Yemenite silversmithing

They were highly acclaimed craftsmen who dominated craft production in precious metals in the southern Arabian peninsula from at least the 18th through the mid-20th century, a period and region during which Muslims did not engage in this work.

These Yemenite silversmiths were noted for their skilled use of fine granulation and filigree, producing ornaments such as women's bracelets, necklaces, finials, as well as elaborate scabbard sheaths for men's daggers (janbīya).

Yemenite silversmiths, a trade held almost exclusively by Jews living in the traditional Yemeni society, were active from at least as far back as the mid-1700s.

In the early 20th century, the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design employed many Yemenites in the production of fine silver jewellery.

[4][5] Between June 1949 and September 1950, almost the entire Jewish community in Yemen, including nearly every silversmith in the country, immigrated to Israel in an airborne mass migration known as Operation Magic Carpet.

[6] Mass-produced gold and silver jewellery began to be imported into the Yemen in the 1930s, and dominated the market by the end of the 20th century, causing traditional silversmithing to dwindle.

[7][8][9] According to Mark S. Wagner, Professor of Arabic literature and Islamic Law at Louisiana State University, it is difficult to say how silver- and gold-smithing came to be regarded as occupations that were too impure for Muslims in the Yemen to engage in.

[12] Labbe necklaces made of applied filigree, being open and airy like the interlaced net of a spider's web, became more popular during the Ottoman conquest of Yemen in the mid-19th century, and were given the name labbat šabek in Sana'a, after its technique.

Most contain smooth plates of metal, in circular and diamond-shaped (rhombus) forms, and are studded with jewels called in Arabic zihreh, meaning, pearls, amber, corals and colored glass.

In the vertical lines there are four to eight items that are connected one beneath the other by a metal wire in the shape of the figure-eight, called in Arabic methamāna, meaning "eight."

[12] Labbe necklaces typically worn by Muslim women in central Yemen had convex components or motifs that were round and belly-shaped, resembling leaves or barley-grains (aqrāṭ she'iriyāt in Arabic).

[14] Traditionally, most non-Jewish Yemeni men wear a characteristic dagger (janbīya) with elaborate handles attached to their belt.

By applying force by moving his entire body weight left and right, he would eventually succeed in stretching the wire and threading it through the hole.

[22] The mold was made with many sunken, groove-like impressions and insertable slots running lengthwise where the craftsman poured the molten metal to form either rods (wires) or plaques.

[23] Experienced silversmiths in Yemen would cast the desired shape by first adding tinkār (a solder made of crude borax) into a mold with powdered sulphur.

After achieving a smooth bracelet, where welding was done from within the bracelet (rather than on its outside), the craftsman marked with charcoal or a pencil the designs he wished to make on the niello product and forthwith began the process of etching, making use of variously designed burins, float files, and gouges, some flat-tipped, others pointed; some rounded and others made like a pair of compasses, etc.

[25] After emptying-out the lead, the craftsman then welded the two halves together at their respective ends, leaving one or two small holes in the bracelet, so that when it was reheated it did not burst due to the accumulation of vapors.

[25] The piece was then cleaned off thoroughly and burnished with finely ground sea sand that had been sifted (Arabic: baṭḥa), so as not to cause abrasions to the finished product.

In those places where the artisan made designs and wanted them to be highlighted with a blueish-grey hue, he painted the area with the powdered niello metallic compounds (consisting of sulphur, copper, silver, and lead), and placed the finished piece over a brazier bearing coals (Arabic: maghmareh) for heating over a low heat, to which was attached a pair of bellows used to lightly blow air into the brazier.