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Comments

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  Patricia Deany May 17, 2011 at 1:55pm

  I have heard that ,because of the extra points on these fibula, they would be considered Jewish. Is this correct?
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  Alaa eddine SAGID May 17, 2011 at 2:20pm

  i cant believe in this.

  There is such an abundance of the extra pointed taoukka fibula that it is not serious to think they were only jewish, Since the jewish population of the region was not that important compared to let's say the jewish population of a city like essaouira

   

  the fact is that jewish silversmiths have had their share in influence of what they were crafting but most importantly is to believe that the 6th pointed star was a major feature in islamic non jewish art, for it was heavily used even in inner mosques and islamic religious books!

   

  If you have been to marrakech maybe you visited the Bert flint small museum "Dar Tiskiwin" whose owner recently published a study of the old link between berber triangular fibulas and sahel_african heritage.

  He highlihted to fact that the tiangle far from representing the feminine vulva would actually be a reminescence of the "frog" fertility beliefs widespread in the sahel

   

  I came to the conclusion that these kind of studies by a very important collector is far more convincing than the urban legends of marrakech dealers who would not hesitate to consider anything jewish to increase their income
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  Alaa eddine SAGID May 17, 2011 at 4:39pm

  good observation.

   

  Morocco was really a complete jewish land, it also witnessed the establishment of jewish kingdoms before the arrival of islam

   

  The jewish were  also very widespread across the country but with different desity, for example the cities of Essaouira, Debdou and Sefrou all had more than half of their population being jewish while there was villages scatered across the contryside who were completely jewish

   

  they had the monopoly in certain region over silversmithing and were in charge of minting coins as this jobs were disdained by muslims in regard of using precious metals .

   

  there is not a single jewellery in morocco only dedicated to jewish ladies bar the sophisticated silver wigs and some religious oriented pendants

   

  it led to
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  Johanne May 17, 2011 at 8:39pm

  I have followed your discussion about the Jewish/Islamic 6 pointed star and triangles. I have upload pics of my palestin/jordan necklace:
  
  The star is on the 'backside' of the amuletbox, maybe it's hidden for any reason?
  
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  Johanne May 17, 2011 at 10:15pm

  I bought it in an antique & secondhand jewellery shop some years ago. They knew nothing about it, they bought a big bag with ethnic jewelry and items of a collector, some were for sale in the shop (this necklace). They would like to show these items first to a specialist, I was not  allowed  to see the other items. After 3 weeks I came back in that shop, they said to me they had sold everything to one person (a dealer?). I think it is a bedouin piece from about 1900, it is silvered, on  brass- silver alloy. It has a silver color. Because of the dangles I think it's from the Israel/Palestina area .This triangle form is also popular in Syria and Egypt. 
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  Becky Rogers May 17, 2011 at 11:37pm

  It is truly lovely. What is interesting is that in addition to the 6 pointed star, the emblem in the centre is that of the 'desert rose' and it closely resembles the rose on many of the Moroccan pieces. Maybe Sigri van Roode can comment given her knowledge of Palestinian pieces.

   
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  Joost Daalder May 23, 2011 at 6:56pm

  This is a good pair of fibulae from Morocco, and the type is very well documented. This kind of fibula was by the Anti-Atlas Berbers (from whom it comes) called "tizertai in taouka", i.e. "worm fibula", because of the holes. Those are not the result of piercing, but painstakingly made as little circlets attached to each other. The craft of doing this died out well over a century ago. See Truus Daalder, *Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment*, p. 403 for a nice example (detailed discussion will be found on p. 378). A fine pair is shown also in *Jewellery from the Orient*, p. 110, and it is well-known too from the several specialist books on Moroccan jewellery, and other books. For further examples of this kind of fibula, consult also posts by me on the page "Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment" on Facebook, which anyone can join for free.
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  SARAH CORBETT July 26, 2011 at 11:54am

   

  Hi Ayis, I worked with Bert on the translations of the study.

  I have posted the extract from my translation for the museum in a  separate post.