Yemen woman’s silver jewelry
Over the last few years, Yemen jewelry has been actively sought by ethnic jewellery collectors. The tradition of wearing heavy silver jewellery is dissapearing very fast, and good quality pieces are becoming difficult to find.
The traditional silver jewelry made by Arab and more specifically Yemeni women indicated the place a woman occupied in society, the tribe or the village and whether or not she was married. They were not only intended to make her beautiful: their amulet shape and the colors of the stones also granted her protection. Moreover, this silver was a kind of investment. It belonged to the women and was only sold by them when their daughters married, divorced, or when disaster struck their family.
Bridal Yemen jewelry
Women received most of their silver at their wedding, but jewelry was also given as a gift on other occasions, specially amulets when children were born.
At a wedding, the groom’s family paid the bride’s family the cost of the celebration, the shart (various expenses) and the mahr. The most important to the bride was the mahr, the dowry she received from the groom’s family, usually in the form of jewelry. Traditionally, these pieces of jewelry were woman’s property and she could sell them in case of need, of divorce or death of the husband.
Once the amount of the mahr was agreed upon, the groom’s family went to the silversmith. The silversmith could show designs that were typical for the tribe or region involved. He was often told by the bride’s family, headed by her mother, which pieces she wanted. In other cases, the groom’s family selected from what the silversmith had on hand.
Jewellery from North and South Yemen
The silver jewelry the bride wore differed from region to region, but two major areas can be distinguished: on the one hand the northern mountain regions and the Tihamah (the flat strip of land about sixty kilometers wide between the Red Sea and the mountains), on the other hand the Hadhramaut, the desert region in southeastern Yemen.
Some examples from North Yemen and Tihamah region can be seen here:
- Coral and silver necklace, made with filigree and big coral beads
- Silver beads worn in combination with amber or other resin beads
- Silver forearm bracelet
- Yemeni belt ornament
- Yemen silver belt
Some examples from South Yemen are these:
- Yemen head ornament
- Yemen silver necklace with beuatiful crafted beads
- Silver necklace made of several strands of massive beads
For more information, I hightly recomment Marjorie Ransom book “Treasures from the land of Sheba” from which part of this information was extracted.
