Palestinian costumes

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Palestinian Costumes Foreign travelers to Palestine often commented on the rich variety of costumes among the Palestinian people, especially among the village women. One could often see what village a woman came from by the embroidery or cut of her dress.

1 Geography/social groups, Men/women:
2 History:
3 Geography:
4 Garment types:
- 4.1 Basic dress:
- 4.2 Headdress:
5 Collections of Palestinian costumes:
6 Bibliography:
7 See also:
8 External links:

[edit] Geography/social groups, Men/women:

Physically and socially men were far more mobile than women. This was reflected in the clothing; mens 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.

[edit] History:

[edit] Earliest, (pre-1918/1930)

Outside influence after WWI: John Whitting (the collector of parts of MOMA collection) was of the opinion that "anything later than 1918 was not indigenous Palestinian design, but had input from foreign pattern books brought in by foreign nuns and Swiss nannies". (Stillman, p. ix.) Other say that change did not set in before around 1930. Up until that time you would find embroidery motifs that were local to certain villages.

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[edit] 1918/1930 to 1948

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[edit] post 1948

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

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[edit] Geography:

Bethlehem: a center for embroidering, where the embroidery strived to create a "strong overall effect of colors and metallic brilliance." (Stillman, p. 46.)
Ramallah: great variety of very distinguishable finely executed patterns (Stillman, p. 46)
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,

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[edit] Garment types:

[edit] 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,
Jubbeh; jacket
Taqsireh[2]; short embroidered jacket worn by the women of Bethlehem on festive occations. 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; coatlike outer garment, 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.

[edit] 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)

[edit] Collections of Palestinian costumes:

Widad Kawar collection
Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA) at Museum of New Mexico at Santa Fe[8] (many from Grace Spafford Whitting, American Colony Hotel). Her father, John Whitting (died 1951), acquired items directly from the owners and noted down the provenience of each item, thereby making the collection especially valuable. E.g. there are many items with a provenience 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 Zakariya), Zayta, (p. 59 dress from ca 1910) (the last three in District of Hebron). The oldest items are from the 1840´s. )
The Abed Al-Samih Abu Omar collection, Jerusalem, (mostly 20 th. century)
The Munayyer collection

[edit] Bibliography:

Stillman, Yedida Kalfon (1979): Palestinian costume and jewelry, 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 jewelry.)
Omar, Abed Al-Samih Abu (1986): Traditional Palestinian embroidery and jewelry, 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 jewellery 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]