Featured Help please determining country or region of origin?- mixed pieces.

Not sure I was clear enough regarding the Marsh Arab silversmiths, the Mandaeans were/are a minority, the majority of Marsh Arabs are Muslim.

I have another book excerpt from 1918 regarding Amara work, hesitated because the author struck me as sort of a b**ch and the account is unpleasant - if interested, can post it...

Bear - glad the mystery is solved!

~Cheryl

 

Thank you for the clarification, I was wondering about that, because from my theology study I know the Mandaeans to be a Gnostic group of non-Arab origin. Their language is closely related to Aramaic.
The Marsh Arabs are known as a very conservative Arab Muslim group. They speak a form of Arabic.
Here is a bit from wikipedia on the Mandaeans:

"Pre-Iraq War, The Iraqi Mandaean community was centered in Baghdad. The Mandeans originate, however, from southern Iraq in cities like Nasiriyah. Many also live across the border in Southwestern Iran in the cities of Ahvaz and Khorramshahr.[23] Mandaean emigration from Iraq began during Saddam Hussein's rule, but accelerated greatly after the American-led invasion and subsequent occupation.[24]"

That means the Mandaeans were city dwellers, which makes sense if you are a gold/silversmith. Nasiriyah is a proper city, the fourth largest in Iraq.

Cheryl, I think they are two very different groups.
These are Marsh Arabs, the women generally wear black and are not allowed to go to school, etc. The families live off the reed harvest, some fishing and the produce of their tiny cottage gardens.


Marsh Arab settlement:


Mandaean Baptism ceremony in the Lek river in the Netherlands, men and women wearing white in the Gnostic manner:

 

Wow! You ladies should write a book! Fascinating culture, and very under-appreciated market for their silver work.

 

Certainly not saying that Mandaeans lived only in the marshes, but Edmond was pretty clear that the Mandaean minority was part of the Marsh Arab community in what he called the Great Swamp, other literature of that era indicates the same, and recent articles and books also include them, even Wikipedia noting the Mandaeans 'live alongside' the Shiite majority.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_Arabs

Have read of the icy cold baptisms that the Mandaeans in Sweden endure - suppose a bit chilly for them there in the Netherlands too...

~Cheryl

 

I've got Thesiger's book on the Marsh Arabs somewhere, I'm minded to go read it again.

 

Not nearly as cold as in Sweden, but certainly more so than in the Tigris-Euphrates region. For comparison, it is 20 centigrade here now, but only 4 in Stockholm.

 

Was looking for a mark on something else and ran across Rezazadeh's 'Collectible Silver Jewelry' (2001) in the small stash of my books that are here at Mom's, and looking through, found it shows filigree and niello pieces from the '40s with both 'Iran' and 'Iraq', one piece shown described as bearing the mark of an Ahvaz, Iran based silversmith family 'Sob'he'. It's not a bad book, with a nice variety of pieces, originally purchased it for the Scandinavian section, but did find limited use for me, with some of the errors, ommisions and assumptions troubling, though he does sometimes note being unsure of information.

A very quick search for Mandaean silversmiths in Ahvaz found this PDF from the Liverpool Museum that mentions a Mandaean blacksmith there, and includes a section on Mandaean silversmiths, with the last pic a current working smith in Ahvaz: https://www.mandaeanunion.org/images/MAU/History/Liverpol museum_The mandaeans.pdf

This page, from a research project at the University of Exeter, shows the same gentleman and his work in gold and silver: http://mandaeanpriests.exeter.ac.uk/items/show/112

This page on LookLex mentions small groups of Mandaeans in Ahvaz: http://looklex.com/e.o/mandaeism.htm




~Cheryl

 

Very interesting, Cheryl, thanks for posting it.
I saw a documentary on the Iranian Mandaeans a while back. Most of those who haven't migrated yet seem to be contemplating it. A sad developement after thousands of years. That amazing Middle Eastern diversity is slowly vanishing, it will leave the region culturally poorer.

The same photo, it looks like the Liverpool site used the one from the Exeter site. From what I can see on the photos of his work, the themes are slightly different from Iraqi niello, no Marsh Arab meeting houses for instance. And a lot of exuberant palm trees.

I have a brooch similar to the silver chained filigree pendant, bottom left on the page. It came in an auction lot and I knew it came from the Middle East somewhere, it seems it could be Mandaean?

 

Personally, don't really see that piece as made by a Mandaean, though suppose no reason it couldn't have been - you know much, much more about ethnic jewelry than I, but to my eye, it has a sort of Bedouin look to it. I don't believe the author had any knowledge of Marsh Arabs, the significance of the motifs, Mandaean silver, or really considered much beyond what he knew from the 1940s dated items and one maker-marked piece shown. While there is useful information, the book can be frustrating, the reason I seldom think of referencing it - that pendant is on the page with other Persian pieces, though it's not identified as such, directly below it on the page is a fairly modern triangular Yemenite brooch (marked 'Israel Jerusalem 925'), pictured with typical Siamese niello teardrop earrings apparently oddly marked 'Iran'. The next page shows a bib necklace of similar construction, described as Persian, but noting, "This type of jewelry was made in Turkey as well as in Europe." Sorry, no time right now to take pictures...

~Cheryl

 

It is a pretty general style, but I thought it was more Mediterranean Middle East - Syria, Lebanon, Palestinian. I wouldn't associate it with the Mandaeans either, but they probably make more general items as well. I saw a rather 1960s Italian looking necklace on the Mandaean goldsmith's photos, and several pieces that could have been made anywhere in Asia.

I can imagine you wouldn't usually reference it.
Take your time, I know you have a lot on your hands.