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Khayamiya Tentmaker Appliqué

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Khayamiya is the appliqué of Cairo's tentmakers: needle-turned cotton shapes stitched by hand onto *tark*, a plain canvas of linen or hemp built from four hand-woven strips joined down the middle. The panels line the *suradeq*, the ceremonial tent, so they are read from across a room — medallions a metre wide, borders you could walk along.

The palette is dated, not decorated. Before the 1920s the dyers had white, indigo and madder red; orange, purple and tan arrive after. So the field is saturated indigo canvas, the accent is that 1920s orange, and undyed cotton stays where it belongs — in the cut shapes, never as the ground.

Learn more about the Khayamiya Tentmaker Appliqué style

  • OriginCairo, Egypt — Souk al-Khayamiyya, Qasaba of Radwan Bey, Bab Zuweila
  • PeriodKhedival period 1867–1914 through today; orange, purple and pink enter the dye set in the 1920s
  • DesignerRadwan Bey · Sam Bowker · Hany Abd El Kader · Ahmed Naguib
  • MovementsIslamic geometric and arabesque ornament · Pharaonic revival · Arabic calligraphic art · Egyptian folkloric illustration

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