Grey Miocene clay quarried around Fez is hand-moulded into square tiles, wood-fired with olive-pit fuel, glazed in monochrome enamel tints, and chipped freehand by a maâlem cutter using a heavy double-edged iron hammer (menqach) into hundreds of named geometric furmah shapes. 1
Assemblers arrange thousands of tesserae face-down on the floor purely from tactile memory before backing the mosaic panel with lime mortar. 1
