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April 2014 | I M P E R I A L № 04
Lions of Palestine Europeans taught Palestinians how to embroider swans, but they wonder where lions and griffins came from.
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N ata l i a K O N R A D O VA
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ooking for old embroideries? I have some. I have prepared them for a European designer, but I can let you have them,” says Ayman, a souvenir merchant in the Old City of Jerusalem, as he pulls out a faded worn-out piece of cloth from under a pile of brand-new pillowcases. According to antique textile dealers, Europe is mostly populated by designers who are just about to arrive and purchase their most valuable pieces. In Arabic it is called ‘gabbeh’: a square, embroidered front panel, the most exquisite
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Shamil GARAEV
and informative element of a traditional Palestinian dress. Palestinian embroidery resembles an encrypted text. As recently as half a century ago, locals could identify if a garment was made in village or by Bedouins just by looking at it. If it was village-made, they could establish what region and even what village it actually came from, when it was made, how old the woman who wore it was, whether she was rich or poor, married or not, if she was a widow, elderly or, on the contrary,
young, and ready to remarry. My gabbeh has tiny dark red crosses neatly sewn on a black background. Books about textile design prefer to call this color burgundy. A thick V-shaped stripe runs through the whole square and ends in a large diamond, which is either a flower or a star. “This is elmez (Arabic for ‘diamond’) — a very rare and ancient motif,” Ayman readily explains. In the past Palestinian women had a name for every element: “rose”, “Moon with feathers”, “sheikh’s shelter”, “frogs in a pond” or “baker’s wife”. There are nearly three dozen geometric elements in Palestinian embroidery: specific zigzags, complex triangles and squares with exotic names, or occasionaly simple ones like “cypress” and “tall palm tree”. All of them had their sacral meaning and served to protect a woman’s health from evil spirits. My gabbeh comes from Ramallah, the center of Palestinian tapestry, and the administrative capital of the State of Palestine 13 km off Jerusalem. Dark red threads are a local feature, same as the thick V-shaped stripe with a diamond in the middle. This ornament wasn’t part of a festive garment or a wedding dress since it was made of black viscose, while clothes for festive occasions in Ramallah would naturally be made of light unbleached linen. It belonged to a middleaged woman of limited means; the black color of the cloth and the one-color thread indicate just that. Only prosperous families could afford varicolored designs on their garments. Apart from the “diamond” there is something truly extraordinary for Islamic art on this gabbeh: images of lions and birds. Two awkward lopsided lions, head to head, stand on either side of a hardly discernible verdure, “a tree of life”.
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01 A headscarf is the most conservative element of a woman's wardrobe. Zigzags on edges were called "tall palm trees". Frequently images of cypresses, birds, stars and S-shaped motifs, nicknamed "the Moon of Ramallah" were featured 02 A festive dress from 1926 depicting a Christian woman. In the 1920s Ramallah was predominantly a Christian city and embroideries were universally worn
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Complementing this picture is an ornamental stripe: a line of birds with cook tails and hooked beaks. A dense composition of roses and flowerpots looks like a design typical of expensive imported fabrics, Persian in particular. Valuable threads and sophisticated knowledge of Jacquard weaving is needed to create such a piece. The same composition when cross-stitched required only ample time and ordinary threads. The birds could have been brought by the Brits. In the 1920—1940s they were
opening a new market in this area and British merchants not only sold different colored threads, but also embroidery schemes with ready-made patterns. And so Palestinian tapestry met and embraced swans, doves, rabbits, roses, grape leaves, cherubs and even North deer. This gabbeh was attached to a dress which was probably sewn in the 1940s or 1950s when such schemes were already providing competition to traditional “stars” and “cypresses”. Similar
artifacts of that era with the same birds and flowers can now be found on eBay or in various Jerusalem vintage clothing shops. It is possible that two wide embroidered stripes of leaves and birds ran through the dress, while the sleeves probably featured flowerpots or griffins. The motif of lions and a tree of life is slightly more complicated. Though rarely seen, the ornament is still quite characteristic of Ramallah. Palestinians believe it originated with the cult of the Goddess Asherah in ancient Mesopotamia. p. 125
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01 1920s: a schoolgirl from Ramallah in traditional winter wear: black dress, white scarf 02 "Gabbeh" is decorated with colorful lace embroidery
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The Mesopotamian stone carving features two lions with a tree between them. Nevertheless, similar lions were later depicted in Mycenae (17—12 centuries BC), and in Persia of the Sasanian dynasty (3—7 centuries AD), not to mention the lions of Ancient Rome and the Byzantine Empire. European scientists, however, claim there is no direct connection between the Palestinian embroidery and Mesopotamia and believe the story is much more complicated. Some even claim that the art of embroidery was brought to Palestine by the crusaders.
Suffice it to say, Palestinians are not impressed with this suggestion. “Come again, I’ll help you get to Ramallah. It is best for Europeans not to go there alone,” — Ayman offers his services as I am leaving. And I will certainly come back. Only there is no need to go to Ramallah. Embroidery masters, who knew the secret of lions, have long gone. Their works are now on display in museums. Or you can unexpectedly stumble upon them while going through a pile of cheap souvenirs in a shop like Ayman’s. So we will definitely meet again.
HOW TO KNOW TH E P LAC E OF OR IG IN OF AN E M BR OID E R Y ?
BEDOUINS Cross-stitching. Only black cloth. Bedouins replicated Palestinian motifs, but kept some of the compulsory elements optional. Images of little birds and anthropomorphic figures, “dolls”, are characteristic of their embroideries. Bedouins unambiguously conveyed marital status: a young girl or a widow could wear a dress, sewn with blue threads. If a widow was ready to remarry, she would add a little red or orange. Bedouins were particular about a skirt’s hem, which would almost entirely be covered with an embroidered pattern.
GAZA Cross-stitching, usually on a black cloth. Red color prevails, but others are also used. The most typical motifs are huge zigzags; V- and X-shaped figures scattered along the dress; and vertical stripes of red silk, embroidered in stitches. A distinctive feature of these embroideries is that bird and animal designs are almost never used.
BETHLEHEM Home of “royal dresses”. Silk patches of various colors were stitched together; the front panel, the sleeves and their sides featured Turkish-style embroideries (a direct influence of the Ottoman Empire most probably). Five circles on a square gabbeh is the first sign of the Bethlehem style. Nowadays these dresses are a rarity.
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