Algeria - Rites and craftsmanship associated with the wedding costume tradition of Tlemcen

The wedding ritual of Tlemcen in northwestern Algeria commences in the parents’ home, where the bride is dressed in a traditionally woven golden silk dress, surrounded by her friends and married female relations, the latter wearing their own wedding costumes. Symbolic henna designs are applied to her hands, and an older woman helps her don a caftan of embroidered velvet, jewellery and a conical hat. Rows of baroque pearls protect her vital and reproductive organs against evil spirits. On leaving the house, the bride is covered with a golden veil of silk. During the wedding feast a married woman from the bride’s inner circle draws red and silver designs beneath the veil on the bride’s cheeks and under her lower lip to purify and protect her. Once protected by her caftan, jewels and make-up, the bride removes her veil, ready to be wed. Girls in Tlemcen are initiated into the costume tradition at an early age, while the craftsmanship involved in making the precious wedding costume is transmitted from generation to generation. The rite symbolizes the alliance between families and continuity between generations, while the craftsmanship plays a major role in perpetuating the creativity and identity of the Tlemcen community.


Source: UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage

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Algeria - Mali - Niger - Practices and knowledge linked to the Imzad of the Tuareg communities of Algeria, Mali and Niger

Imzad music is a characteristic feature of Tuareg communities and is performed by women on a single-stringed bowed instrument known as the Imzad. The musician sits with the instrument on her knees and plays it with a wooden, arched bow. Imzad combines music and poetry and is frequently performed on ceremonial occasions in Tuareg camps. The instrument provides melodic accompaniment to poetic or popular songs glorifying the adventures and feats of past heroes: the songs are composed, recited or sung by men, with both men and women participating by producing modulated or high-pitched cries. The music also has a therapeutic function, being played to drive away evil spirits and alleviate the pain of the sick. The sound of the Imzad reflects the player’s feelings and moods, and an inability to master a performance is considered a misfortune. Women craft the instrument from half a dried, hollowed-out gourd: a skin is stretched across the open side and pierced with sound holes in the shape of rosettes, and a wooden bridge in the shape of a V is then added. Imzad musical knowledge is transmitted orally according to traditional methods of observation and assimilation.

Source: UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage

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Algeria - Annual pilgrimage to the mausoleum of Sidi ‘Abd el-Qader Ben Mohammed (Sidi Cheikh)

Every year, nomadic and settled Sufi communities undertake a pilgrimage to the mausoleum of the Muslim mystic, Sidi ‘Abd el-Qader Ben Mohammed (Sidi Cheikh), located in El Abiodh Sidi Cheikh. Beginning on the last Thursday of June, three days of religious rituals and secular festive events honour the founder of the brotherhood. The pilgrimage renews ties and secular alliances among the Sufi brotherhood and ensures peace and stability between communities. It has also contributed to the recent growth in Sufism and helped to promote community values such as hospitality and collective practices including praises to Sidi Cheikh, Koran recitations, secular chants and dances. The rituals begin with a choral recital of the Koran, followed by a dawn ceremony that renews the communities’ affiliation to the Sufi brotherhood. The secular festivities include fencing, dances and equestrian competitions that involve more than 300 riders from different communities. The spiritual knowledge is learned and transmitted within families, while Sufi masters convey the key Sufi rituals and prayers to the initiated through formal teaching. Men’s and women’s dances and secular games are taught within associations or transmitted through practice.


Source: UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage

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Algeria - Sbuâ, annual pilgrimage to the zawiya of Sidi El Hadj Belkacem in Gourara

Each year, pilgrims from Zenata communities in the south-west Algerian Sahara visit mausoleums of saints to commemorate the birth of the Prophet Mohammed. Sbuâ is a pilgrimage, which runs for a week and entails cultural practices that focus on group activities, which include celebrations with singing and dancing. On the seventh day, pilgrims conclude the journey in a square outside a zawiya (community institution) in the centre of Gourara, which houses the mausoleum of Sidi El Hadj Belkacem. Different groups of pilgrims symbolically merge around a bearer carrying the standard of a saint before returning to their respective groups to continue the ritual, which is governed by the oldest pilgrims. Women participate by ululating and presiding over the ‘millstone’ ritual a week before the ceremony, during which they grind the first handful of cereal used to make couscous for the pilgrims. Tradition bearers can trace their lineage back to the saints and describe themselves as descendants. Children and youth are involved formally in various aspects (acts, prayers and chants), gradually becoming knowledge bearers themselves. Sbuâ is considered by the communities, given the body of beliefs and rites enacted as part of the pilgrimage, to be an expression of their history and the links that bind them.


