Siwa: Jewelry, Costume, and Life in an Egyptian Oasis

by Margaret M. Vale

Siwa is a remote oasis deep in the heart of the Egyptian desert near the border with Libya. Until an asphalt road was built to the Mediterranean coast in the 1980s, its only links to the outside world were by arduous camel tracks. As a result of this isolation, Siwa developed a unique culture manifested in its crafts of basketry, pottery, and embroidery and in its styles of costume and silverwork. The most visible and celebrated example of this was the silver jewelery that was worn by women in abundance at weddings and other ceremonies. Based on conversations with women and men in the oasis and with reference to old texts, this book describes the jewelery and costume at this highpoint of Siwan culture against the backdrop of its date gardens and springs, social life, and dramatic history. It places the women’s jewelery, costume, and embroidery into social perspective, and describes how they were used in ceremonies and everyday life and how they were related to their beliefs and attitudes to the world. The book also describes how, in the second half of the twentieth century, the arrival of the road and of television brought drastic change, and the oasis was exposed to the styles and fashions of the outside world and how the traditional silver ornaments were gradually replaced by gold.

272 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2015

Reviews

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Siwa

A recollection of Siwa via traveler stories.

For starters, the patriarchal system being "challenged” by “modern” movements seemed like a tongue in cheek way of addressing sexism and religious dogma. How this small Egyptian town was targeted by time; from their culture, homes, religion, and dress were all changed. Even down to their language, tourist influx, and war. The author did maintain an unbiased review of their culture and ways. Especially when it came to child brides, cousin incest, and the custom of taking virginity cloth to the mother (but discontinued).

My western mind didn’t appreciate the constant excuse of covering your entire body from men due to “modesty” and to be “safe”. The author remained a neutral party but included tidbits like women giving testimony that being fully covered kept them from gossip and from being targeted, which in itself is a cultural issue this book didn’t divulge in.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise but jewelry and costume focuses mostly on women and their history with marriage. Personally, this got repetitive and boring. Sure would have been nice to have more photos or even more in color as the author describes detail and colors.

It made me mad that so much of its history was changed/lost by simply following the march of trends, money, war, and greed. The cultural changes, challenges, and differences vary among individuals and areas within Siwa, but as a whole, everything changes. I wish the book had delved into the ancient past of Siwa and its foreseeable future, but hey it's just a collection of traveler’s notes, I shouldn’t ask for more. If you visit today you will see relics of the past maintained.

A collection of tidbits:

Local anthropologist Fathi Malim says that the meeting with the sheikh, which is called a me’ad, can take many days and is always conducted with generosity and politeness until justice and peace are attained. “Essentially,” he writes, “the sheikh should be wealthy—so that he can afford hospitality—married and wise, fair and just, and be respected by children and families

Siwa dates are the best. Industrialization has changed the markets, culture, and homes.
Siwa has too much salt for their lake to support fish.
Siwa has its own venerated patron saint—Sidi Suleiman.
Gallabiya- tunic like garment. Feddan- unit to measure land.

Typical dishes are mulukhiya, a soup Egyptians make from the leaves of the Jew’s mallow plant which grows well in Siwa, a local variety of shakshouka, a vegetable and egg ragout.

Perhaps because the Siwans have traditionally worked hard, they are accustomed to eating at frequent intervals during the day. The first meal, fitur (breakfast), is taken between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m. and commonly consists of cheese, falafel, bread, and stewed dried broad beans, called fuul. This is followed by dahwera, between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m., which might include soup, beans, milk, and a salad vegetable like tomatoes. The main meal, ghada, is at about 1:00 p.m. This normally consists of pasta, a salad or cooked vegetable dish, and olives. Meat also may be served. At 5:00 p.m. there is asriya, a light snack such as a salad vegetable like cucumber, with peanuts. At 7:00 p.m. comes another light meal called asha, followed by a final snack at 11:00 p.m.

Baking bread for the family two or three times a week is an important task for a Siwan woman. This is done in a mud oven, the tabint.

The new mother would have it with honey. Fenugreek (hilba) has a long history in Egypt and is believed to be good for mother’s milk. The ancient Egyptians used it to bring on childbirth.

Given the name tiraz al-‘amm, they made fine materials and woven and embroidered bands with inscriptions such as “In the Name of God,” “Good fortune,” and “Prosperity.” Justitia et Clementia (Justice and Clemency) to discourage the dishonest practice of taking silver clippings.

The palm trees are locally known as shagara tayiba (‘the good trees’) because so much is extracted from them. They have always provided the inhabitants (and their animals) with dates of various qualities, with the drink called lagbi, and with gumar—the white heart of the palm, usually taken from a weak male tree they will probably lose—which is a delicacy enjoyed at weddings and other feasts.

For centuries the date gardens, the ateelun, were worked by male laborers known as zaggala, who spent their time trimming, fertilizing, harvesting, and pollinating the date palms.

The blocks of kersheef of which the house is built are made of a mixture of mud and salt that is collected from the edges of the lakes, and the blocks are fixed using a kind of clay called klact.

Commenting on a radical recent innovation for girls to wear a niqab and a black milaya over their Egyptian clothes, which they apparently find empowering and another step toward emancipation, a girl said to me, “With the internet and the niqab our lives will change forever!”

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