Palestinian costumes

Palestinian Costumes

Foreign travelers to Palestine often commented on the rich variety of costumes among the Palestinian people, especially among the village women. It was possible to identify which village a woman came from by the embroidery or cut of her dress. Towns-people and bedouin also had distinct styles which gave clues as to their identity.

Geography/social groups, Men/women

Physically and socially men were far more mobile than women. This was reflected in the clothing; men's clothing are rarely unique for one area, instead for men there was a more uniform style over most of Palestine, indeed, over most of the Middle East. For women the situation was completely different. The village and town women rarely travelled, and their clothing therefore developed into very distinct styles according to where they lived.

Traditionally, the society in Palestine has been divided into three groups, all with quite distinct clothing:

• the villagers (fellahin). In the villages, change came more slowly than in town. The old, traditional costumes were therefore mostly found here, among the women. As observer wrote: "A Palestinian woman's village could be deduced from the embroidery on her dress."
• the town people (beladin). People in the towns had better access to news and were more open to outside influence. This was naturally also reflected in the costumes, where town fashions in costumes had a more impermanent nature than that of the village.
• the bedouin. The bedouins was the group that were the least influenced by the outside society, however, due to their nomadic life-style the clothing reflected their tribe, and not (as in case of the villagers) a geographic area.

History

Pre-1900

Woolen fabrics for everyday use were produced by weavers in Majdal, Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Jerusalem. The wool could be from sheep, goats or camels.^[1][2] In 1870 there were ten dyeing workshops in the Murestan quarter of Jerusalem, employing around 100 men. Blue, from indigo, was widely used; other colours being black, red and green.^[3][4] Finer cloths such as silks where imported from Syria with some from Egypt. Fashions in the towns followed those in Damascus.^[5] Some producers in Aleppo, Hama and Damascus produced styles specifically for the Palestinian market.^[6] Weavers in Homs produced belts and some shawls exclusively for export to Nablus and Jerusalem.^[7] Cotton was not widely used until the end of the 19th century when it began to be imported from Europe.^[8]

Some professions, such as the Jaffa boatmen, had their own unique uniforms. The horse or mule drivers (mukaaris), widely used between the towns in an age before proper roads, wore a short embroidered jacket with long sleeves slit open on the inside, red shoes and a small yellow woolen cap with a tight turban.^[9]

1918/1930 to 1948

This section requires expansion.

post 1948

Widad Kawar was among the first to recognize the new styles developing after the Nakba.

This section requires expansion.

Front of dress (qabbeh) sold as cushion cover, Ramallah, 2000.

New styles began to appear the 1960s. For example the "six-branched dress" named after the six wide bands of embroidery running down from the waist.^[10] These styles came from the refugee camps, particularly after 1967. Individual village styles were lost and replaced by an identifiable "Palestinian" style.^[11]

The shawal, a style popular in the West Bank and Jordan before the First Intifada, probably evolved from one of the many welfare embroidery projects in the refugee camps. It was a shorter and narrower fashion, with a western cut.^[12]

Prior to the First Intifada the wearing the Palestinian colours, red, green, black & white could lead to unwelcome attention from the Israeli occupying forces. The use of these colours became a demonstration of dissent.

Income generating projects in the refugee camps and in the Occupied Territories began to use embroidery motifs on non-clothing items such as accessories, bags and purses. With the evolution of the different groups distinct styles are beginning to be appear. Sulafa the UNRWA project^[13] in the Gaza Strip has exhibited work at Santa Fe in America. Atfaluna,^[14] also from Gaza, working with deaf people, sells its products through the internet. West Bank groups include the Bethlehem Arabs Women's Union,^[15] Surif Women's Cooperative,^[16] Idna,^[17] the Melkite Embroidery Project (Ramallah).^[18] In Lebanon Al-Badia,^[19] working in the Refugee Camps, is known for high quality embroidery in silk thread on dresses made of linen. The Jerusalem based Fair Trade organisation Sunbula,^[20] recognised under Israeli law as a charity, is working to improve the quality and presentation of items so that they can be sold in European, American and Japanese markets.

