Nablus -

They are twins in work, not in age, but Saeed and Youssef Al-Tartir are really similar and brothers and have been companions for 35 years in a unique and one profession.

We went to "Al-Ikhlas Plumbing" on Al-Saqia Street in the center of Nablus (northern West Bank), where the two Tartar brothers were about to finish making one of the minarets to start another, as the need for the product is great, especially since they are the only ones in Palestine.

The two brothers, Saeed and Youssef Al-Tartir, riding the last pieces of the minaret (Al-Jazeera)

With a difference of two years, Saeed grows up his brother Youssef, which made him work early with his father after he left school and saw in the workmanship his future. As for Youssef, he finished his high school education and returned to the workshop to start his career with his brother, and the two continued to work and keep their father’s will before leaving with the maintenance of the craft.

Plumbing, as the two Tartar brothers know it, is the art of working with metal, whether the metal is copper or stainless steel, which is the most in demand for its durability and tolerance of various natural factors, and adapting it to serve the shape to be made of a minaret, crescent or dome.

A machine called the coil used to roll sheet metal has existed since the establishment of the factory in 1968 (Al-Jazeera)

From manufacture to installation

Closely we witnessed in "Al-Ikhlas Plumbing" - the name that the father gave to his factory in sequins in honor of his daughter Ikhlas, whom he gave birth to on the first day of its opening in 1968 - the manufacturing process, which goes through several stages, the most important of which are cutting, then bending, wrapping, engraving (decoration) and ending with welding.

After hammering by a special machine, the parts of the piece to be made are collected and welded again with oxygen welding, and Saeed Al-Tartir (50 years old) - to Al-Jazeera Net - says while rotating in his hands a new minaret that their manufacturing mechanism is "manual" and that is easier for them to deal with iron.

He adds, "In the workshop there are 7 machines that my father brought from Yugoslavia since the establishment of the workshop and they are still operating at full capacity, and none of the shop's features or equipment has changed either."

A number of tools that are used in industry (Al-Jazeera)

These machines are Al-Muthanna, with its small and large parts, the coil (for drawing the iron sheet), the Corniche machine (engraving and decoration), hammering welding, scissors, and oxygen welding.

There are many other tools from the age of the factory that looked like a painting while hanging on the walls, such as handles (pliers), scissors, and wooden hammers used to correct iron sheets. Iron hammers make an impact and are not appropriate in many places.

After manufacturing, the installation will be, and this stage is divided between two places, one of which is inside the workshop by preparing the minaret consisting of a pipe and drums (circular tin plates in the middle of the minaret) with the crescent decorated with the phrase “There is no god but God.. Muhammad is the Messenger of God.”

The other place is the mosque, and here the two brothers are skilled in climbing the minaret and installing, and both stages inside and outside the workshop require their cooperation and expertise.

Al-Hajj Nimr Al-Nabulsi Mosque in the city of Nablus, and its minaret is one of the crescents made by the two brothers Al-Tatar (Al-Jazeera)

latest style

Since the dawn of Islam, the need for a minaret arose, but it was not built, and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was ordering Bilal to climb over the mosque and call the call to prayer. Muslim historians are unanimously agreed that minarets appeared in the era of the Umayyad state, and they emerged in their various forms as evidence of the Islamic places.

Minarets, domes, and crescents vary in shape and size. The smallest crescent is 1.5 meters and the largest reaches 4 or 6 meters, like the crescent that the two brothers made for the minaret of a mosque in Silwad, north of Ramallah (central West Bank). It is described as the tallest minarets in the West Bank.

As for the largest domes - according to Youssef Tartir (48 years old), they were 12 meters in diameter and 6 meters high, and were prepared for a mosque in the village of Muawiyah in 48 Palestine, and there was also the first work of the two brothers by making a minaret in the village of Kabul.

The two brothers master the profession in full, but they exchange roles, this is masterful in cutting and installation, and this is the case of Yusef who excels in engraving and decoration on tin and says that "the decorations vary between molar, gel, italic and blown, and there is also the baklava engraving", all of which add an aesthetic color to the work.

In different ways, the two brothers make the minaret and the dome that those in charge of mosques want, including the minarets of the Umayyad era, others for the Mamluks, a third for the Abbasids and the Safavids, as well as for the most wanted Ottoman, and all of this is known to the two brothers, as they strive to gain knowledge and experience to develop their craft.

In Nablus, the two brothers Al-Tatar and their father made thousands of minarets and crescents for more than 3 decades (Al-Jazeera)

The dream and hope of two brothers

Nablus governorate is known to be the third Palestinian governorate in which mosques are spread. It includes more than 300 mosques, some of which are old and others are of the Ottoman style, and most of them are newly built.

And since each era has what suits it, Haj Selim Al-Tatar’s industries were not limited to minarets, crescents and domes after his establishment. The two brothers went to the manufacture of heaters, chimneys and fire carriers.

There is no place in Palestine where the Tartir family has left its mark, and is unique in its manufacture and has produced hundreds of products, which is documented by the walls of the factory, which are topped with pictures of their crafts and places of installation. .