DepartmentTextiles-Middle East
Jillayeh
NameShort sleeve coat-dress
Artist
Artist Not Recorded
CulturePalestinian
Dateca. 1880
Place madeBeyt Dajan or Beit Dajan, Nablus, West Bank, Palestine Territory, Middle East or West Asia, Asia
MediumIndigo dyed linen, silk
DimensionsLength: 135 cm. Width: 81 cm.
Credit LineGift of Florence Dibell Bartlett
Object numberA.1955.86.933
DescriptionOld #3372 Jillāyeh (ca. 1880) (Fig. 28 and Plates 16, 17) From the Beit Dajan area, this jillāyeh is made of handwoven indigo linen, so dark as to appear almost black. The slit in the front of the skirt is bordered with silk heremsy appliqué in red, green, and orange. The appliqué is decorated with zigzag slits and sequins. The qabbeh is also decorated with sequins. The multicolored silk embroidery is in cross stitch. Red is the predominant color with some violet, orange, green, and white. The sides of the skirt are covered with columns of the mirror-faced triangles called hijābs (“amulets”) and inverted cypresses, typical motifs of this region. The qabbeh also is bordered on three sides by inverted cypresses. The dāyer, or lower back panel of the skirt, consists of the mūj (“wave”) pattern. It is topped at each side by a column of șābūn (“soap bars”), between which are the khēm el-bāshā (“the pasha's tent") and sarū (“cypresses”). The sleeves are embroidered with motifs common throughout Central and Southern Palestine. What makes this jillāyeh somewhat out of the ordinary is its velour (rather than the usual atlas silk) yoke which has a scalloped silk appliqué border and is embroidered with silk couching filled in with satin stitching. Also, there is a square patch of this couching where the sleeves meet the shoulder and some couched work has been added above the cross stitch embroidery on the side panels. The edge of the sleeves has a border of satin stitching. Imitation of the Bethlehem couching technique became common in Beit Dajan only in the 1930s. The couching on this particular jillāyeh is much simpler than the later imitation of Bethlehem work which was called rāsheq (light or dextrous). Length: 135 cm. Width: 81 cm. (Palestinian Costume and Jewelry, Yedida Kalfon Stillman, 1979 ISBN: 0-82630490-7)