Geography

• Jerusalem: The Jerusalem elite followed Damascus fashions which in turn were influenced by those of the Ottoman court in Istambul. Fabrics were imported from Syria with several specialist shops on the Mamilla Road. Wedding dresses were ordered from Aleppo and Turkey. From the beginning of the 20th century the upper classes began to wear European styles.^[21]
• Galilee: Collections reveal that there was a distinct Galilee women's style from at least the middle of the 19th century. The standard form was a coat (Jillayeh), tunic and trousers.^[22] Cross-stitch was not used much, the women preferring patchwork patterns of diamond and rectangular shapes, as well as other embroidery techniques.^[23][24] In the 1860s, H.B. Tristram described costumes in the villages of El Bussah and Isfia as being either "plain, patched or embroidered in the most fantastic and grotesque shapes".^[25] Towards the beginning of the 20th century Turkish/Ottoman fashions began to dominate: such as baggy trousers and cord edging.^[26][27][28] Materials, particularly silks, were brought from Damascus.^[29] Before the arrival of European colour-fast dyes the Galilee was an important area for the growing of indago and sumac which were used for creating blue and red dyes.^[30]
• Nablus:Women's dresses from villages in the Nablus area were the least ornate in the whole of Palestine.^[31][32]

modern couching stitch from Bayt Jalla traditionally used on panels of malak wedding dress.

• Bethlehem: Wadad Kawar describes Bethlehem as having been "the Paris of Central Palestine".^[33] Both it and neighbouring Bayt Jalla were known for their fine Couching Stitch work. This technique was used exstensively in the panels for malak (queen) wedding dresses. The malak dress was popular amongst brides from the villages around Jerusalem. So much so that the panels began to be produced commercially in Bethlehem and Bayt Jalla. Amongst the wealthier families it was the fashion for the groom to pay for the wedding dress so the work often became a display of status.^[34][35]
• Ramallah: great variety of very distinguishable finely executed patterns.

Doll in wedding-dress typical of Ramallah area popular before 1948. Made by YWCA project in Jalazone RC. circa 2000.

• Lifta (near Jerusalem), and Bayt Dajan (near Jaffa) were known as being among the wealthiest communities in their areas, and their embroideresses among the most artistic. [1]
• Majdal (today a part of Ashkelon) was a center for weaving,

This section requires expansion.

Garment types

Basic dress

• Thob, loose fitting robe with sleeves, the actual cut of the garment varied by region.
  • • qabbeh; the square chest panel of the Thob, often decorated
    • diyal; brocaded back hem panel on the Bethlehem dress.
    • shinyar; lower back panel of the dress, decorated in some regions
• Libas; pants,
• Taqsireh[2]; short embroidered jacket worn by the women of Bethlehem on festive occasions. The gold couching of the jackets often matched the dress. Simpler jackets were used over everyday dresses. The name is derived from the Arabic verb "to shorten", (Stillmann, p. 36),
• Jubbeh; jacket, worn by men and women,
• Jillayeh; embroidered jubbeh, often the embroidered outer garment of a wedding costume,
• Shambar; large veil, common to the Hebron area and southern Palestine.

Headdress

The women in each region had their distinctive headdress. The women embellished their headresses with gold and silver coins from their bridewealth money. The more coins the greater the wealth and prestige of the owner (Stillman, p. 38);

• Shaṭweh[3], [4], [5], a distinctive conical hat, "shaped rather like an upturned flower pot", only carried by married women. Used mainly in Bethlehem, also in Lifta and Ain Karm, (in the District of Jerusalem), and Beit Jala and Beit Sahur (both near Bethlehem) (Stillman p. 37)
• Smadeh[6], used in Ramallah, consists of an embroidered cap, with a stiff padded rim. A row of coins, tightly placed against another, is placed around the top of the rim. Additional coins might be sown to the upper part or attached to narrow, embroidered bands. As with the other women's head-dresses, the smadeh represented the wearers bridal wealth, and acted as an important cash reserve. One observer wrote in 1935: "Sometimes you see a gap in the row of coins and you guess that that a doctor's bill has had to be paid, or the husband in America has failed to send money" (quoted in Stillman, p. 53.)
• Araqiyyeh[7], used in Hebron. The words araqiyyeh and taqiyyeh have been used since the Middle Ages in the Arab world to denote small, close-fitting head-caps, usually of cotton, which where used by both sexes. The original purpose was to absorb sweat (Arab: "araq"). In the whole of Palestine the word taqiyyeh continued to be used about the simple scull-cap used nearest to the hair. In the Hebron area, however, the word araqiyyeh came to denote the embroidered cap with a pointed top a married women would wear over her taqiyyeh. During her engagement period a woman of the Hebron area would sow and embroider her araqiyyeh, and embellish the rim with coins from her bridal money. The first time she would wear her araqiyyeh would be on her wedding day. (Stillman, p. 61)

