Tradition
The vocabulary these pages use, with the Arabic, the spellings you may arrive with, and where each definition comes from.
Terms are ordered alphabetically by romanisation. A term that research could not confirm was cut rather than hedged into place, because a definition is the most quotable thing on a heritage page.
Also romanised banayek · baniqa
The banayiq are the triangular gore panels set into the side seams of a thobe to widen the skirt.
This is the sourced term for the side panels. An alternative term sometimes given for a shoulder or side panel could not be confirmed and is not used in this section.
Also romanised daraj
Daraj means step or stair, and names a stepped geometric unit recorded on embroidered dress panels.
Named in a museum object record. The record names the motif; it does not assign it a symbolic meaning.
Also romanised falahi · fellahi
Fallahi is the counted cross-stitch worked by village women, from fallah, meaning peasant or farmer.
Also romanised ardan · irdan
Irdan are the long pointed sleeves of a Palestinian thobe, sometimes cut wide enough to hang well below the hand.
Also romanised etamine · étamine
Itamine is an imported even-weave cotton canvas whose regular grid was used in the twentieth century as a counting guide for cross-stitch.
Also romanised jillayeh · jillayah
A jillayeh is an open coat-dress worn over a thobe, embroidered at the chest, sleeves and hem.
Also romanised mejdellawi · majdalawi
Majdalawi is the striped cloth woven at al-Majdal, north of Gaza, used for dresses and for sleeve panels.
Because the cloth's weaving origin is known, it is one of the few material facts a museum can use to ground a regional attribution rather than relying on motif alone.
Also romanised malak
The malak is the ceremonial wedding dress of the Bethlehem area, worked in tahriri couching with silk and metallic cord.
Also romanised qabbah · qabba
The qabbeh is the square or rectangular chest panel of a thobe, embroidered separately and then set into the dress.
Also romanised roumi · rumi
Rumi is a locally woven linen or linen-and-cotton cloth used as a ground fabric for embroidery.
Also romanised shajarat al-hubb · shajaret hubb
Shajaret hubb means love tree, and names a tree-form motif recorded flanking the chest panel of a documented dress.
The museum record names the motif but does not explain why it carries that name. No symbolic reading is asserted here.
Also romanised shinyar · shanyar
The shinyar is the embroidered lower back panel of a thobe, in some dresses made detachable.
Also romanised tahriri · taḥrīrī
Tahriri is couching: a silk or metallic cord laid on the surface of the cloth and stitched down, rather than counted into the weave.
Documented as the signature technique of the Bethlehem area and also practised around Hebron. It is a fundamentally different technique from counted cross-stitch, not a variant of it.
Also romanised tatriz · tatreez
Tatreez is the Arabic word for embroidery, used in English to mean the Palestinian embroidery tradition in particular.
The word itself is general Arabic for embroidery and is not exclusive to Palestine; in English usage it has narrowed to name the Palestinian tradition specifically.
Also romanised thawb · thob
A thobe is a loose, long-sleeved dress; in Palestinian usage it names the embroidered dress built from separately worked panels.
Thawb is the closer transliteration of the Arabic and denotes a garment across the Arab world, not only the Palestinian embroidered dress.
These terms are used throughout Tradition.
