The Prince of Tiles: Handmade Zellige brings Moroccan magic to a variety of spaces

With a timeless quality, these tiles are a heritage choice with a rustic charm that won’t date in a clutch of years

Emerald Mosque tiles in porcelain from the Porcelain Superstore (UK). Similar, Mojave Sea, €62 per metre square (porcelain 6cm x 25cm), deluxebathrooms.ie

With an emphasis on honest texture and a rich, thousand-year heritage, the rising popularity of what we term Zellige tile (properly referred to as Zellij) will continue to go up-the-walls for 2024. 

So, what exactly is perfect-imperfect Zellij? Hand-made and hand-cut Moroccan clay tiles, Zellij is made by a division of highly respected mason artisans known as Maallems, in the ancient city of Fes, and its satellite towns in North Africa. Developed in the 10th century when the Byzantine Empire’s use of colourful, glazed mosaics spread via aristocratic fashion and skilled journeymen, Zellij was a perfect creative response to the prohibition of ornamental images of living things in Muslim architecture.