Object History
This item was purchased by Dr. Reem Tariq El Mutwalli from Alma Auctions, Tel Aviv in 2021 to be added to and enrich The Zay Initiative collections.
Object Features
This is silk robe (thobe) in shades of green and red featuring winged sleeves (‘irdan), an embellished chest panel (qabbah) and a patterned silk possibly of (satin) weave shoulder and neck panel (nishan) and (ruddah). The green and red combination thawb like this is famously termed as the Heaven and Hell robe (tobe_jannah_w_nar).
The detachable qabbah features a pair of circular motifs connected in a spiral form along with vegetative and floral motifs. The embroidered embellishment is executed using primarily (satin_stich) and (tahriri)/(couching) style embroidery using silk floss, corded metal (sarma) and possibly silver and corded cotton threads in a variety of colours – yellow, blue, orange, lavender, burgundy, (turquoise) and pink.
The main central panel is farmed with three layers of herringbone-style motifs and a thick layer of vegetative motifs. The floral and vegetative motif mostly depicts pomegranate.
While the body of the dress is constructed of darker red and green silk fabrics, the ‘irdan are constructed of a lighter shade of green and red along with an orange top panel of the sleeve (sawa’id).
The dress’s skirt is cut in panels and then joined with embroidered seamlines (manajil). The ruddah and the nishan are made of a single fabric panel made of red silk with yellow panelled stripes encasing ivory black and red geometric patterns which closely resemble the striped silk fabric popular from Bethlehem.
The thobe is called tobe_jannah_w_nar or Heaven and Hell as its colours coincides with the Judeo-Christian-Islamic symbolism of green as Heaven and red as Hell. Regional variations of such dresses are seen across Palestine. While in some areas thobe_jannah_w_nar is made of completely of green and red fabrics, in other areas they could be made primarily in white with inserts of green and red panels in the qabbah or the skirt.
Although the thobe was acquired in Jerusalem it is noted by the previous collector that perhaps the qabbah was made in the Beit Jala town near Bethlehem. This is perhaps true because the couching style embroidery, the striped silk fabric of the shoulder panel and the colourful (herringbone_stitch)/(sabaleh) style embroidered pattern on the qabbah is indeed typical of Bethlehem and its surrounding areas.
Links
- Stillman, Yedida Kalfon, and Norman A. Stillman. Arab Dress a Short History from the Dawn of Islam to Modern Times. Brill, 2000.
- Weber, Heike. ANAT and Her Hero BAAL The Embroidery Pattern Language of the Levant. Syrian Handcrafts Limited.
- Kalter, Johannes. Arts and Crafts of Syria. Thames and Hudson, 1993.
- Kawar, Widad, and Tania Tamari Nasir. Palestinian Embroidery: Traditional “Fallahi” Cross-Stitch. Al-Moʼassasa al-Aarabiyya Lildirasat Wa al-Nashr, 2003.
- Kawar, Widad Kamel. Threads of Identity: Preserving Palestinian Costume and Heritage. Rimal Publications, 2011.
- Dimitrova, Pamela. “The Traditional Clothing of Palestine.” Arab America, 30 Oct. 2019, https://www.arabamerica.com/the-traditional-clothing-of-palestine/
- Suleman, Fahmida. Textiles of the Middle East and Central Asia – the Fabric of Life. Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2017.
- ÇATALKAYA GÖK, Ebru. “Çi̇tari̇ fabric.” TURKISH ONLINE JOURNAL OF DESIGN ART AND COMMUNICATION, vol. 11, no. 2, 2021, pp. 443–453, https://doi.org/10.7456/11102100/008
- Van der Walt, Ansie. “Introduction to Embroidery from the Arab World.” Weave a Real Peace Creating a Connected Textile Community, 1 May 2022, https://weavearealpeace.org/warp-blog/embroidery-from-the-arab-world/
- https://artsandculture.google.com/story/aQUBtwXxH-DhKQ
- https://www.tirazcentre.org/en
- https://encyclocraftsapr.com/textiles-6/
- https://encyclocraftsapr.com/embroidery-4/
- https://trc-leiden.nl/trc/index.php/en/blog/1503-a-hebron-embroidery-recently-added-to-the-trc-collection-and-what-it-can-tell
- https://trc-leiden.nl/trc/index.php/en/blog/1316-palestinian-embroidery
- https://trc-leiden.nl/trc/index.php/en/blog/1281-a-palestinian-embroidery-sampler
- https://trc-leiden.nl/trc/index.php/en/blog/1149-embroidered-dresses-from-the-southern-region-of-jordan-ma-an-city
- https://trc-leiden.nl/trc/index.php/en/blog/1183-a-changing-tradition
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