Beni Mrirt vs Beni Ourain Rugs: Feel, Look and Price

Beni Mrirt and Beni Ourain are two lineages of hand-knotted wool rug from Morocco's Middle Atlas. A Beni Mrirt rug is denser, heavier and velvety, and is often carved into relief. A Beni Ourain rug has a deeper, looser pile, usually ivory with dark lines. The first is read by touch and shadow; the second by line.

We design in both lineages: Beni Mrirt in the Terrain collection, Beni Ourain in Dune and Jibal.

Beni Mrirt vs Beni Ourain at a glance

The short version: Beni Mrirt reads as texture, Beni Ourain reads as line. Both are hand-knotted in wool; the differences are in the pile, the weight and how the pattern is made.

If the floor should be the texture in the room, start with the sculpted Beni Mrirt rugs of Terrain. If it should hold still under pattern you already own, start with solid Beni Ourain rugs in Dune; if you want the dark graphic line, the Beni Ourain rugs in Jibal.

What is a Beni Mrirt rug?

A Beni Mrirt rug is a hand-knotted wool pile rug from the Middle Atlas, named for the town of M'rirt in Khénifra Province (Wikipedia, M'rirt). "Beni" means "sons of" or "people of", the same word that opens Beni Ourain. You will also see it shortened to "Mrirt rug"; both names point to the same lineage.

Historically the Beni Mrirt design sat close to Beni Ourain: pale wool, spare geometry. What set it apart was the hand. The knots are packed tightly and the pile is kept lower, so the surface closes up into something smooth and velvety rather than shaggy, and the rug is heavy for its size. That density is also what lets the wool hold a cut edge, and the Beni Mrirt rugs designers know today are often carved, and often in color: burgundy, rust, blush, indigo, chocolate, as well as ivory.

Not every Beni Mrirt rug is carved. The lineage names the build; the carving is a design choice on top of it, and it is the choice our Terrain collection makes. Where the two sit against Boujaad and Azilal as well is in Moroccan rug types compared.

How is a sculpted Beni Mrirt rug made?

A sculpted Beni Mrirt rug gets its pattern from height, not from color. Our team of weavers knots the field, then carves the relief into the pile, and our catalog photographs show two ways of doing it:

1. Carved grooves. Dades runs two raised wave bands across an ivory field, each one outlined by a groove cut down toward the base, so the waves stand proud of the rug around them.
2. A clipped ground. Tadla divides its ivory field into raised shag squares separated by narrow channels clipped close to the base; the grid exists only in relief and shadow.

Because the relief is cut relative to the pile around it, the pile height you choose changes the carving: a shag field lifts the raised forms higher above the grooves, and a short field brings the whole surface down to a low, crisp relief.

Which is softer, denser and heavier?

A Beni Ourain rug is the softer of the two underfoot in the plush sense: the pile is deeper and more open, so the foot sinks and the wool gives. A Beni Mrirt rug is the denser: the pile stands up rather than leans, the surface feels smooth and firm, and the rug weighs more at the same size. Neither is a lower grade; they are two answers to what a floor should feel like.

Density is usually where shoppers get handed a number. Seller pages quote knots per square inch for each lineage, one figure for Beni Ourain and a much higher one for Beni Mrirt, and none of them cite where the figures came from. Trust the tests you can do yourself instead: press your palm into the pile and feel how quickly it closes over your hand, lift a corner and feel the weight, and turn it over to see how tight the rows of knots sit on the back. We count the knots in our rugs and publish the figure once, in how do I know it is genuinely handmade.

At Zarbish the density question has a plain answer. Both lineages come off the same looms in our workshop, knotted at the same high density, so a Dune rug is not a looser, cheaper cousin of a Terrain rug. What you choose between is the surface and the pile height:

Carved pattern or graphic pattern?

A carved Beni Mrirt rug and a graphic Beni Ourain rug change differently through the day. In a sculpted rug the pattern is made by pile height, so the design appears when light rakes across the floor from a low window or a floor lamp, and flattens when the light comes straight down at noon. In a Beni Ourain rug the pattern is knotted in dark wool on ivory, so it reads the same at every hour, legible from the doorway; in Dune there is no pattern at all, only one field of wool.

