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In the area known as Old Cairo, the southernmost gate is known as the Bab Zuwala. Built in the 10th century, this became a public meeting place, an important trading centre, and a site of public execution. This is the area where pilgrims gathered for the commencement of their journey to Mecca, and since the 11th century it has been home to the ‘Tentmakers of Cairo’. These skilled artisans once made tents and saddles for the Fatimid armies, and today they produce ornate canopies for celebratory occasions. Often large ceremonial tents appear on the streets of Cairo and other cities, as if by magic, to be used for funerals, weddings, or political occasions; they disappear just as quickly. One such tent is used as a mobile eye hospital. The work of these artisans is part of a long textile tradition that spans some 7,000 years.
Textiles in Egypt
The earliest linen samples, dating to c.5000 BC, were found during excavations in the Fayum area, and can now be seen in the Petrie Museum in London – home to the world’s oldest existing garment, the ‘Tarkhan Dress’ (dating to c.3000 BC). Perhaps the earliest example of a painted fabric was discovered in 1930 during excavations at Gebelin. Dating to c.4000 BC, the piece of linen had been painted with black, red, and white pigment, portraying hunting and fishing scenes.
The hot dry climate of Egypt is responsible for the natural conservation of many textiles. Sadly, textiles were disregarded by many eminent archaeologists, who treated them as unimportant rags. Even the Tarkhan Dress, discovered by Flinders Petrie in 1912, was left in a parcel labelled ‘dirty linen rags’ and only rediscovered in 1977. Thankfully, Egyptologists now realise that these unassuming pieces of linen provide vital clues to life in ancient Egyptian times, and are worthy of conservation and study in their own right.
Textile production
Men, women, and children were all employed in the ancient Egyptian textile industry – at home, and in huge workshops that employed many people. Women usually made roving (strands of fibres drawn out ready for spinning) and carried out spinning, while men beat the flax stems and twined the thread. The ground loom was usually operated by women; vertical looms were operated by men.
A very detailed scene of this is painted on the walls of the Middle Kingdom tomb belonging to Baqet III at Beni Hasan (BH15), depicting women spinning thread and weaving, as the men wash cloth and spin cord.
Tabby or plain weave was the traditional form of weaving from the Predynastic era onwards. This basic weaving technique involves weaving threads at right angles, alternating over and under each other, to create a simple strong fabric. In the New Kingdom, tabby linen fabrics were ornamented by tapestry-woven patterns in coloured wool. These were created by drawing a pattern or design on the textile and interlacing coloured threads while it is being woven on the loom. The patterns have a great degree of variation in the outline and arrangement of colour. This tradition of tapestry weaving endured throughout the Ptolemaic, Roman, and Christian eras.
The process of sewing during the pharaonic period employed a small number of techniques, with only a limited range of fabrics available. Garments were made as simply as possible, with the drape of the fabric giving form, rather than the use of any tailoring. Scissors were not developed until the 1st century AD; instead, the cloth was torn, or cut with a sharp flint. Fabric was sewn using fine needles made from pierced fish bone. Many bronze, copper, and silver needles have also been found at excavations throughout Egypt, ranging in diameter from a few millimetres to one centimetre.
Tents in Egypt
The production of tents was an important part of the ancient Egyptian textile industry from the earliest periods. The word ‘tent’ comes from the Latin tendere, which means ‘to stretch’, and has come to be associated with portable shelters where material is stretched over a framework.
The oldest epigraphic reference to a tent has been found at Qubbet el-Hawa, opposite Aswan. The biography of the Sixth Dynasty governor Harkhuf includes an instruction sent to him by the pharaoh Pepy II (c.2278-2184 BC):
When the dwarf sleeps at night, appoint excellent people who shall sleep beside him in his tent and inspect him ten times a night as I desire to see this dwarf more than any of the gifts from Sinai or Punt.
From this time, through the centuries, the work of the tentmakers has never ceased.
Tents played an important part in ancient funerary cults. The Book of the Dead includes a passage which states that embalming must take place in a tent of cloth. The body of the deceased would have been transported westward across the Nile in a tented boat, and then placed in a ‘tent of purification’, where the body was washed and purified before mummification. The ancient Egyptians referred to this as ‘God’s Tent’ when used to embalm royals.
These tents were often dyed red and decorated. A wonderful tent or baldachin (canopy) was found at Deir el-Bahri in the tomb of Princess Isetemkheb (B), a daughter of one of the High Priests of Amun (possibly Masaharta, c.1054-1045 BC) during the Twenty-first Dynasty. This rare find is a complete tent decorated with animals and flowers, its blue ceiling studded with appliquéd stars. It is now housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (for a detailed article on this baldachin and its conservation, see AE 66).
