Sadaf: Treasures of the Sea
by: Abdelrahman Wael
In almost every Egyptian household, you’ll find curious boxes and patterns with shiny “stones” all over it. Some of these wooden furniture items are used to hold Qurans, some are used as tables, some as chairs and many other things including chess boards, plates, you name it. Of course, these aren’t precious stones at all, they are parts of seashells. This curious art dates back almost 7 millenia in Egypt and the Levant and furniture laden with seashells have been used for decorative and religious purposes for centuries here in Egypt.
These artisanal pieces are a unique form of art native to the Middle East, and it's an art that has been under risk of extinction in Egypt several times. One of those times was when the Ottoman Empire conquered Egypt and took all of its artisans to Constantinople, and another was very recently, when manufacturers in China and India began to produce similar pieces but with automated machines and lower quality seashells for a much lower cost. Thankfully, the recent surge in tourism from the Arab countries and from other places has revived the art, since people outside of Egypt and the Levant absolutely love the patterns we make here. Foreigners’ love for Sadaf isn’t a recent thing either asFrancescan Friars from Italy would try to learn the art during the crusades, albeit from Palestine not from Egypt.
Originally, Egypt used to get the pearls and seashells to produce these unique masterpieces from “the pirate coast” (the UAE and Qatar now) as they had a long history of pearling and diving (and still do somewhat), but nowadays, most pearls and seashells come from Brazil, Japan and other areas that produce artificial pearls.
I was curious myself to see how these pieces of art were made, so I went to Khan Al Khalili, one of the most famous souks And artisanal quarters in Egypt, to see for myself. I met an artisan called Adel, who worked in this peculiar art for 25 years and had his own workshop. The craft turned out to be more simple than I could have imagined: a cast or shape is made out of wood or plastic, and spaces are left for the seashells to be added on. An adhesive is used to stick the seashells to the cast and the artisan places each small piece one by one according to his original design. Pieces are different sizes and different colours, so the artisans experience and sense of colour is very important for a piece to turn out beautiful.
It may sound simple, But Adel told me that the simple and rudimentary way it is made by hand results in lots of mistakes, and it's those mistakes that make artisanally made Sadaf much more iconic than those made by machinery and AI. When I realised that, I understood why people outside the middle east love Egyptian Sadaf so much: it has more soul. The last time I went to the airport, I found lots of Sadaf pieces that were selling like hotcakes, even though they were almost double the price of the ones you can find in Khan al Khalili. I suppose people transiting in Cairo airport can’t help themselves either?
Egypt is home to many unique arts and crafts that show a very distinct Egyptian character. The onus is on us as Egyptians to preserve these arts and make sure that the world is aware of our creativity and artistic capabilities. After all, only Egyptians can help Egypt get to a better place.