Urban textile traditions of Tunisia

African Arts, Autumn, 2004 by Christopher Spring, Julie Hudson

This article draws together several years of fieldwork-based research into the urban textile traditions of Tunisia. In contrast to rural traditions of women using woolen yarn on upright, single-heddle looms (Reswick 1985), urban traditions are predominantly the preserve of male weavers using treadle looms and a range of luxury yarns such as silk and metallic thread (Fig. 1). Complex embroidery, by both men and women, often in styles unique to a single small area or town, is another defining feature of urban ceremonial dress.

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Bearing witness to many centuries of cross-cultural and ideological exchange, these urban textiles nonetheless represent an internal dynamic through which the living history and the distinctive nature of Tunisia's material culture may be read and understood.

Historical Perspectives

As in other countries of the Maghrib, the historical events that have contributed to the dynamism of Tulzisian culture are still clearly recognizable in the wide variety of textiles used and dress worn throughout the country, as well as in the particular significance of certain textiles and their methods of production in different communities (Spring and Hudson 1995). On a technical level one can say that the upright, single-heddle looms used by women in predominantly rural regions of the country date back to antiquity, whereas the horizontal ground looms used in the same regions were introduced following the Arab invasions of the seventh century AD. Treadle-loom weaving was introduced during the eighth century, although the varieties of treadle loom used in Tunisian towns such as Mahdia probably did not become widespread until the period of Ottoman influence from the sixteenth century onwards. Draw-looms are still used in Mahdia to weave narrow strips of silk in complex patterns (Fig. 2). Looms of this type are so named because they are fitted with a number of supplementary heddles that would be "drawn up" by one or more assistants to the weaver. Patterned cloth was woven in this way in southern Spain and Portugal during the period of the Hispano-Mauresque civilization (tenth-fifteenth centuries AD), and it is likely that weavers fleeing from Christian persecution during the late fifteenth century brought this art to North African cities. Today, weavers of Guinea-Bissau in West Africa weave narrow strips of cloth using this technique (Fig. 3), which their ancestors learned from the Portuguese when brought as slaves to the Cape Verde islands in the sixteenth century.

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There are many other examples of historical cross-cultural exchange between Tunisia and sub-Saharan Africa that doubtless owe more to the ancient trans-Saharan caravan trade than to more recent seafaring links. The wonderful embroidery found on the woolen shawls of southern rural regions such as Matmata and Chenini and as far north as El Diem appear to reflect sub-Saharan inspiration and make a fascinating contrast with the complex and sophisticated embroidery found on garments from towns such as Mahdia and Raf Raf (Fig. 4; Stone 1985, Vivier 1995).

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The historical links between Tunisia and Andalusia are well documented and may be observed every day in the form of the felted cap or chechia still worn by a good proportion of the male population (Fig. 5); the fascinating history of this one garment alone would provide sufficient material for a research project. Stories abound relating to the origins of chechia-making in Tunisia, one particularly lyrical tale describing how, in the sixteenth century, an Andalusian girl came as a refugee, carrying in her hair the seeds of the teasel-like plant chardon, whose spiny head is used in the vital final stages of production to card the surface of the chechia and give it its distinctive texture. The girl combed her hair and the seeds fell to the ground in the region of Bizerte to the north of Tunis. The teasels sprang up and with them the chechia industry was born.

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By the eighteenth century, 5,000 people worked in the Souk de Chechias in Tunis, producing 450,000 chechias a year not only for Tunisia but also for Algeria, Libya (from whence they were sold to sub-Saharan Africa), the Near East, Turkey, and the Balkans. Today chechias are not so much worn by the younger generation in Tunisia, but new markets have recently opened up in Nigeria, in Alexandria (Egypt), and in catering to foreign tourists.

The names and patterns of Tunisian textiles often betray their historical origins. Among the numerous named designs, many of Islamic inspiration, that appear on the densely patterned bands adorning each end of the rida' ahmar ("red shawl/outer garment") of Mahdia is the Star of David, a reminder that many weaving families in Mahdia were Jewish and, more generally, that for perhaps two millennia Jewish artists have played an important part in the development of Tunisian culture. More recent cultural interchange is revealed in the name kilim tarabulsiy ("Tripolitanian kilim") given to woolen cloths with distinctive geometric motifs woven in the region of Redeyef in southwestern Tunisia. These began to be made in the mining towns around Redeyef by Libyans who had emigrated from Tripolitania following the Italian occupation of 1912.