Maalem

A master craftsman or master mason. In the southern Moroccan vernacular construction tradition the maalem directs the building of a kasbah or ksar without written plans, working from oral discussion with the client. The maalem holds the embodied technical knowledge — the proportioning of pisé mixes, the orientation of walls, the construction of palm-wood roofs, the placement of corner towers — that the building tradition depends on. The maalem economy is in steep decline; few apprentices have learned the full pre-industrial technique.