Middle
Eastern Decor
Baskets and fans
 Basketry
is worked in most of the oases in Arabia. The most
common fiber is the date palm leaf but grasses are
also used in the larger oases and in the Tihama
and the mountains of the Southwest. Most baskets
seen in the Gulf are of durable construction and
used for winnowing and containing grain, dates and
other products. It is in the Asir, especially in
the Abha area, that the most decorative baskets
can be found. There are two basic shapes: a pot
with a lid, and an open conical shape supported
on a short conical rim. Nowadays these are being
used as decor for bedouin
tents.
Coffee
pots and
bean cooler
A
favorite pastime of the Bedouin and indeed of most
Arabs is the preparation
and drinking of coffee, whether as host or guest.
The coffee beans are first roasted carefully in a
long handled iron pan (mihmas). The roasted beans
are then transferred to a shallow wooden tray (mubarrad)
which has a small opening at one end. The tray is
used for cooling the hot beans and the opening is
for obtaining the correct amount of beams to be emptied
into a mortar. The coffee maker carefully pounds
the beans in the mortar. Meanwhile, the water is
boiled using an Arabian
coffeepot called dallah,
then the boiling water is poured into a second pot
containing
the
ground coffee and as it comes to boil again, the
coffee maker grinds the cardamom see. This second
pot is set aside for the coffee to settle and the
ground cardamom seed added, after which the pot is
briefly brought to boil again. A third brightly polished
and sometimes decorated dallah is used for serving
the coffee into small cups.
 Incense
burners
Incense is commonly
used in all households in Arabia and is normally
burned on top of charcoal or wood embers. Most incense
burners have a square pedestal base with inward sloping
sides which support a square vessel with outward
sloping sides. The vessel is lined with sheet metal.
The legs are commonly wrapped as well. Modern incense
burners keep
the traditional shape but are decorated with shiny
metal plates, mirrors and colored plastics.
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