Research¶
History of Palestinian Thob¶
The Canaanite dress is considered the oldest known form of Palestinian dress, dating back more than five thousand years, based on inscriptions, statues, and artifacts from the Canaanite civilizations that inhabited Palestine. This dress was simple in cut, often long and straight, and woven from linen or wool. It was adorned with geometric and floral motifs with symbolic meanings related to the land, fertility, and protection.
Over time, the Canaanite dress evolved into what later became known as the embroidered Palestinian dress. While the basic elements of the cut and symbols persisted, the embroidery techniques and colors diversified according to region and era, ensuring that the dress remains a living testament to a long and continuous history in this land.
Palestinian fashion from ancient Canaan to a thobe in Congress
How many thobs are there in Palestine?¶
There is no specific number of original traditional dresses in Palestine because every village and region in Palestine had a number of dresses, not just one.
the pattern and embroidery placement for a traditional Palestinian Thob¶
What is TATREEZ¶
Palestinian (peasant) embroidery is a traditional folk art practiced by Palestinian women, especially in villages and rural areas. It is known in Arabic as peasant embroidery and in English as Tatreez. This embroidery is an essential part of the Palestinian dress, not merely a decorative element, but a visual language that conveys identity and social and historical information.
What distinguishes peasant embroidery?¶
Entirely handmade: It is executed by hand with a needle and thread, often using the cross stitch along with other auxiliary stitches.
Linked to the countryside and agriculture: It is inspired by the natural environment surrounding Palestinian farmers: the land, wheat, trees, birds, and stars.
Symbolic and meaningful: Each shape or embroidery motif carries a meaning, such as fertility, protection, abundance, or belonging to a place.
Social Function¶
Before the Nakba, Palestinian peasant embroidery:
Identified the region or village a woman belonged to.
Indicated her marital status (single, married, widowed).
Reflected her economic status through the density of the embroidery and the quality of the threads.
Used in daily life and on special occasions (weddings, holidays).
Its Value Today¶
Today, Palestinian peasant embroidery is:
A symbol of Palestinian identity and historical continuity.
A globally recognized art form, inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
A source of inspiration for contemporary art, fashion, and design.
In short: Palestinian peasant embroidery is not merely decoration, but a visual record of Palestinian memory, woven thread by thread by women to preserve the land, identity, and history.
Stitched Resistance - More Than a Thobe¶
The Palestinian thobe is one of the most powerful visual symbols of national identity. It is not merely a traditional garment or a piece of embroidered fabric, but a historical document and a cultural weapon against attempts at erasure and obliteration. Over the decades, the thobe has transformed from an everyday garment into a form of popular resistance. Through needlework and silk threads, Palestinian women have demonstrated their ability to record the Palestinian narrative and protect memory from theft. Every stitch is a declaration of steadfastness, and every embroidery pattern is an affirmation of the deep-rooted connection to the land, making this garment a "cultural shield" that defies the occupation and asserts sovereignty over identity in every forum and arena.
Palestinian Stories¶
The unworn Thobe
The story of the "unworn Thobe" is a recurring tragic symbol in Palestinian memory, embodying shattered dreams and lives forcibly halted. This story recently comes to the fore in the life of Gazan lawyer Sabreen al-Khairi, who prepared her embroidered white wedding dress and waited for a day that never came. In 2024, a bombing destroyed her home, leaving her completely paralyzed, and her thobe remained under the rubble, a testament to a joy that was never fulfilled.
This scene recalls the stories of 1948, when brides left their homes carrying their "dowry" and thobes whose embroidery was still unfinished. These thobes, now preserved in the Palestinian Museum, are no longer mere pieces of fabric, but silent historical documents that tell the stories of women deprived of their right to stability. The "suspended" dress remains an icon of both loss and suspended hope.
Threads of Resilience: From Ramallah to Refugee Camps
In the 1930s, in the city of Ramallah, a Palestinian woman hand-worn a thobe, unaware that this thobe would become a living testament to history. After the Nakba of 1948, this woman met a refugee woman who had lost everything. In a gesture embodying solidarity and sisterhood, she gifted her precious embroidered thobe to cover her.
