Delightful decor in Ramadan.. "Khayameya" Egyptian Islamic art with Pharaonic origins Khayameya is a traditional fabric-based craft. It is the art of decorating fabric with fabric and applique using needle and thread. Through them, khayamiyya fabrics decorate flints, paintings and cushions, and different types of fabrics can be used in decorating according to the design to be implemented and depending on the artist’s creative ability. Al-Khayamiya is considered one of the utilitarian, aesthetic arts. The Khayamiya market was built in Cairo in the Bab Zuweila area in the 17th century, and it took its name from the name of the fabrics. With gold and silver threads, this ancient industry dates back to 1250 AD during the Mamluk rule of Egypt. The most famous Khayameya designs There are many artistic elements in Khayamiyya’s designs, and Islamic, Coptic, Roman and Pharaonic art blend in them. There are also designs based on folk tales and legends such as the story of Juha, his son and his donkey, or some Quranic verses and Arabic calligraphy, or artists and dancers from Pharaonic designs and motifs inspired by Islamic architecture. [embedded content] Egyptian tents spread throughout the Arab countries in the past, and they served the purpose of protecting the inhabitants of the hot, dry, dusty desert. As for in Egypt, mobile tents are made of tent cloth for weddings, religious celebrations, holidays, and funerals, but despite their uniqueness and beauty, they are on the way to disappear, and their makers struggle to The survival of this traditional art, especially since since the 1990s, most people abandoned the art of handmade khayamiya with needles in favor of cheap printed khayamiyya, which are now used for mobile tents, while khayamiyya artists turned to making smaller and easier-to-sell items such as bags, pillow covers, and pendants. History of Khayamiyya Art In the book "The Art of Khayamiyya" by researcher Khaled Mohamed Abdel-Majeed, published by Dar Al-Maarif in 2017, it is mentioned that the ancient Egyptians were the first to know this type of cloth in the era of the pyramid builders, when that cloth was used as an umbrella for the foreman. As mentioned in the book "Royal Mummies", there is a leather pavilion that was discovered in the 21st Dynasty, and it is one of the rare pieces made using the khayamiyya method or adding cloth to canvas. Some of the clothes of the pharaohs were also found in the Deir al-Bahari cache, which were embroidered in the same khayamiyya way, which is Adding embossed ribbons and belts to the robe, such as the robe of Tutankhamun in the Egyptian Museum. As for the beginning of making tents in Islamic Egypt, it was during the Fatimid and Mamluk eras, when Bab Zuweila Street was closed at night and opened during the day, and merchants were allowed to enter to carry out their business of buying and selling. The region, and because every merchant preferred that his tent be different from the rest of the tents, the makers of the khayameya began to improvise designs inspired by life and the surrounding areas, in addition to other designs inspired by the Egyptian collective mind, and from here began the khayameya profession and its traditional Egyptian inscriptions. Khayameya designs, Islamic art and architecture The designs in the khayamiyya cloth overlap and vary, and that diversity eventually produces designs closer to Islamic designs at first glance, although it is difficult to classify them as completely Islamic designs at times, but the khayamiyya textiles remain dependent on the complex geometric patterns that were used in mosque architecture, mosque windows and doors, and appear in them often Prohibition of human representations, and if they appear, they appear abstract without details, and are characterized by repetitive patterns of colors and symbolic shapes. These designs have not changed until now, and the craftsmen who inherited the profession have preserved the traditional form of it, which doubles the value of Khayameya products now more than ever. Why was Khayamiyya associated with the month of Ramadan? Although the tents existed throughout the year, they were associated with the month of Ramadan because the lanterns and tent sellers used the tents to make large tents in which they sold their products associated exclusively with the month of Ramadan, so we find the streets of Old Cairo filled with these tents, and with the passage of time and the association of tents with Ramadan visually in people’s minds they began to use Khayameya cloth in decorating their homes in celebration of the holy month. We find Khayameya cloth, from which mattresses and decorations were made for Ramadan. The use of this style of fabrics has evolved, until some fashion designers used it recently in making fashion lines with an old heritage touch.

Khayameya is considered one of the utilitarian aesthetic arts. The Khayameya market was built in Cairo in the Bab Zuweila area in the 17th century, and its name was taken from the name of Khayameya fabrics, and it is the market that was famous for designing and manufacturing the Kaaba covering.

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