A digital archive showcasing the extensive collection of jewellery and adornment images shared on the former Ethnic Jewels Ning site over the years. These images have significantly enriched discussions on cultural adornment and its global dispersion.
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tuareg coran page marker. i always see people writing bella pendant. i still wonder why.
i guess it is mentionned this way in some old books.
the keys is you count, they are 7 . sometomes,3-5-9, sometimes thre is a leather line attached at and goes down until the end of the page. just to fix the silver piece
They are called pendants by people who do not know they are page markers (people like me). I have also seen them embellishing bits of leather.
yes, Patti, I have one attached to a leather pouch, old and nice, and I bought it as a Bella-Tuareg pendant from Sarah some years ago. It is not as nice as this one, but I appreciate a lot. This one is really extremely nice!
I think that the keyhole represents the portal of life, Ie childbirth and fertility similar in significance to the portal pedants from the Todhra region in Morocco
S x
Thank you Sarah, was wondering about that, all the Bella seem to have it ...
IMHO this page marker saying has to do with the tourism industry and the souvenir market in the west....some storytelling always help score good prices and sales!!
The tuareg have intricate open work rooted in sahelian symbology especially for the southern tuaregs where th same designs and patterns are to be found forexample on tent wooden poles, milk bowl holders or beds parts!!
the most obvious explanation would be to qualify the key hole as a simplified femenine figue or as Sarah said a door or an entrance to a fabled world be it eternity, fertility or prosperity....
Thank you Alaa Eddine Sagid. Very illuminating. This is why this page is phenomenal.
Yes, illuminating but really where is the proof for anybody's speculation about his particular piece. I have seen these pieces alone and I have seen them attached to leather. I have seen a number of them in Morocco, but not so many that I would say that they are tourist pieces or particularly ubiquitous -- there are'nt even very many of them online to sell in comparison to some of the other icons of Islamic jewelry. Nobody from Morocco has ever told me that these particular pieces are Koranic page markings, most have said they were Bella pieces and have left it at that. So I do not think that by and large they are tourist pieces and I am not sure what they are for -- Ait says they are page markers, he certainly is more knowledgeable than I about their use and truely this is the only real explanation I have heard about them. What their primitive symbiology is is irrelevant to what their true use is. Insofar as their prices are concerned, they are not that expensive so clearly whatever stories have been made up about them haven't contributed to a boost in prices.
@Patti,
when i was talking about the tourist market, it was not about something new being marketed wongly to hit a sale or a good price, rather for example in a situation where a dealer brings something genuinely old for sale but don't know anything about the original use...he has to invent a storytelling to be able to sell for any potential buyer would like to know what he is buying!!
I guess that it even went further in a way that such a storytelling was adopted by some tuaregs themselves, maybe it was easier and anybody would now what a page marker is since it is a universal item in comparison to a totemic pendant which would trigger more questions than offer answers regarding its origin and use!
As you said people who would collect in the field and first hand sellers such as those in Morocco never say they are page marker!
The simple fact that these pieces were used attached to leather for whatever reason they were used for is the simple answer that in no way technically thet could be used as page marker.....as for many of the saharan adornments used on a leather support many reaches the market once the matter was deprived either because it was too worn or on purpose to prevent bulk or again that the seller thought of it as not worthy of display and even would lower the overall quality!!
Patti is right that we should bring some facts and reference to back my saying, very little is unfortunately available but would post it when available
here some fotos of coran pagemarkers and coran boxes with leather attached to some different items that have the same use as the pagemarkers on the leather coran boxes.
i m coming back with textes, i just got a treasure and have to breath :-)
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