural color range of sheep's wool, from black through gray, beige, and white, without dye — is a documented and dateable innovation created by one family around 1913 in response to dissatisfaction with contemporary wool and dye quality. Kairouan's weaving tradition is documented as continuous since antiquity, with the 1st-century Islamic Aghlabid emirate of Kairouan reportedly paying tribute to the Caliph of Baghdad partly in carpets.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not independently inscribed
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