Tentmakers Bazaar in Cairo
The tentmaker street lies in old Cairo near the 10th-century gate Bab Zuweila. The Street of the Tentmakers is one of the last roofed medieval streets left in Cairo. The street lies in deep shadow, very much in contrast to the brightly colored appliqued cloth in Pharaonic and Islamic patterns that are sold in small kiosks lined up on both sides of the street. Though plain from the outside the inside of the tents are incredible beautiful. Geometric patterns in brilliant reds, greens, yellows and blues, painstakingly sewn by hand in many many hours and even months, cover the cloth from top to bottom.
The Suradeqs are in fact festivity tents where family, friends and communities gather and celebrate a wedding, the birth of a child or where they meet after a funeral to pay their condolences. Egyptians love to party and there always is a reason to do so.
For centuries the art of making huge tent pavilions is passed on from father to son. But today the craft is slowly dying. From once over 1000 tentmakers only a hundred are still practicing the craft. The young generation is not interested anymore to keep the craft alive. Modern developments on the other side take poll and what tentmakers patiently create in many months of endurable labor, modern textile manufacturers produce in no time. Yet, once you have visited the tentmakers in Cairo you easily can tell the difference between a magical hand-sewn suradeq and a modern fabric.
published May 31, 2008
Source: Angela
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