A Tradition Forged in Steel

By Obaida Hamad
Photos Carole al-Farah

Ghiath Abdul, 26, started learning the art of inlaid silver, copper and brass work at the age of 10. Back then, he remembers watching a street full of local smiths painstakingly cutting and hammering away at their metals, masters of their profession. Today, however, only Abdul and three other craftsmen in Damascus’s Old City still produce inlaid metal goods by hand, using original methods which date back some 700 years to the Mamluk era.

Keeping this tradition alive, Abdul explains, is no easy task. To compete in a market increasingly flooded with cheaper mass-produced imitations, the young metal artisan has begun to modernise the style and content of his decorative inlays. Browsing through his shop just behind Damascus’s Umayyad Mosque, tourists can now find an array of copper and brass plates of all shapes and sizes with gold and silver inscriptions quoting traditional Islamic blessings and well-known verses of Arab poetry.

“As an artist, I’m very proud of my work because I’m selling tourists traditional Damascene handmade pieces, not goods imported from China or India,” Abdul said. “Many people just think about how to make money, but I’m thinking about ways to improve my work and keep this craft alive.”

Showcasing tradition

While Abdul will continue updating his decorative inlays in order to keep business rolling in, he also hopes the government will take steps to garner interest in the age-old profession. The first priority, he said, should be the establishment of a special artisans market where tourists and locals can come to watch craftsmen at work and learn about their traditions. While Damascus already hosts a handicraft market, located next to the National Museum and a common stop on the city’s tourist trail, Abdul claims it only serves the interests of sham dealers and does nothing for the city’s real handicraft artisans.

“The current handicraft market is occupied by businessmen and salesmen, not real artisans,” he said. “We need a proper place to design, make and showcase our goods.”

Like Abdul, other artisans agree that drawing in customers is key to keeping Syria’s traditional metal handicraft industry alive. Not all of them, however, are optimistic that this is possible. Sa’adou al-Dabagh, a 91-year-old coppersmith working at the Copper Market on Damascus’s King Faisal Street, says demand for his products is simply dying out. After 76 years of melting and moulding copper, Dabagh says he and other old metal hands must face the fact that modern-day consumers are increasingly turning their backs on tradition in favour of cheaper, factory-produced items.

“New materials such as aluminium threaten copper as the metal of choice,” he said. “In the old days, up to three or four hundred coppersmiths worked in Damascus, but today there are only three or four small workshops here and one or two in Aleppo. There’s no future for my profession.”

Mohammad Said Mansour, a 52-year-old knife maker who owns a 100-year-old workshop located on the Old City’s Straight Street, says today’s youth show little interest in taking up a trade like his.

“I learnt this craft from my uncle, but today no young people want to work in this shop, even my children don’t want to be smiths,” he said. “I am the last person in Damascus who will make handmade steel knives.”

Stoking the fire at home

To regenerate interest in Syria’s metal handicraft industry, Abdul is pushing for the government to organise nationwide exhibitions. This, he says, would bring traditional Syrian goods back to people’s doorsteps and encourage artisans to showcase their crafts on the global market at fairs in the Gulf, Europe and even the United States.

“We need separate fairs for each special handicrafts industry; one for metal smiths, glassmakers, wood makers, carpet makers and so on,” Abdul said. “We want everyone to see our work and know how important it is for Syria. It’s both an art form and a business.”

Interest from abroad in Syrian metal work certainly exists. In recent decades a number of the country’s most highly skilled steel and copper smiths have emigrated to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf with the promise of higher salaries for lending their experience. Mustafa al-Seify, a 63-year-old Damascene steel sword maker, worked in Saudi Arabia for six years for just that reason.

“Like everyone else, I moved to Saudi Arabia because I wasn’t earning much here,” he said. “I felt there were more opportunities over there for people like me.”

Despite the better income, Seify returned home out of a sense of duty and commitment to keeping the art of sword-making alive in Damascus. He has since trained his son Mohammad, now 24, in the family profession. While acknowledging that times are tough, Mohammad speaks with just as much commitment to his industry as his father. While some of the older metal artisans may be giving up hope of a better future, he believes there is still much to be optimistic about.

“I’m confident that handmade metal crafts will live on in Syria simply because Damascus is the cradle of civilisation and it is soaked in tradition,” he said. “I was given the craft by my father and I am going to pass it on to my sons. Sword making is like a gene in our family blood.”