In this post, I’m delighted to introduce you to some embroidery textile arts happening today and some of the people who are currently at work in these fields in the SWANA/MENA region (Southwest Asia and North Africa/Middle East and North Africa). We’ll be looking at Palestinian, Egyptian, and Moroccan examples, in that order. This post is not comprehensive – feel free to contact me if I’ve failed to include a person or topic you’d like me to add!
In this post, I’m delighted to introduce you to a major textile art happening today: Khayamiyya (Appliqué) of Egypt. Next month we’ll follow up with embroidery arts. Let me know if there are other arts you’d like to see in future posts. For example, anyone here want to write or read about caftan fashions of Morocco? Another topic familiar to those who knit or crochet is “Tunisian crochet.” As far as I know, this technique and its name have nothing to do with Tunisia (source here), but tell me if you know better!
Image from here
I just finished listening to a beautiful interview by Krista Tippett with Kate DiCamillo on the On Being Podcast. It was a poignant and honest exploration of the power of stories to increase our capacity for life and the fullness of experiencing wonder and joy amidst the suffering and seeming chaos of the world around us.
Image from Unsplash
The stories most specifically discussed were Kate DiCamillo’s books, but as someone who is both bookish AND friends with people/cultures that don’t do reading for fun, I feel the need to expand the meaning of “story” here.
*Using gender to define the core of what makes us human creates huge contradictions: it requires us to define men and women as fundamentally different from each other and yet also as full human beings. – *Johnson, The Gender Knot, 58
Juha and Donkey
Just as women appear in limited and occasional historical events universally, so the popular Arab folktales of Juha the trickster portray his wife in a supporting and marginal role.
Here’s my new edition and translation of part of the medieval Arabic Sirat al-Amira Dhat al-Himma ‘Epic of the Commander Dhat al-Himma’ https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2151&context=mff
Available online and open-access at the above link! Check it out if you’re interested in medieval epics, classical Arabic literature, popular culture, or warrior women. This publication includes the Arabic excerpt, my English translation, and a scholarly introduction. For more background, see my previous posts on Arabic epics and on the NEA Grant that helped fund this work.
Al-Buraq (ِِالبراق) is a supernatural creature in Islamic tradition that travels extremely rapidly. It appears in the context of the Prophet Muhammad’s miraculous night journey (Arabic Isra’ إسراء) from Mecca to Jerusalem, followed by the ascension (Ar. Mi‘raj معراج). This journey occurred on the 27th of Rajab in the Islamic calendar, and is remembered among Muslims every year. The journey is mentioned in the Quran only briefly (Quran 17:1). Al-Buraq and other details regarding the journey are given in Hadith (Traditions).
Ready for some adventure tales? Join us in reading “101 Nights” (Miit layla wa-layla). Like its most famous cousin, “1001 Nights” (also called Arabian Nights), this medieval story collection also includes the frame tale of Shahrazad saving her life with her storytelling. However, our text is shorter, older, and likely has North African or Andalusian origins. It’s much more unified, and the translation looks excellent. I for one am looking forward to adding some fun to my reading this month!
As I talk with people about my current translation project, more and more people want to know about Arabic epics. These epics (Arabic: سيرة / sira) are long adventure tales that recount the exploits of a group of heroic characters and villains. Siras draw on historical events, although they are not to be considered conventional accounts of history. Peter Heath* has observed that heroic cycles cover almost all of recorded pre-Islamic and Islamic history:
As I talk with people about my current translation project, more and more people want to know about Arabic epics. These epics (Arabic: سيرة / sira) are long adventure tales that recount the exploits of a group of heroic characters and villains. Siras draw on historical events, although they are not to be considered conventional accounts of history. Peter Heath* has observed that heroic cycles cover almost all of recorded pre-Islamic and Islamic history:
I have read a lot about the glorious accomplishments of “the Arabs” or “the Muslims” in the distant past. Instead of focusing on some mythic golden age, this site includes any material culture that I find beautiful and noteworthy. So while some examples are historical, some are contemporary.
For some incredibly beautiful historic art and architecture photos and information on patterns, see here.
Photo by Radwa El Barouni, carving in Fes!
