Randa Achmawi*
Cairo – Al Khyamiya is a famous commercial centre in the centre of Islamic Cairo. There are made colourful tents with which the streets and temples are decorated in Egypt. The souk (bazaar) which has been in operation since the 17th century is, in reality, a long narrow street covered by a stone roof. There are many small shops in which many men, each sitting in front of his sewing machine, work on their millenary and artistic practice. Visiting the small street does not take much more than ten minutes on foot.
The souk is one of the famous regions of Cairo named after the profession predominating there. Like Nahassim, where copper handicraft is sold, and Fahhamin, the area for charcoal, Al Khyamiya is where, for centuries, specialized artisans have produced the material used in the traditional tents of Ramadan – sites visited during the nights of the holy month to drink tea, coffee or smoke hookahs.
The fabric, as thick as a tarpaulin and with lively images, have been made almost the same way since the time of the Fatimids, who ruled Egypt in the tenth century. The material is also used in the decoration of popular weddings and in other Egyptian celebrations. "In the past the Khyiam was used by princes in the tents they set up on their caravans or while hunting," explained Mohie Ezz El Din, the owner of a Khyiam production workshop and member of a family that has been working in the field for generations. To him, Khyiam is the ideal fusion between art and handicraft. But this work, which initially looks simple, is in reality the result of a long and complicated process in which, often, several family members participate.
Sitting in their shops, which sometimes seem like caves, without windows, they work together. Some are apprentices, but most are professionals who perform their activities with great skill. In general, the Khyiam production process is managed by the father of the artisan family. It is he who draws the arabesques and copies them onto the background cloth with the help of paper. When the master finishes his work, his collaborators, usually his children or younger brothers, cut several other pieces of fabric in colours like black, yellow, red, green, blue or orange. They then adjust the pieces onto the original cloth until they reach the design drawn by their father.
But apart from traditional arabesques, the motifs of the drawings found in Khyiam are also inspired on folklore and popular art. "We also sometimes innovate in forms, create works where more ancient and more modern motives are compared," explained Mohie. "And our drawings are not limited to the traditional abstract geometric figures of the arabesques, we often also include human figures, wild animals, birds, flowers, plants and shrubs, all from our traditions and daily life."
A threatened practice
But like many others, the art of producing traditional Khyiam is threatened by industrialization and modern times. "Nowadays, the number of factories that print decorated fabrics with traditional designs is expanding. And of course this kind of product costs much less than the material we make," complains Mohie. According to him, the tendency is for the work of these factories to prevail due to economic reasons, and the material made in Khyiamyia is condemned to slow disappearance.
Taha Yunes, a young artisan who preferred to learn the technique with his father instead of studying at a university clearly shows his pessimism with regard to the future of his profession: "In the near future, only the Egyptians of the highest classes will be able to buy our work and for that reason many of us will have to change our professions, or work only for tourists."
According to Yunes, the problem of working exclusively for tourists is that they prefer products with more pharaonic or folkloric motifs. "But these elements are not connected to the essence of our art. For this reason, and due to the lack of buyers and people interested, our practice may disappear and become a legend like many others that have already vanished," laments Yunes.
*Translated by Mark Ament