The styles of headware for men have always been an important indicator of a man's civil and religious status as well as his political affiliation. A turban being worn by a townsman and a kaffiyeh by a countryman. A white turban signifying an Islamic judge qadi. In the 1790s the Ottoman authorities instructed the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hassan al-Husayni, to put a stop to the fashion of wearing green and white turbans which they regarded as the perogative of officially appointed judges.^[36] In the nineteenth century white turbans were also worn by supporters of the Yaman political faction, while the opposing Qais faction wore red.^[37] In 1912 the Palestine Exploration Fund reported that Muslim men from Jerusalem usually wore white linen turbans, called shash. In Hebron it would be of red and yellow silk, in Nablus red and white cotton. Men in Jaffa wore white and gold turbans, simillar to the style in Damascus.^[38] A green turban indicated a descendant of the prophet Mohammed.^[39]

From 1880 the Ottoman style of tarboush or fez began to replace the turban amongst the effendi class.^[40] The tarboush had been preceded by a rounder version with blue tassel which originated from the Magreb. The arrival of the more vertical Young Turk version was emancipating for the Christian communities since it was worn by all civil and military officials regardless of religion. The exception being the Armenians who adobted a black style.^[41]

The European styles, Franjy hat (burneiTah), were not adopted.^[42]

The kaffiyeh replaced the tarbush in the 1930s.^[43]

shoes

Residents of the major towns, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Ramleh, Lydd, Hebron, Gaza and Nablus, wore soft tanned sheepskin shoes with the point in front turned up: low cut, not above the ankle, and yellow for men; more like boots and red for women. Before the mid-1800s non-Muslims wore black shoes. Village men wore a higher style fastened at the front with a leather button which provided protection from thorns in the fields. Bedouin wore sandals, made by wandering shoemakers, usually Algerian Jews. The Arabic name for sandal, na'l, is identical to that used in the Bible. On special occasions Bedouin men wore long red boots with blue tassels and iron heels, jizmet, which were made in Damascus.^[44]

This section requires expansion.

Collections of Palestinian costumes

• Widad Kawar collection
• Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA) at Museum of New Mexico at Santa Fe [8] (many items from Grace Spafford Whitting, American Colony Hotel. Her father, John Whitting (died 1951), acquired items directly from the owners and noted down the provenance of each item, thereby making the collection especially valuable. There are many items from villages which were destroyed/depopulated in the Nakba in 1948, e.g. Al-Qubayba, Al-Dawayima, Bayt Dajan, Lifta, Kafr Ana, Bayt Jibrin, Zakariyya (p. 60: wedding dress from ca. 1930 from Zakariyya), Zayta (p. 59 dress from ca. 1910) (the last three in the District of Hebron). The oldest items are from the 1840s.)
• The Abed Al-Samih Abu Omar collection, Jerusalem (mostly 20th century)
• The Munayyer collection

Bibliography

• Stillman, Yedida Kalfon (1979): Palestinian costume and jewellery, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, ISBN 0-8263-0490-7 (A catalog of the Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA) at Santa Fe's [9] collection of Palestinian clothing and jewellery.)
• Omar, Abed Al-Samih Abu (1986): Traditional Palestinian embroidery and jewellery, Jerusalem: Al-Shark, (mostly based on his own collection.)
• Hafiz al - Siba'i, Tahira Abdul (1987): A Brief Look at Traditional Palestinian Costumes: a Presentation of Palestinian Fashion, T. A. Hafiz, English, French and Arabic text;
• Völger, Gisela, Welck, Karin v. Hackstein, Katharina (1987): Pracht und Geheimnis: Kleidung und Schmuck aus Palästina und Jordanien : Katalog der Sammlung Widad Kawar. Köln: Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum,
• Völger, Gisela (1988): Memoire de soie. Costumes et parures de Palestine et de Jordanie Paris, (Exhibition catalogue from the Widad Kamel Kawar collection of the costume and jewelry of Palestine and Jordan.)
• Weir, Shelagh and Shahid, Serene (1988): Palestinian embroidery: cross-stitch patterns from the traditional costumes of the village women of Palestine London: British Museum publications, ISBN 0-7141-1591-6
• Rajab, Jehan S. (1989): Palestinian Costume, Kegan Paul International, London, ISBN 0-7103-0283-5
• [](1995): Threads of Tradition: Ceremonial Bridal Costumes from Palestine: The Munayyer Collection. Brockton, MA: Fuller Museum, Brockton, MA,
• Weir, Shelagh (August 1995): Palestinian Costume British Museum Pubns Ltd ISBN 0-7141-2517-2
• Widad Kawar/Shelagh Weir: Costumes and Wedding Customs in Bayt Dajan.[10]