The Challenge of Creativity The refugee woman faced a problem with fitting the thobe, as she was taller and wider than its original owner. With no fabric or money available in the camps, she found only one resource: the white cotton flour sacks distributed by UNRWA.
The Blue Ink of Refuge The woman cleverly used the sack fabric to widen the sides of the dthobe (known as "banayiq") and lengthen it. Instead of attempting to conceal the added fabric's origin, the blue letters printed on the bags remained perfectly clear, especially the letter "N" from the word "flour," creating a surreal scene that blends traditional red silk embroidery with the burlap of aid supplies.
Heritage This dthobe, now preserved in the Palestinian Museum, has transformed from a mere garment into a historical document. It symbolizes the ingenuity of Palestinian women and their ability to reconstruct their identity and piece together their heritage, thread by thread, amidst the harsh reality of displacement.
The Intifada Thobe
The "Intifada Thobe" is considered one of the most prominent innovations of Palestinian women in the popular resistance during the First Intifada in 1987. After the occupation banned the raising of the Palestinian flag, confiscated it, and criminalized anyone carrying it, women transformed their bodies into symbols of identity. They embroidered the map of Palestine, the flag's four colors, and the word "Palestine" in thread on the bodices and sides of their thobes. This thobe was not merely a traditional thobe, but a "walking flag" that the occupation soldiers could neither confiscate nor remove from its wearers. It thus became a soft weapon and a political document embroidered with silk, affirming steadfastness and sovereignty in the face of attempts at erasure and displacement.
Palestinian Thobs: Documentation and History¶
Mrs. Maha Abu Shousha is one of the most important references in the field of collecting and researching the history of the Palestinian thobs.
Technically, TATREEZ :¶
is a traditional decorative-structural system based on building modular units (motifs) using repeated hand stitches—most notably the cross stitch—executed over an implicit fabric grid, where each stitch acts as a visual data unit carrying spatial, cultural, and functional information, to creat repeated motifs.
TATREEZ BASICS & TYPES :¶
TATREEZ FABRICS¶
Traditionally the embroidery was executed on local, hand-woven linen, a linen-cotton blend, or on cotton loosely woven to facilitate the counting of threads. The fabrics were woven in the Majdal-Gaza Area, Ramallah, Nazareth, Hebron, and Nablus.
TATREEZ THREADS¶
The most used threads in PALESTENIAN TATREEZ before 1930s was naturally dyed silk, manufactured in nearby syria. after this period they used both cotton and silk, specially the imported European threads.
some of the wealthy Palestinian women used gold and silver threads to embroider their Thobes as a symbol of their high social status and prestig, specially in Bethlehem with couching stitch.
TATREEZ THREADS COLORS & DYES¶
Among the original dyes were:
indigo for blue.
insects called “chermis” for red.
plant roots (madder) for red
and soil known as “mugrah trop” for yellow.
The most popular dye color was red with different shades prevailing in the various locales. The shade variance of each particular area provided additional distinction of expression.
For example:
Ramallah and Jaffa – wine red
Hebron – burnt sienna
Gaza – magenta
Beersheba – scarlet, fuchsia
TATREEZ stitches types¶
The most most common basic types that used in historical palestinian thobes: The basic types of Palestinian embroidery stitches:
TATREEZ Inspiration & Sympols¶
Every city in palestine has its own motifs according to the different natures and animals that is available there, so uncountable motifs appeared in historical thobs.
below you can see different motifs from villiges from different cities.
The embroidery motifs used, has again, a language of its own, it is fascinating to see how the village women were able to imitate their surroundings in such perfection and love. You can see the differ- ent kinds of trees of the area embroidered, like the olive and apple branches, as well as the palms and vine leaves, beside birds and animals as well as other shapes that reflect the different surroundings of the villages. The units of embroidery all over Palestine fall into six categories:
Geometrical Artifacts Beliefs and customs Plants Animals Events
