Surmije

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Cushion (usāde) from Atar . The number five is found in the quincunx arrangement of the central pattern

Surmije ( Hassania ), also surmiyee, ṣurmīye, pl. Ṣarāme; is a rounded armrest cushion from the nomadic culture in Mauritania and Western Sahara . Elongated forms are also called usāde (Pl. Usāīd ).

use

The interior of a nomad tent of the Bidhan society in the western Sahara usually consists only of the amchaqab , a wooden frame on which the household items are stored, and mats laid out on the floor, which are used as storage during the day and night. The ṣurmīye or the usāde is pushed under to support the elbow for comfortable lying on the side. This nomad camp was taken over into the predominantly urban form of living today. The common rooms in residential buildings and public rest areas and food stalls on the roadside are also equipped. The cushion is not used for sitting, it is also used at night as a head rest and as a cushion for the woman's riding saddle (the second function of the amchaqab ).

shape

The most widespread shape of the pillow in Mauritania (usāde) is 50 to 60 centimeters long, with semicircular ends and up to 20 centimeters high. Some pillows are tailored. The filling consists of wool, cotton flakes , kapok or synthetic fibers, and in the past also made of peanut shells, straw, camel excrement balls or sand. The oldest known pillow from the middle of the 19th century was almost square with rounded corners. This form (ṣurmīye) was in use around Timbuktu until at least 1920. Circular cushions are known from the same area in eastern Mauritania and from Zouérate ( Tiris Zemmour region ).

The cover made of tanned goat or sheep leather is colored and lavishly decorated. It consists of two decorated, smooth-leather sides (cover leather) and an undecorated circumferential side strip, which is usually sewn with the meat side facing outwards. Leatherworking is the responsibility of women, mostly the lower classes of craftsmen (maʿllemīn) . The animal skins are freed of meat residues with a scraper, dried and then tanned for several days or weeks with vegetable substances that give the skin a reddish color. The colors red, yellow and black, occasionally blue, are used for painting. In addition, there are leather cut decorations incised with a knife, whereby the upper leather layer is removed in places from a striped pattern, so that a lower light layer emerges as a color contrast. With newer pillows, the side strip can also be made of fabric. The three parts are sewn together on the inside with a simple pre-stitch. In the case of more valuable cushions, the top is covered with decorative fringes, which protrude at right angles and are inserted between the cover leather and the side part and sewn together with them.

The ornaments are mostly related to a center in a strictly geometric style and are attached similarly to the men's camel saddles ( rahla ) and other leather work such as the transport sacks (plural: tisufren, also tiziyāten ) and the small pipe bags . The fixed design rules include symmetry in both the longitudinal and transverse axes and the number five. The magical meaning of this number is related to the hand of Fatima (Arabic ḫamsa , "five") widespread in the region . Similar cushions among the Tuareg are decorated with ornaments, the shape of which was adopted from amulet pendants .

Today pillows with fabric covers are used more often than the traditional leather pillows. In northern Western Sahara there used to be cushions with covers made of knotted wool or wool woven using the kilim technique, which were made with traditional patterns in El Aaiún or on the Canary Islands .

literature

  • Wolfgang Creyaufmüller: Nomad culture in the Western Sahara. The material culture of the Moors, their handicraft techniques and basic ornamental structures. Burgfried-Verlag, Hallein (Austria) 1983, pp. 249-259

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