DepartmentTextiles-Middle East
Thobe Abu Qutbeh
NameDress
Artist
Artist Not Recorded
CulturePalestinian
Dateca. 1925
Place madeJerusalem, BETHANY AND SILWAN, Historic Palestine, Middle East or West Asia, Asia
Mediumsilk, velvet
Dimensionsoverall: 1 M 27 CM X 1 M 31 CM
Credit LineIFAF Collection
Object numberFA.1972.25.11
Collections
FA. 72.25–11 Thõb Abū Quțbeh (ca. 1925) (Fig. 16) This is also a thob abū quțbeh or thõb shuqqa even though it looks quite different from dress no. 3370. It is made of handloomed silk from Homs in Syria. The cloth has narrow red and yellow stripes. In the twentieth century, names like shuqqa, shaqfeh, quțbeh all designate stripes. There is only one sāʻid on each sleeve and only one bniqa on each side, rather than the usual three. The sawā`id are orange silk heremsy, the benāyeq, green silk heremsy. The embroidery on these insets and on the qabbeh is typical Bethlehem work. The couching is mainly in orange and purple silk and metallic thread. The slits on either side of the qabbeh are for nursing a baby. Since the breast is a symbol of motherhood (and of fertility) it is the only normally covered part of the body which a woman may expose in public. When a child needs to be fed or pacified, a mother will take it to her breast “unhesitatingly, in any place, at any time, and very often.”58 However, slits for breastfeeding are relatively rare on festive dresses such as this one. This particular dress was collected in the village of Bethany, two miles east of Jerusalem. It could be from anywhere in the Jerusalem area. Length: 127 cm. Width: 96 cm. (Palestinian Costume and Jewelry, Yedida Kalfon Stillman, 1979 ISBN: 0-82630490-7)