Above, the same diamond is made both ways. Akal, a Beni Mrirt rug in beige, carves it into the pile: raised lozenges between narrow channels, and the ridges keep their shape even where the rug drapes over the bench. Tizi, a Beni Ourain rug in ivory, knots it in doubled black lines that cross slightly off register in a deep shag, and the wool falls soft and heavy over the same edge.

In the room below, Dades in ivory runs under a curved ivory sofa, a round stone coffee table and two rust armchairs, and the carved waves carry around the furniture as shadow, not as color. The burgundy and coral Dades at the top of the page is the round version, redesigned for the circle as three layered bands of color with carved grooves between them.

Fold the same rug and the construction shows: the raised pile on either side of a groove, the groove cut down toward the woven base. When you browse handmade Moroccan area rugs, give a carved one its close-up before the overhead shot: a photo from straight above flattens relief the way noon light does.

Which costs more, Beni Mrirt or Beni Ourain?

Elsewhere, Beni Mrirt rugs are usually priced above Beni Ourain rugs of the same size, on the argument of denser knotting and more finishing. At Zarbish they cost the same, because every catalog design is knotted on the same dense weave and priced by size alone. So the choice between the two lineages is never a budget decision here. For how to judge any Moroccan rug price, read what a Moroccan rug costs

Which one suits your room?

The room usually decides, mostly through the light, the traffic and what else in the room carries pattern. Find the line that describes yours:

1. Low light across the floor (a low window, a floor lamp, a room used in the evening): Beni Mrirt. Carved relief needs raking light to read, and rewards it.
2. Walls, sofa or art already patterned: a solid Beni Ourain in Dune, which holds still under everything else.
3. A quiet room that needs one graphic element: a graphic Beni Ourain in Jibal, the dark line on ivory.
4. A bedroom, where bare feet come first: either, in shag; Beni Ourain is the deeper sink, Beni Mrirt the smoother surface.
5. Dining chairs, rolling chairs or a busy hallway: either, in short pile, so chairs slide and the relief stays crisp. Deep carving under dragged chairs is the one pairing to avoid.
6. A dog or small children: a colored Terrain rug or a patterned Jibal rug hides everyday marks better than a solid ivory field, and the care guide covers pets and wool.
7. Furniture centered on a point, such as a round table or a curved sofa: a round rug, in either lineage.

Tadelakt shows the Beni Ourain side at its quietest: a solid ivory shag circle under a fluted round coffee table, with the front of a navy velvet sectional resting on it. The room already has strong art and color on the walls, so the floor stays one field. For when a circle is the right shape and which diameter it needs, read the round rug guide.

Whichever you choose, size it to the seating: in most living rooms an 245x305 cm rug takes the front legs of a 215 to 245 cm sofa and two chairs, and a sectional wants 275x365 cm. The method is in is my rug too small?

Folded, the two builds show in the hand: Akal stacks in firm layers, two pile heights with the carved channels running through them, while Tizi bends back on itself like a heavy blanket, its deeper pile closing over the black lines.

How to tell a real Beni Mrirt or Beni Ourain rug

Both names are widely copied. A genuine rug of either lineage is hand-knotted in wool, and the checks are the same:

• The back. The design, or on a carved rug the outline of the relief, mirrors on the reverse, knot by knot. A canvas backing or glue means hand-tufted.
• The density. Press the pile. A real Beni Mrirt closes up firm and smooth; a copy sold as Beni Mrirt that feels loose and hollow is a Beni Ourain build at a Beni Mrirt price.
• The carving. On a hand-finished sculpted rug the grooves wander slightly and their edges are wool, not a cut through a glued backing.
• The wool. Springy and slightly waxy with lanolin, like a wool sweater; slick, squeaky fiber is synthetic.
• The listing. "Style" or "inspired" after the lineage name means the look was copied and the construction was not.

How a Moroccan rug is made walks through hand-knotted against hand-tufted step by step, and what is a Beni Ourain rug takes that lineage on its own.

Carved or deep, the rug still has to reach the front legs of the sofa: the size guide works it out room by room. Next: what makes a Beni Ourain rug genuine, then the Jibal collection.