SANAA, 8 February 2004 — Long before money made the world go round, Yemeni silver reigned supreme as a sign of wealth and power in ancient times.
Today, Yemen’s few silversmiths are trying desperately to eke out a living in this Arab state which is suffering from a shortage of foreign tourists because of its reputation as a hotbed for militants.
“Silver is one of Yemen’s most renowned treasures,” said Mohammed Saygal, who hails from one of Sanaa’s oldest silversmith families. “For centuries, we were the leading source of silver handicrafts and jewelry to the Middle East and Asia but today, silver making is a dying art.”
When Europe was struggling through the Iron Age nearly 2,000 years ago, Yemen, with its prime location on the ancient Silk Route, was exporting silver, along with frankincense and precious stones, to the world.
In modern Yemen, only 20 families still work in silver and Sanaa’s ancient quarter has only a handful of stores offering silver-coated daggers, chunky necklaces and inlaid trunks to a trickle of buyers.
Most Yemenis are too poor to buy luxuries such as jewelry, so tourists are the prime market for the silversmiths.
But Yemen’s tourism industry has taken a battering in recent years. In 1998 four Western tourists were killed after being taken hostage by a group allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda, and in 2000 the US Navy destroyer USS Cole was attacked by Al-Qaeda affiliates in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17.
The US State Department currently advises its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Yemen. The country’s crackdown on militants after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States has done little to ally foreigners’ fears.
Assyrian texts from the seventh century BC extol the virtues of Yemeni silver while Roman descriptions of the country mention an abundance of the metal.
Each region in this diverse land had its own silver-making tradition, ranging from the box-like, jewel-inlaid necklaces of the southeastern province of Hadramout to the more delicate, flirtatious designs of the capital.
Silver was traditionally a source of power for Yemenis, especially women who regarded it as insurance against calamity.
In a society where women have always dressed modestly, silver jewelry was a way to attract male attention. Men gave their wives silver dowries and a woman’s worth was indicated by the amount of silver she possessed.
The decline of Yemen’s silver market began in the last century with the exodus of the country’s Jewish artisans who accounted for 80 percent of the silversmiths. About 3,000 Jews left to settle in Israel in the 1950s.
Modern silversmiths such as Ahmed Lotf, who works at Sanaa’s famous Ghamdan Treasures, bemoan their departure, saying their fine filigree work was far superior to their modern counterparts.
“The Jews were the best and their work fetches a lot of money. Today’s artisans are not as interested as they hardly get enough money for their work,” he said.
Most of the wares now on display in Sanaa’s market come from tribesmen who sell the family silver to make ends meet. Others are modern replicas lacking the finesse of ancient handicrafts.
Ibrahim Aslaan, who runs the family store in Sanaa, says the market for ancient silver has dwindled so much that most silversmiths melt it down for sale as tola bars, which can fetch a maximum of 50,000 rials ($270) a kilo.
Yemeni expatriates and Saudis are their main customers, he said.
“Many silversmiths have moved into clothing retail because it makes more money. If only we had more buyers, then the industry would boom again.”
Yemen’s top tourism official, Mutahar Taqi, agrees.
“All of Yemen’s artisans are suffering due to the slump in tourism,” said Taqi, chairman of the General Authority for Tourism Development. “We can only hope that things start to look up so we can keep our heritage and culture alive.”