Kuffiya: A journey from heritage to resistance.

A kuffiya is a classic traditional male headdress of arab culture in the middle east. It is even commonly known even as “hatta” or even “shemagh”. The kuffiya played an important role in the arab heritage and resistance. This type of headdress has been worn for centuries  by men in the middle-east and its main function was to protect from the sun, storms , the chill of the night.

Typically a kuffiya is made from cotton or wool and is cut in a square  shape fabric.  Generally there are 3 types of patterns that are commonly diffused. It can be either in chess black and white, chess red and white or plain white. The difference in patterns depends on the region that you are situated.

How to wear a kuffiya?

It has many ways to be worn, it depends in which occasion you are or what are you doing. For example, the classical way consists in folding it in a triangle on  the head, take the two extreme peaks  that fall above your shoulders and fold them  again on the head.  Often the kuffiya is set hold and firm  around the head with a black round cord type made of woven cotton, called “egal”.

History and kuffiya’s role in resistance.

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The Kuffiya played an important role in history since the thirties against the oppression of the British mandate. In Palestine it became a symbol of patriotism, adopted by many Palestinians from the rural areas against the fez  (Turkish head cap)worn in urban areas. Patriots who supported the grand mufti Amin Al Hussaini during the Great Arab Revolt.  In many areas during that period British army used to imprison anyone wearing his sort of headdress.

In present days this traditional headdress gained popularity among people and activist due to the Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat that adopted it as a symbol of Palestinian identity, resistance and struggle against the Israeli occupation.

Now all over the world the Kuffiya is sold and worn. A “heritage statement” that once was passed from father to son, nowadays  it has become a “symbolic statement” of resistance and solidarity with the Palestinians , Palestinian land and Palestinian heritage.

All photo's are taken by Fatima Abbadi except "img.1"

Palestinese, il mio nome è Palestinese

Palestina,

terra martoriata e occupata,

villaggi dimenticati e vie senza nomi

figli orfani e donne in lacrime e uomini senza casa e senza tetto

Piango e urlo forte

Bruciate pure la mia casa,

i miei libri e la mia scuola

però la mia identità e forte come la roccia e scorre nelle mie vene

“Palestinese, il mio nome è Palestinese”

(scritto da Fatima Abbadi)

Funny Ramadan parade.

Ramadan is a Holy Muslim Month. During this month we seek to feed our spirit with devotion and prayers to God rather than the body. It is a month of patience, fasting and self control. A month that from its beginning people forget about their main goal and seem to enter in a “BIG BAZAAR FEAST ODYSSEY”. Jordan - A classic Ramadan day (before sunset)
Car horns, taxis passing by like missiles and busses stuffed with people of all kinds. Noisy music that stops at the call of the muazin and ringing phones at every time. Cascades of bananas hanging everywhere and colorful banquets with every fanciful good imaginable.
You can hear the seller calling “Moz b nos lera”, “lera, lera kol she b lera” and women fiercely bargaining for that good. Small children jumping and playing all around or simply are following their mothers in crowded and messy rows. Fancy and fashionable mannequins welcome you at every post and walking mistresses looking at them with a keenly look.
Maestro police proudly directing his grand traffic symphony and crazy trolley drivers challenging the street like in a magnificent Luna park arena.
Grand Niagara effects of freshly squeezed fruity juice at every bazaar. “Sugar cane”, “Qamar el Din”, “Tamar Hind”, “Pomegranate” and “lemon” are some of the tastes that quenches your mad thirst at iftar meal.
The warm sweet smell of fresh gatayef, dates and sweets of all kinds beckons you. Freshly packed khobez forming high monumental towers.
Hands plenty with all sorts of goods and people hustling and bustling from every side. All in hurry, all on a ride, like swarms of bees circling above its hives. And I wonder and ask, how in the middle of all this chaos can a man still happily sleep in all silence and harmony?

pictures by Fatima Abbadi

Dabke: a meanings of belonging to the land and identity

Dabke is a group dance that is prominent in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan ad Iraq. Dabke (also spelt dabka and dabkeh, pronouced dab-k’ meaning, ‘stamping of the feet’). This popular folkloric dance is even common to certain oriental and European peoples and presents one component of national artistic heritage. It is usually performed at festivals and celebrations, especially weddings.