Source: UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage

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Algeria - Knowledge and skills of the water measurers of the foggaras or water bailiffs of Touat and Tidikelt

The element concerns the knowledge and skills of the water measurers of the foggaras (system of channels), or water bailiffs, of the ksour (village) communities of Touat and Tidikelt. The water measurers are involved in various operations, from calculating water shares to repairing distribution combs and conducting water in the channel. Every foggara connects several categories of social agents and knowledge bearers, including owners, manual workers, accountants and water measurers, but it is the water measurers’ knowledge that appears to be under threat. The water measurers are a key figure in the life of the Saharan ksour because they manage a domain vital to the survival of all. They play both an intellectual and a manual role and can be called upon continuously by the community. However, there is currently a lack of communication between young people and their elders, and several factors have disrupted the proper functioning of the foggara, including changes by the central government to relations of ownership, the effects of urbanization and modernisation, and a lack of consideration as to what steps need to be taken to ensure knowledge is transmitted. The loss of activity for water measurers is directly reflected in their advanced age, which demonstrates a lack of new practitioners entering the business.


Source: UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage

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Algeria - Ahellil of Gourara

Performed during collective ceremonies, the Ahellil is a poetic and musical genre emblematic of the Zenete population of Gourara. This region in southwest Algeria includes some one hundred oases populated by over 50,000 inhabitants of Berber, Arab and Sudanese origin. The Ahellil, which is specific to the Berber-speaking part of Gourara, is regularly rendered at religious festivities and pilgrimages as well as secular celebrations, such as weddings and community events. The Ahellil is closely linked to the Zenete way of life and its oasis agriculture, symbolizing the cohesion of the community living in a harsh environment and, at the same time, transmitting the values and the history of the Zenete population in a language that is at risk of disappearing. Simultaneously interpreted as poetry, polyphonic chant, music and dance, this genre is performed by a bengri (flute) player, a singer and a chorus of up to a hundred people. Standing shoulder to shoulder in a circle surrounding the singer, they slowly move around him while clapping their hands. An Ahellil performance consists of a series of chants in an order decided by the instrumentalist or singer and follows an age-old pattern. The first part, the lemserreh, includes everyone and encompasses short, well-known chants that are sung late into the night. The second, the aougrout, concerns only the experienced performers who continue until dawn. The tra finishes with daybreak and involves only the most accomplished performers. This threefold structure is also reflected in the chant performance, which begins with a prelude by the instrumentalist, followed by the chorus picking up certain verses, and ending with it chanting in whisper and slowly building up into a powerful, harmonious whole. This tradition is threatened due to the dwindling number of occasions on which it is performed. This decline is linked to the rarity of traditional festivities. The migration of young people to the cities and the prevailing preference to listen to widely available Ahellil recordings rather than actively participating in live performances.


Source: UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage

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Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen - Arabic calligraphy: knowledge, skills and practices

Arabic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting Arabic script in a fluid manner to convey harmony, grace and beauty. The practice, which can be passed down through formal and informal education, uses the twenty-eight letters of the Arabic alphabet, written in cursive, from right to left. Originally intended to make writing clear and legible, it gradually became an Islamic Arab art for traditional and modern works. The fluidity of Arabic script offers infinite possibilities, even within a single word, as letters can be stretched and transformed in numerous ways to create different motifs. Traditional techniques use natural materials, such as reeds and bamboo stems for the qalam, or writing instrument. A mixture of honey, black soot and saffron is used for the ink, and the paper is handmade and treated with starch, egg white and alum. Modern calligraphy commonly uses markers and synthetic paint, and spray paint is used for calligraffiti on walls, signs and buildings. Artisans and designers also use Arabic calligraphy for artistic enhancement, such as for marble and wood carving, embroidery and metal etching. Arabic calligraphy is widespread in Arab and non-Arab countries and is practised by men and women of all ages. Skills are transmitted informally or through formal schools or apprenticeships.