Bedouin jewellery in Saudi Arabia

Beskrivning:

The wider world has known of the charm and skill of Bedouin jewellery for only a handful of years. It has come about as a result of the swiftly increasing interest in the Arab world. Yet the jewellery of the Bedouin, in their desert heartland of Saudi Arabia, has been an artistic fact for thousands of years.
The Bedouin life precludes art on a grand scale. Everything must be carried - on the head, upon the body, on the back of the camel. Thus there is poetry, sometimes rugs - and jewellery.
The jewellery is at once unique in the field of bodily decoration worldwide, and linked by cultural association to the work, thought and custom of the entire Arab world, and, indeed, beyond the Arab world.
The inventive and intricate workmanship devoted to necklaces, anklets, bracelets, finger-rings, earrings, pendants, buckles, amulet cases and other ornaments for the brides of the desert is today ardently sought by the Western visitor to the country, where, until recently, the wandering Bedouin was master.
Now industrial society, with its familiar combination of boon and bane, menaces the survival of this remarkable craft tradition. This is what makes this book so very timely - a record of, and a testimony to, the range and brilliance of work that belongs to the heart of Arabia.

Juveler Smycken