100 years ago, the creations of the Othmane family were sent to Mecca with great fanfare to cover the Kaaba, the cubic building towards which Muslims around the world turn to pray.

Today, in his workshop in Khan el-Khalili, Cairo's tourist market, like all his colleagues, this 51-year-old craftsman has to deal with soaring commodity prices, the drastic drop in tourism, a power of purchase of the Egyptians in freefall and a youth reluctant to work in crafts.

In 1924, Mr. Othmane's grandfather had the supreme honor of embroidering the "kiswa", the black drapery covering the Kaaba which houses in its eastern corner the Black Stone, a betyle venerated since pre-Islamic Arabia and today. sacred relic of Muslims.

This 658 m2 fabric in natural silk embroidered with precious metals – gold or silver – is changed every year for the hajj, the great pilgrimage to Mecca.

“It was a sacred ritual,” recalls Mr. Othmane.

"From one year to another, ten craftsmen sewed the kiswa with silver threads", so delicate, he says, that it takes a day for 10 to 20 cm of embroidery.

Mecca, Nasser and Putin

This stuff has long been offered by various Muslim countries.

From the 13th century, Egyptian craftsmen divided up its manufacture and embroidery.

She was then transported to Mecca by the authorities.

The procession of guards and clerics was cheered along the way by jubilant Egyptians who sprinkled it with rose water from their balconies.

From 1927, production began to relocate to Mecca, in the nascent kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Since 1962, the Kiswa has been made in the holy city.

Mr. Othmane's father then began to embroider military insignia, sometimes for famous clients, says his proud son: he adorned the uniforms of Egyptian presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anouar al-Sadat.

And he would even have mended the insignia of a KGB agent in Cairo, a certain... Vladimir Putin.

But above all, the Othmane family began "to embroider Koranic verses on tapestries" before reproducing elements of the kiswa, explains Mr. Othmane to AFP.

Egyptian Ahmed Othmane supervises the embroidery of a thick black fabric of Koranic verses with gold threads, June 15, 2022, in Cairo Khaled DESOUKI AFP / Archives

“Today most of our customers want a replica of the kiswa down to the smallest detail,” he adds.

For a piece of fabric, it takes several thousand dollars, while for small sizes, 100 Egyptian pounds (about five euros) are enough, he says.

Legacy

Since Covid-19, he has only sold around "two pieces a month", whereas before, he says, he sold at least one tapestry every day.

And if tourists are making a timid return, they are "more careful with their money because no one knows what awaits them" between a global pandemic and war in Ukraine.

Despite everything, one thread after another, Mr. Othmane maintains the family tradition in his workshop where the dark hangings delicately adorned with Koranic gilding are piled up.

Here, from father to son for more than a century, we practice "taqsib", the art of embroidering verses from the Koran with gold or silver thread.

In the midst of his employees, their backs bent over their looms, Mr. Othmane, who learned it as a child from his father, wants "to survive and faithfully transmit this know-how".

But recruiting young people is a challenge, he says, because "they can earn 10 to 15 euros by driving" a touk-tuk or a minibus, which transport a good part of the 25 million Cairo residents every day, "rather than break your back in an embroidery workshop".

Muslim worshipers gather around the Kaaba on July 1, 2022, at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia - AFP

Today, for Mr. Othmane, there are only a dozen "authentic" embroiderers left.

But he is determined to maintain this legacy in Egypt.

Because this is where his grandfather decided to put down his suitcases and his loom after leaving his native Turkey a century and a half ago.

© 2022 AFP