It is based on synchronised foot stomping in which the dancers stand either in a straight line, in an arch, or in a circle and is performed by a group of no less than ten people called dabke dancers (dabeeka). The dancers are male and/or female, and the dances are performed either separately or integrated and it is a dance that requires energy and strength The one who leads the dabke is the laweeh who determines the general direction of the dance and usually performs additional moves to showcase his or her individual skills.

Traditional Arab music used for this dance is characterized by melodies full of emotion. The musical instruments used are: flute, derbabke (oriental drum), daff etc.

Types of dabke
Al Karradiyeh and Al Tayyara are characterised by quick steps and are usually performed by young people because these dances require much flexibility and endurance.


Al Dalouna (or Shamaliyeh) has a moderate rhythm and is performed by dancers of a wide age range. Each movement's name symbolises a district and is performed to a certain rhythm. It is led by a laweeh, who controls the rhythm for the group.


Zareef Al Toul is ultimately about praise or the search for qualities of a beautiful girl or boy and thus of all human persons. It is performed as a flirtatious dance at weddings and on other occasions.


Al Sahjeh and Taghreeba exhibit a style that is based on the actual lyrics where the steps are synchronised and repetitive and through which several different messages are sent.


Duhhiyeh is predominant among the Bedouin; it includes the sahjeh and synchronised line moves; the group songs sometimes include sounds that may not be understood by others.

The dabke allows us to showcase the history, struggle and aspirations of Arab peoples. It is of particular importance for the Palestinian people, which, in the absence of true sovereignty, use folk culture to reaffirm their identity.

History: The Hijaz Railway

The famous Hijaz Railway is a fascinating story in itself.

The purpose of it was in connecting the holy sites in the Hijaz to Istanbul via railway. The Hijaz Railway was built by the Ottomans between 1900 and 1908, it was a project that came to light during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Abdel Hamid II.

Sultan Abdel Hamid II’s need for a railway, like his prior need for telegraph lines, was that they would allow him to tighten his grip on distant Ottoman states far from the centre of his rule in Istanbul, and to send military forces should a rebellion or revolution need quelling.

A pilgrimage from Damascus by camel required 40-50 days. As they progressed toward Medina and Mecca, the pilgrims faced many risks including robbery, floods and epidemics in addition to the difficulties and suffering one might expect from such a journey.

Train station
at Homs  (Syria) 1900-1920

Sultan Abdel Hamid made the decision to establish a rail line linking Damascus to the holy sites.

The main line linked Damascus to Medina; a distance of 1,320 km. It passed through Transjordan in Az-Zarqa, Al-Qatranah, Amman and Ma’an before reaching northwestern Arabia the Hejaz region. It was built as an extension of the already existing line between Istanbul and Damascus.

Fruit vendors at Homs station
(Syria) 1900-1920

The Ottoman government viewed even Haifa as the Hijaz railway’s optimal access point to the sea due to the city’s strategic location granting it advantages over other coastal cities. The decision to make Haifa the railway’s outlet to the Mediterranean Sea required extending a secondary line from Dar’a in Syria to Haifa in Palestine for a total length of 161 kilometres.  The extension of this line was not only meant to enable the delivery of the materials and equipment necessary to construct the Hijaz railway, but also to facilitate the transport of Muslim pilgrims via the Haifa Port to the Hijaz.

Jerusalem station
Palestine.1900-1920 

Transport through Haifa Port thus increased–the amount of goods imported and exported via the port multiplied. With the extension of the Hijaz railway to Haifa, the city was connected to Damascus and the regions of Houran and eastern Jordan, among others, turning it into a bona fide port city. 

The crops of these regions, particularly grains, were exported via Haifa while European and American goods and products needed by the regions were imported.

