Tablet Weaving - Jambiya Belts

[Stasa Katz]

I got hold of a couple of books on tablet weaving and hope to try my hand at it.

If I can track the reference down, Charles Doughty, in his book, Travels in Arabia Deserta (Doughty lived with several Bedu tribes in the Hedjiz in the 1870s) Doughty told how women in one Bedouin group manufactured a red dye.

One had to find a particular fungus and treat it with camel urine--and this could only be done at a particular time of year after the camels had grazed on a specific type of grass.

It is staggering to imagine the centuries of knowledge and observation needed to discover and then refine techniques of this kind.

I will print the information when I can find it. Mr Doughty was also asked to evaluate blades, and describes some of them. He lived with people who were, for the most part, extremely poor--it was rare to own a jambiya; they were more likely to carry a simple shibrayah. Later Doughty spent considerable time in the town of Heyil, as guest of the ruling sheikh.