A Trip Back In Time (Nagada,Egypt)

Map courtesy of touregypt.net

Once i saw a very nice fabric with lively colors, i asked and they said it was handmade in Naqada, a tiny village located on the west bank of the Nile just where the river bends taking this special curve. The name is famous because it is the name of the predynastic culture that dominated that region 4400-3000 BC according to Wikipedia .

First i went to Luxor and from there took a boat to the west bank of the Nile, then took a car 26 km to the north where i met an old weaver called "Pharah", a very kind and hospitable old man.

His house is very simple, yet original and has a natural peaceful atmosphere to it. He recounted how back in the days he worked for a weaving factory, the machines were very noisy and inflexible, he told me that handmade fabrics have a feeling and a meaning to them or in his words;

"This hand loom is pure feeling, it makes me satisfied, unlike the factory machine. It has a meaning, whatever you want to say, it does it for you. As for the factories' steel machine, it can only make one model, not like what the 'shuttle' does" - Pharah

The "Shuttle" or "Makkook" as the master craftsman Pharah called it, is the main piece of the hand loom, and Pharah was very much proud of it, he said he inherited it from his grandfathers.













From Wikipedia:

A shuttle is a tool designed to neatly and compactly store weft yarn while weaving. Shuttles are thrown or passed back and forth through the shed , between the yarn threads of the warp in order to weave in the weft.

The simplest shuttles, known as "stick shuttles", are made from a flat, narrow piece of wood with notches on the ends to hold the weft yarn.

Here are some photos of the very old hand loom that belongs to the experienced craftsman Pharah.