Yemenite silversmithing

Silversmith Meysha Abyadh in Sana'a, 1937

Jewish silversmiths who hailed from Yemen were highly acclaimed craftsmen who dominated craft production in precious metals in the southern Arabian peninsula, from the 18th through the mid-20th century, a period and region during which Muslims did not engage in this work. These Yemenite silversmiths were noted for their use of fine granulation and filigree, producing such ornaments as women's bracelets, necklaces, finials, etc. that are renowned the world over.

History

Yemenite silversmiths, who were always Jewish in traditional Yemeni society, were active from at least as far back as the mid 1700s.^[1][2] Some Yemenite silversmiths migrated to Israel in the late 1800s, a migration that continued in the early 1900s. Between June 1949 and September 1950, almost the entire Jewish community In Yemen, including nearly every silversmith in the country, migrated to Israel in an airborne mass migration known as Operation Magic Carpet. Muslims appear to have entered silversmithing in the Yemen in the mid-1900s as the Jews departed for Israel.^[3] Mass-produced gold and silver jewelry began to be imported into the Yemen in the 1930s, and dominated the market by the end of the 20th century, causing traditional silversmithing to dwindle.^[4][5][6]

According to Mark. S. Wagner, Professor of Arabic literature and Islamic Law at Louisiana State University, it is difficult to clarify precisely how silver- and gold-smithing came to be regarded as occupations that were too impure for Muslims in the Yemen to to engage in; jobs that were similarly regarded in traditional Yemeni culture included pottery making, disposing of human waste from latrines, processing the carcasses of dead animals, soap-making, tanning, and making cakes of cow dung for use as fuel.^[4] Jewish silversmiths in this region sometimes moonlighted as dentists, since their jewelers pliers could be used to draw teeth.^[4]

Yemenite silversmiths melted silver coins to produce Janbiya (dagger) hilts, bridal jewelry and other silver objects.^[6][7] The Maria Theresa thaler, minted continuously since 1741, was especially favored for its consistent silver content and fineness.^[6]

The Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, founded in Israel in 1906, employed many Yemenite silversmiths.^[8]

Style and silver content

Yemenite silver-work is noted for its intricate use of filigree and fine granulation.^[2][3] Jewelry containing a high silver content was called by local Jews, ṭohōr, or in the Arabic tongue, muḫlaṣ, the intent being to jewelry whose silver content ranged from 85% to 92%, while the rest being copper. The disadvantaged of the cities and in the rural regions, as well as Bedouins, would routinely order jewelry whose silver content was lower, up to 60% silver, the remainder of which being copper and which had the name of fuḍah. A lower quality silver was called niṣfī, a word having the connotation of “half,” implying that it was made half of silver and half of copper.^[9]

Labbe necklaces

Among the variety of jewelry known in Yemen, the labbe necklace is the most impressive in its complexity. A highly skilled work of Jewish silversmiths, it is a testimony of exquisite craftsmanship, requiring painstaking work and a developed artistic sense, expressed by the harmonious and aesthetic blend of its many parts. The labbe is a popular piece of jewelry among Jewish and Muslim women alike. In Arabic, the name labbe indicates the sunken place beneath the Adam's apple on the neck, where it is worn.^[9]

Labbe necklaces made of applied filigree, being open and airy like the interlaced net of a spider’s web, became more popular during the Ottoman conquest of Yemen, in the mid-19th century, and were given the name labbat šabek in Sana'a, after its technique. Until then, most were prepared by using casting techniques, and embossing and fashioning from solid pieces.^[9] Only a few were made from silver.^[10] The labbe is traditionally made from dozens of components arranged in horizontal rows, or storeys (projected lines). The top row forms the base of the necklace, with connecting parts (usually serial pendants) densely strung upon a cotton or silk thread, extending downwards lengthwise, in identical columns and which form the horizontal lines. It consists of one row – or more – of parts, whose shapes are varied: diamond-shaped rhomboids, squares and rectangles, round beads or rosettes. Most contain smooth plates of metal, in circular and diamond-shaped (rhombus) forms, and are studded with jewels called in Arabic zihreh, meaning, pearls, amber, corals and colored glass.^[9] The artisans would also lavishly apply decorations made from small, rounded silver granules. Coin pendants are characteristic of the labbe necklaces worn by villagers. Large labbe necklaces may have as many as thirty or more rows.^[9]

The components are interconnected by coiled rings in the vertical and horizontal rows. The location of the items in the vertical lines are complementary to each other, as well as uniform along all the vertical lines. In the vertical lines there are four to eight items that are connected one beneath the other by a metal wire in the shape of the figure-eight, called in Arabic methamāna, meaning "eight." For most, the edges of the base end with either triangles or cones. Occasionally, motifs used in its base were also incorporated in the body of the labbe, particularly the rosette, the lozenge and the round bead. Labbe necklaces worn by Muslim women typically differed from those worn by Jewish women, insofar that they lacked a base.^[9] In labbe necklaces typically worn by Muslim women in central Yemen, they made use of convex components, or motifs that were round and belly-shaped, resembling leaves or barley-grains (Arabic: aqrāt she‘iriyāt). In some places, it was common to attach a piece of woven cloth on the back of the labbe, like the inner lining of garments, to protect the clothes and the embroidery, as well as the skin, from abrasions.^[11]

Museum holdings

Yemenite silver is owned by the Israel Museum, The Walters, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the British Museum.^{[2][1][12][13]}

Museum exhibitions

• Diadem and Dagger: Jewish Silversmiths of Yemen, Walters Art Museum, 2002-03.^[2][14]
• "Silver Speaks: Traditional Jewelry of the Middle East", The Bead Museum in Washington, D.C., 2002-03; Arab American National Museum, 2007-08.^[6][15]

See also

• Silversmith

References

Bibliography

• Colyer-Ross, H. (1981). Bedouin Jewellery. Fribourg
• Heimberg, U. (1986). Filigran und Granulation: Dekorationstechniken bei südwestarabischen Silberarbeiten, Baessler-Archiv, N.S. LIX/1, Berlin (Reimer)
• Ḥibshūsh, H. (1983). Masot Habshush (The Journeys of Habshush): The Vision of Yemen – Rawʻiah al-Yaman, with an introduction by S.D. Goitein (Hebrew)
• Janata, A. (1989). Jemen: Im Lande der Königin von Saba, Wein (Vienna)
• Muchawsky-Schnapper, E. (2000). The Yemenites: Two Thousand Years of Jewish Culture. Jerusalem
• Qāfiḥ, Y. (1961). Halikhot Teman, Jerusalem (Hebrew)
• Sergeant, R. B. & Lewcock, R. (1983). Sana: An Arabian City, London
• Untracht, O. (1982). Jewellery Concepts and Technology. NW London

External links

• Association for Society and Culture - Netanya Labbe necklace