The Mrirt Premium Line

Within the Beni Ourain family of seventeen Berber tribes in the Middle Atlas mountains of Morocco, Mrirt is recognised as the premium quality — a designation that refers both to the village of Mrirt in the Khenifra province and to a specific tradition of finer knotting and exceptionally soft highland wool. Mrirt pieces are distinguished from regular Beni Ourain work by a finer knot density, more disciplined drawing, and a surface that combines the characteristic Beni Ourain pile with a noticeably softer, more luxurious hand.

This piece belongs to the Djoharian Design Mrirt line — a contemporary Mrirt production developed for interiors that want the premium Mrirt hand and the Berber material tradition, but in a freely composed, artist's register rather than the classical cream-and-charcoal idiom. The composition abandons the strict lozenge grid entirely in favour of an abstract field of irregular colour blocks and broken striations — closer to a modern painting than a repeating motif.

Colour and Composition

A soft cream ground carries irregular blocks and bands of brick red and terracotta, sky blue, warm brown and ochre, and mustard yellow, anchored at the lower left by a striking deep aubergine field. The colours sit in loose, asymmetric zones with drawn striations running through them — a free, patchwork-like composition in the contemporary Moroccan artist idiom (in the spirit of Azilal and Boujad colour work) rather than the strict geometric Berber grid. The result is a vivid, individual piece where no two areas repeat, carried by the depth and softness of the Mrirt highland wool.

Presence in the Room

At 360 × 280 cm (10.1 m², approx. 9 × 12 ft) this is a generous extra-large room-size piece in the international 9 × 12 ft modernist format. Three contexts in which the Mrirt 9 × 12 reaches its full effect:

• Modern living room: The textbook scale for a full sofa group of four to five pieces — the premium Mrirt softness makes the rug pleasant to walk on barefoot, and the multicolour palette becomes the room's chromatic centrepiece.
• Stately dining room: Under a long table for eight to ten, the abstract colour fields read clearly from above as a layered, contemporary foundation.
• Open-plan loft: The vivid palette works as a counterweight to neutral architectural materials — raw concrete, blackened steel, pale oak — and brings a hand-knotted, painterly Berber presence into a contemporary interior.

Specifications

Responsible Sourcing

Djoharian is a Label STEP certified dealer for fair-trade knotted rugs — a commitment to dignified working conditions and against child labour in rug production. Visit the Label STEP entry for Djoharian Teppiche →

Djoharian — Five Decades of Oriental Rug Expertise

With roots in the Grand Carpet Bazaar of Tehran and more than five decades of experience in the international rug trade, Djoharian has specialised in fine Persian, antique and designer rugs since 1967. The family knowledge, passed down through generations from the heart of the Oriental rug world, anchors every piece in our collection.

Service and Delivery

Every piece is expertly inspected in our atelier in Lohr am Main, professionally washed and shipped with a certificate of authenticity. We offer secure and fast worldwide shipping, fully insured, and personal consultation in our showroom or by video call.

Djoharian — Antique and Bespoke Oriental Rugs since 1967.