A fuller bibliography can be found here: http://www.palestinecostumearchive.org/bibliography.htm

See also

• Palestinian culture
• Widad Kawar
• Serene Husseini Shahid
• List of villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war

External links

• Palestine costume archive
• Widad Kawar Arab Heritage collection
• The Munayyer collection: Palestinian Heritage Foundation
• Woven Legacy, Woven Language:
• PACT; Palestinian Arts and Crafts Trust, run by AET; Sales in Washington DC., USA.
• PHC; Palestinian Heritage Center, in Bethlehem, West Bank
• INASH; Society of In´ash el-Usra, in al-Bireh, West Bank
• INAASH; Association for the Development of Palestinian Camps, in Beirut, Lebanon
• The Palestine Children's Welfare Fund, in Gaza

References

1. ^ Gillow, John (2010) Textiles of the Islamic World. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-51527-3. p.112.
2. ^ Kawar, Widad Kamel (2011) Threads of Identity. Melisende. ISBN 978-9963-610-41-9. p.185.
3. ^ Baldensperger. 1903. p.164.
4. ^ Weir, Palestinian Costumes. p.26.
5. ^ Kawar. p. 41.
6. ^ Gillow. p.110
7. ^ Kawal. p.42.
8. ^ Gillow. p.112.
9. ^ Baldensperger. 1903. p.340.
10. ^ Weir, Shelagh (1989) Palestinian Costume. British Museum. ISBN 0-7141-1597-5. p. 112.
11. ^ Skinner, Margarita (2007) PALESTINIAN EMBROIDERY MOTIVES. A Treasury of Stiches 1850-1950. Melisende. ISBN 978-1-901764-47-5. p. 21.
12. ^ Weir, Shelagh (1989) Palestinian Costume. British Museum. ISBN 0-7141-1597-5. pp. 88, 113.
13. ^ http://www.unspecial.org/UNS623/UNS_623_T30.html
14. ^ http://www.atfaluna.net/crafts/index.php?categoryID=135
15. ^ http://www.bethlehemwomenarabunion.org/embroidery.html
16. ^ http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/2701
17. ^ http://www.hadeel.org/index.php?main_page=manufacturers_about&manufacturers_about_id=15
18. ^ http://www.melkitecenter.ps/
19. ^ http://almashriq.hiof.no/lebanon/300/360/362/najdeh/images/embroidery/
20. ^ http://www.sunbula.org/
21. ^ Kawar, Widad Kamel (2011) Threads of Identity. Melisende. ISBN 978-9963-610-41-9. pp. 41,177,179,191.
22. ^ Weir, Sheilagh (2006) Embroidery from Palestine. British Museum Press. ISBN 978-0-7141-2573-2. pp. 17, 24.
23. ^ Kawal. p.287.
24. ^ Skinner, Margarita (2007) Palestinian Embroidery Motives. A Treasury of Stitches 1850-1950. Rimal. ISBN 978-1-901764-47-5. p. 14.
25. ^ Weir, 1989, p.80, citing p. 68 of H. B. Tristram's (1865) The Land of Israel, a Journal of Travels in Palestine.
26. ^ Weir, Sheilagh (1989) Palestinian Costume. British Museum. ISBN 978-0-7141-1597-9. p. 145.
27. ^ Skinner. p. 14.
28. ^ Weir (2006). p. 18.
29. ^ Kawar. p. 284.
30. ^ Kawar. p. 274.
31. ^ Skinner. pp 14.
32. ^ Graham-Brown, Sarah (1980) Palestinians and their Society. 1880-1946. Quartet. ISBN 0-7043-3343-0. p. 63.
33. ^ Kawar. p.10.
34. ^ Gillow. p.118.
35. ^ Kawar. p.207.
36. ^ Pappe, Illan (2010) The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian Dynasty. The Husaynis 1700-1968. Saqi, ISBN 978-0-86356-460-4. p.43.
37. ^ Weir, 1989, p.66, citing p.141 of C. T. Wilson (1906) Peasant Life in the Holy Land, London.
38. ^ Palestine Exploration Fund. Quarterly Statement for 1912. Page 11.
39. ^ Baldensperger, Philip G. (1905) The Immovable East. Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Report. p.20.
40. ^ Weir Shelagh Palestinian Costume p.64.
41. ^ Baldensperger, (1903). p.342.
42. ^ Baldensperger,(1903). p.65.
43. ^ Kawar. P.213.
44. ^ Baldensperger, Philip G. (1903) Palestine Exploration Fund Magazine.