For nomadic tribes such as the Bedouin, tents were (and are) indispensable mobile homes that could be quickly set up and packed away. Some were so richly decorated they were like linen palaces. English travel writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (writing in 1716-1718; published in 1837) described the Hajj caravan and luxury tent of the Sultana of Egypt:
As splendid as the wealth of Egypt could render. Four hundred camels transported her baggage from Jidda to Mecca and her tent pitched at the foot of Mount Arafat equalled in size and magnificence of anything we have read in fairy tales.
Tentmakers of Cairo
The pharaonic tradition of textile work continues to this day in Old Cairo. Walking through the Street of the Tentmakers, it is possible to speak with the descendants of the original artisans who came to this location in the 14th century. The work of the traditional tentmaker is carried out exclusively by men. Often up to five generations can be found working at the same time. The young male members of the family will begin to learn their trade from around the age of eight, being taught during the school holidays.
The tents are produced as a series of hangings, which have a cream or white canvas exterior, but inside are elaborately patterned with colourful appliqués known as khayamiya. Many of the designs used for the central section originate from the marble inlay floors and walls of mosques, while the borders are often worked in a combination of Islamic designs and pharaonic motifs – particularly ‘lotus’ flowers. These patterns are derived from the paintings on the walls and ceilings of ancient Egyptian tombs, depictions in temple reliefs, and decoration on antiquities in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Every family of tentmakers has its own unique design, often passed down from one generation to the next.
Each piece of work can take up to three months to produce. Only one person works on each panel, charting the design and executing the work from start to finish. Working conditions are extremely cramped; everything that is needed is stored in and above the unit. Some families even live on the top floor of these tiny workshops.
Creating khayamiya
When commencing a piece of work, the designs are first drawn out on to a piece of folded brown paper, and pricked out with a blunt needle. The pricked paper is then placed on the base fabric and dusted over with a charcoal powder. This faint series of dotted lines is drawn over with a pencil. Thus the whole design is transferred on to the base fabric, which is then basted on to a heavy canvas backing. The pieces of material to be applied as surface decoration are cut as and when required from a large assortment of fabric scraps. The tentmakers do not use templates, nor do they pre-cut any of the fabric into required shapes. Each piece of material is cut roughly into shape as needed and manipulated to fit the drawn shape on the base fabric. The shapes are then applied using a slipstitch-needle, turning as they go along. This work is carried out without stabilising implements; instead, the men sit cross-legged on a small wooden bench inside a small dimly lit workshop.
Rather than commence at the centre and work outwards, or at one side working to the other, the appliqué work is executed at random. The impression is that they work on whichever part takes their fancy that day. However, the overall effect is superb. Patterns can be created with different pieces layered over the top of each other to produce complex designs.
The colours used were traditionally derived from natural plant and vegetable dyes, although the use of synthetic dyes is now creeping into the workshops. Originally the tentmakers used only primary colours, each of which had its own symbolism: red stood for strength and happiness; green for health and prosperity; black for fertility and rebirth; orange represented the eternal sun; and blue represented heaven. However, before the advent of synthetic dyes, blue was used only rarely due to the high cost of creating the pigment from lapis lazuli.
Until a few years ago, the tentmakers found it very hard to make a living based on only a few orders for ceremonial tents, and their location away from the main tourist area made it difficult to attract passing trade. The advent of modem technology has led to reproductions of the tentmakers’ designs being made as a cheap printed fabric which, from a distance and to an untrained eye, looks the same as the original work. This reproduction fabric can be bought in bazaars and is seen hanging all over Egypt – even on building sites disguising scaffolding.
However, the cheap copies do not have the same quality as those created by the traditional craftsmen, and recent interest from different countries has thrown a lifeline to the tentmakers, as many of the appliquéd hangings are becoming appreciated as works of art. So, if you should find yourself in Cairo one day, ask a taxi driver to take you to the Bab Zuwala to visit the men who do such wonderful work. Drink mint tea with them, admire their multicoloured fabric palaces, and let your imagination transport you to the world of The Arabian Nights.
Sandra Hardy was an independent researcher and collector of traditional ethnic handiwork from across the world, but particularly Egypt. Making many visits to the ‘Street of the Tentmakers’ in Cairo, Sandra came to know many of the traders and their family histories, while buying more beautiful hangings for her collection. After displaying these textiles at a National Quilt Exhibition in Harrogate, she was invited to give talks and show her collection to groups around the country. Sadly, Sandra passed away last year, but she recorded her research in a short booklet. Part of that work is published here with the permission of Paul and Adam Hardy, who also provided photographs from Sandra’s collection.
