Flowing tendrils and rigid geometries trace intricate patterns across the surface of a wide belt encircling the waist of a Moroccan bride. Worn by women during special ceremonies, the Fes hizam (plural: ahzima) was a heavily patterned silk belt historically woven by Jewish male artisans whom scholars assume to have roots in al-Andalus, the Muslim-ruled regions of the Iberian Peninsula. Few primary sources on the belts exist outside of French colonial era ethnographic texts (Gallotti 1939; Le Tourneau and Vicaire 1937; Vogel 1926). Contemporary literature on ahzima is limited to exhibition catalogues and survey texts that draw from an overlapping body of secondary sources and often repeat claims about the “origins” of the belts’ motifs, ranging from European (especially French) floral brocades (Spring and Hudson 1995: 34, 2002: 9; Gillow 2009: 137; Paydar and Grammet 2002: 106), Ottoman and Persian floral fabrics...

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