jewellery of Palestine
Traditional Palestinian jewellery: Bethlehem
Bethlehem and its surrounding region are home to a recognizable tradition in dress and adornment. In this blog, I’ll show you the most common elements of Bethlehem adornment – with photographs that rarely have been published elsewhere.
Bethlehem and surrounding villages
The town of Bethlehem is located on the West Bank, to the south of Jerusalem. In the immediate vicinity are many smaller villages, which share a similar personal attire. These similarities are visible in a wider area. The photograph shown above (click on the image to enlarge it) is in the collection of the Netherlands Institute for the Near East, Leiden. It shows women in the village of Lifta, which is to the north of Jerusalem and now in Israel, dressed in the same dress and jewellery as women in Bethlehem. [1]
Bethlehem headdress: shatweh and taqiyeh
Married women in Bethlehem and the surrounding villages of Beit Jala, Lifta and Beit Sahur wore a headdress called shatweh. [2] This is a conical shaped headdress, densely embroidered on the outside and decorated with coins and coral beads.
Two examples of the shatweh are included in the gallery above: click on the images to enlarge them.
The coins could be either gold or silver, and wealthier people were reported to own two of these: one with gold for festive days, and one with silver for every day wear. However, in most cases wear of this headdress was limited to festive occasions such as weddings. [3] The Frank Scholten archive, containing photographs made between 1921 and 1923, shows many women in Bethlehem of which only few wear the shatweh.
Unmarried girls wore a smaller headdress, known as qurs or taqiyeh.[4] This was a type of bonnet, tied under the chin or under the hair with strings, and embellished with embroidery and coins. An example of this can be seen in the gallery above: click on the photo to enlarge. Both headdresses were covered with a cream-coloured veil of flowing silk. [5]
A forehead ornament of small hand amulets, called khamassiyat after these hands, was worn in the wider area of Bethlehem, Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley. [6] A photo of such an ornament is in the galley below: click on the image to enlarge.
Traditional jewellery of Bethlehem: bracelets
The most used jewellery in the Bethlehem area were bracelets called haydari. Their use is not limited to the Bethlehem region: they are also found in Jaffa and Hebron. Bracelets like these were worn in pairs, and it is not uncommon to find women wearing several bracelets stacks on each wrist.
An example can be seen in the photograph by Frank Scholten above (click on the image to enlarge – also it’s not your Internet connection, this photo of a century old is a bit unfocused). The haydari bracelets are solid silver, and were produced in both Bethlehem itself and Jerusalem.
Other bracelets also worn in this area are the bracelets of a twisted band, called mabroum, and bangles with little dots called ‘lentil’-bracelets because of their resemblance to lentils. [7]
The Star of Bethlehem: shining in silver
A remarkable and very typical piece of adornment for this region is the silver chin-chain. This was called ‘iznaq saba’ arwah, or ‘seven spirits’. The chin-chain was made of solid silver links, most often adding up to six or seven strands, which were connected in the centre by a star-shaped ornament.
The star was also referred to as the Star of Bethlehem. [8] From the set of chains, a central coin was suspended. Depending on the wealth of the wearer, the set of chains could be embellished further with multiple coins. The chin-chain was hooked into the shatweh headdress, and floated across the chest of the wearer.
Finnish researcher Hilma Granqvist was dressed up by her hosts in traditional bridal attire when visiting Bethlehem [9]. On the photo, which you see above, she wears a low shatweh headdress and the chin-chain ornament.
The chin-chain ornament was worn widely in the region of Bethlehem, too, as the image of the two women from Lifta at the top of this post shows. But as these were expensive pieces, they were not worn every day, and may even have been borrowed on festive occasions from wealthier family members. [10]
The photographs in the Hilma Granqvist archive show many women in everyday activities dressed in the Bethlehem thobe and wearing their bracelets, but without the festive shatweh headdress and accompanying chin-chain.
A rich heritage
The traditional jewellery of Bethlehem shows the splendour of the heritage of this town and its surrounding villages. The shatweh has become iconic for Palestinian dress and adornment. It is a heritage to be celebrated!
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References
[1] NINO Leiden, Böhl-collection.
[2] Weir, S. 1989. Palestinian Costume. The Trustees of the British Museum, London, p. 181.
[3] Völger, G. (ed) 1987. Pracht und Geheimnis. Kleidung und Schmuck aus Pälästina und Jordanien, p. 284.
[4] Weir, S. 1989. Palestinian Costume. The Trustees of the British Museum, London, p. 182-183.
[5] Völger, G. (ed) 1987. Pracht und Geheimnis. Kleidung und Schmuck aus Pälästina und Jordanien, p. 284.
[6] Rajab, J. 1989. Palestinian Costume, p. 115.
[7] Weir, S. 1989. Palestinian Costume. The Trustees of the British Museum, London, p. 199. bracelets
[8] Völger, G. (ed) 1987. Pracht und Geheimnis. Kleidung und Schmuck aus Pälästina und Jordanien, p. 302.
[x9 Hägmann, S. 2023. Dedicated to Palestine. The life and work of ethnologist Hilma Granqvist, p. 96.
[10] For Artas, this practice is mentioned in Völger, G. (ed) 1987. Pracht und Geheimnis. Kleidung und Schmuck aus Pälästina und Jordanien, p. 284. Weir, S. 1989. Palestinian Costume. The Trustees of the British Museum, London, p. 194 mentions that in most villages, chin-chains were only one or two strands instead of six or seven: this was reserved for wealthy persons in Bethlehem.
Sigrid van Roode
Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only.