Historical Overview
Weaving is considered one of the oldest craft in human history, and wool, the first material used in weaving and spinning. Phoenician fabrics surpassed any other fabric in matters of the quality and perfection of their weaving. Thus, the Nawl accompanied the social life in Lebanon, becoming a vital and inevitable necessity due to the living conditions and needs, where families wove their clothes by hand, using sheep’s wool and goat hairs.
Emir Fakhreddine II Maan the Great engendered a significant revival in the Lebanese silk industry. Emir Bachir Chebab promoted this reviving sector by recruiting Catholic families from Syria to strengthen this production. Hence, Mount-Lebanon became the “Silk Mount” at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Zoukiotes excelled in the production of quality weaving and in the dexterity of Nawl design, from which comes the famous saying of their works of art: “the color is a painting, the thread is a miracle and the production steps into immortality.” Thus, the Nawl of Zouk was characterized by a particular and unique artistic mark, giving it its identity, singularity and intrinsic characteristics.
The Nawl in Zouk
The Zoukiotes developed the Nawl coming from Syria and improved its production capacity. They learned how to weave abayas, then to innovate in their production, by drawing patterns on the Nawl using the shuttle, and introducing new ways of weaving by producing types of clothing such as abayas, capes and scarves… all of the latter ornamented and embroidered with silver or gold threads or speckled with different colors and designs.
The Zoukiote weaver was distinguished by his perfect mastery of the shuttle. As a result, the Zoukiote creative spirit was manifested in the thread that flows in color, rhythm and roses, multiplying and oscillating in their stitches like shadows and lights.
No hand was equal to that of the Zoukiote weaver is his creative weaving. The shuttle shone brightly in his hand and the thread became overlaid lines, drawn by the ink of the glorious Zoukiote story.
Our ancestor weavers raised the city of Zouk to a higher level in the weaving craft by refining and intertwining it in a particular Zoukiote tribute, distinguished by the rich wall tapestries, by its stitches and the precision of weaving figures and drawings that were identified by gold and silver threads.
Zouk Mikael’s reputation spread beyond Lebanon’s borders to Syria and neighboring countries. The latter exported its Zoukiote products to Egypt, Europe and many other vilayets in the Ottoman Empire.
The main products of Zouk’s Nawl
The Zoukiotes weavers succeeded in the production of rich abayas, household textiles, wall tapestries, capes, scarves, trousseaux, ecclesiastical costumes, altar cloths decorated with brilliant designs and threads.
The Nawl is a craft passed from one generation to the next.
Many Zoukiotes families excelled in the Nawl production such as: Abi Chakra, Abi Chaker, Domiaty, Ferzan, Saade, Salame, Sarkis, Abdo, Kazan, Ghanem, Kobayter, Salamouni, Medawar, Saroufim, Aoude, El Hani, Khalil, Chahine, Hellayk, Chidiac, Matta, Abi Assaf, El Jahel, Helou, Rayfouni…
- The cornerstone of the Nawl Museum was set in 2014 further to the signature of a collaboration agreement between the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Municipality of Zouk Mikael.
- The Nawl Museum was classified as National Museum on April 2019
- The Nawl Museum was inaugurated on the 25th of April 2019.
