The Qabbeh

The qabbeh is the embroidered panel set into the chest of a Palestinian dress, framing the neck opening. It was worked on its own piece of cloth and stitched in afterwards, which meant it could outlive the garment: when a dress wore through, the panel was unpicked and set into the next one. Panels were inherited, and a woman might wear her mother’s work on her own dress.

Because it sits where the eye goes first, the qabbeh carried the densest and most deliberate stitching on the dress, and it is where regional difference is easiest to read. Ramallah panels are cross-stitch in silk on undyed linen, dominated by red, with cypress and palm motifs. Gaza and the coastal plain worked darker grounds and different geometry. Bethlehem took a different route altogether: instead of counted cross-stitch it used couching — tahriri in coloured silk cord and qasab in gold and silver thread, laid on the surface and stitched down — a technique with roots in ecclesiastical and court embroidery rather than in village needlework.

Motifs travelled and were renamed as they went. The same pattern of arcs is called sa’ah, the watch, around Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and qubab, domes, in the Jaffa, Lydda and Ramla districts. Naming, not just stitching, was local.

Sources

• Tiraz: Widad Kawar Home for Arab Dress, Amman
• UNESCO — The art of embroidery in Palestine
• Palestinian costumes — Wikipedia