The Hijaz railway project played a prominent role in the development of Haifa from several perspectives. The following is an outline of the most significant developments.

• Population Increase
• The Development of Haifa Port
• Economic Development
• Construction Development
• Development of Tourism
• Improvement of the Administrative Agency

People riding coach in the Hijaz train

Lebanon: Hashem El Madani

Born in Lebanon in 1928, Hashem El Madani is a studio photographer who has been working in Saida, Lebanon for the last 50 years.

Hashem El Madani was five years old, his cousins in Palestine sent him a set of portraits to keep as souvenirs. Madani's father, a moderate sheikh who had settled in Lebanon from Saudi Arabia, wanted to return the favor but these images gave him pause. Were they haram (a sin)? Madani's father decided no, they were not. They were just like seeing one's reflection in a pond. So he sent Madani and his brother to a photography studio to have their pictures taken. This was in the early 1930s in Sidon, and in all likelihood, the novelty of sitting in a studio, watching a photographer work and grabbing hold of a postcard-size print of oneself sparked Madani's lifelong fascination with portraiture. Seven decades later, Madani is the oldest living studio photographer in Sidon.

After falling in love with photography at the age of five, Madani finished school and left Lebanon for Palestine to find work. He hooked up with a Jewish photographer in Haifa named Katz, who taught him the tools and tricks of the trade. When Israel declared its statehood in 1948, Madani traveled to Amman and then to Damascus before securing the necessary paperwork to get back home. When he arrived in Sidon, he bought a cheap box camera, picked up some chemicals from a photographer in Beirut and set up shop in his parents' living room. Madani developed his business slowly. He bought equipment on credit, one piece at a time, from a photo shop run by an Armenian in Bab Idriss (the old downtown district of Beirut). As soon as he paid off one purchase, he'd make another. He retired the box camera for a Kodak Retinet; he shelled out for a 35 millimeter enlarger. He started selling 6-by-9 centimeter contact prints for just 25 cents. Business picked up, and in 1953, Madani moved his studio into the first floor of the Shehrazade building in Sidon. He bought himself a large desk, props and a stool for his subjects to sit on, a podium for elevation when necessary. He named his business Studio Shehrazade.

Madani's studio created a site where individuals could act out identities using the conventions of portrait photography, with the poses inspired by the desires of the sitters, ranging from Vogue models to kung fu moves, Hollywood romances to pamphlets distributed by Kodak and Agfa.

Motivated to expand his business, Madani set out to collect the portraits of all of Saida's families; he claims that he has photographed about 90% of the city's population. In creating such an extensive record of the townspeople in this multi-confessional Mediterranean location, Madani's archive of over 500,000 images subtly alludes to the changing political climate through his subjects' behaviour.

"Arabian Sands" ... Wilfred Thesiger and his travel journeys

Wilfred Thesiger, born in 3 June 1910 and died in 2003, was a great British explorer of his generation and lucky enough to have lived when the globe still had some uncharted corners. 

He rode camels or walked across deserts and scrub land from Northern Kenya to Western Pakistan. Iraq and Afghanistan were more home to him than his native England. 

Wilfred rarely went anywhere without his trusty Leica which he usually carried in a goatskin bag.

He was a man of extreme austerity. The harder a journey was -- extreme shortages of food and water, hostility of terrain and weather -- the more he enjoyed it. 

He hated the modern world and its comforts. Planes, trains and especially cars, he believed, were robbing  remote peoples of their nobility, and the austere beauty of their way of life.

Sheikh Zayed with a falcon at Buraimi, 1949, photographer by Wilfred Thesiger

Closest to his soul were Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, and he encapsulated their allure in his classic travel account Arabian Sands (1959).

The Corniche in Abu Dhabi, a glimpse from the past

Corniche in Abu Dhabi, 1948, photographer by Wilfred Thesiger

This picture was taken in 1948, when Thesiger visited the city for the first time. 

He found a small fishing village grouped around the "Al Hosn" or "White Fort"(it's probably close to where the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce tower now stands).

Corniche nowadays