TRADITIONAL Bahraini blacksmiths could finally have a new home more than 12 years after being evicted from their workshops.
The country’s dozen remaining craftsmen are seeking government intervention to continue the profession which they say dates back to the Dilmun era of around 2,300BC.
The Capital Trustees Board is set to resume negotiations with the Industry and Commerce Ministry, the Jaffari Waqf (Endowment) Directorate and the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities to allocate a forge for the metalworkers.
The board will also hold talks with Parliament and Tamkeen to hopefully secure additional financing. A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using specialist tools to hammer, bend and cut. They can produce objects such as gates, grilles, railings, light fixtures, furniture, sculpture, tools, agricultural implements, decorative and religious items, cooking utensils and weapons.
The board managed to reach a deal for an endowment plot nearby Jidhafs in 2021, but delayed procedures led to the area being turned into garages, despite an approval being secured a few months later.
“The profession may be ancient and on the verge of extinction but it could be revived through a re-engineered project that carries it into the future,” said board chairman Saleh Tarradah.
“There are industries that shape our identity and we can’t simply let them go, and just because there are advancements in manufacture we shouldn’t leave the past behind.”
He plans to forge ahead with negotiations with the relevant authorities to look into available plots of land for a smithy that would allow the blacksmiths to work together, as in the old days.
Twenty-three professional metalworkers were moved out of their home near Al Farouq Junction in 2011, when security forces cleared the area after it was overrun by anti-government protests.
The location, in the Capital Governorate, was then cordoned off until it was reopened to traffic in 2017.
Eight of the professionals have since died, leaving the remaining men to raise concerns about the possible extinction of their historic profession.
Three professionals moved to Qatar during the World Cup Finals last year to showcase the tradition in an exhibition. It proved so successful they were offered permanent deals and have never returned.
The GDN reported in November 2011 that the blacksmiths discovered their workshops had been ransacked when they were given a week to retrieve belongings from the location.
They said some equipment had been stolen and anything left was too difficult to move.
“The Capital Governorate should continue being the home of traditional professions as part of its historical identity and tourism appeal,” said Parliament’s public utilities and environment affairs committee chairman Bader Al Tamimi.
“With the exception of the textile-making industry in Bani Jamra and pottery in A’ali, both in the Northern Governorate, most traditional professions are in Manama and nearby Muharraq.
“The number of blacksmiths is dropping and it is sad that this profession could turn into a distant memory.”
As one of the youngest remaining professional blacksmiths in the country, Habib Sharar, aged 56, told the GDN, he feared the tradition would die out.
“My grandfather and father took me out of intermediate school in the 1980s to continue the family profession that dated back many generations. It needs to continue,” he said.
“Blacksmithing has been a profession in Bahrain probably since the Dilmun era, and there are only a few of us remaining now.
“It is an important pillar of life here in Bahrain as the tools we produce, for example, sickles, are used in the agriculture sector, particularly for palm trees.”
He was speaking on behalf of a group that has appealed to the authorities once again for a plot of land to continue the tradition in Bahrain.
He said some of the pitched sites include Abu Quwah in the Northern Governorate and Tubli in the Capital Governorate.
“The profession’s home has always been in or around Manama,” said Mr Sharar. “We don’t want to reach a point in which we are just photographs in a book or on a postcard for tourists.”
mohammed@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))