Al Talli

Al Talli is a traditional embroidery craft, which local women used to practice in their homes to produce embroidered textiles to be used in decorating various types of female clothing, or ‘Talli Batool’. Talli designs are distinguished by their bright colours and are used to decorate the collars, hem and cuffs of formal wear. Those masters of the craft, use a device called a ‘Kajuja’ that consists of a metal stand with an oval-shaped pillow of cotton sitting on top which serves as the base on which the Talli threads are braided. Women who weave Al Talli use between 8 and 50 spools of thread. In the past, women used silver or gold colours to weave braids, which were combined with other pure cotton threads to extend along the edges of the pieces to produce wonderful decorative designs. With the passage of time, black, green, red, white, and silver colours became the most used colours in these creations. Different names for the types of designs became attached, among them ‘Sayer Yaay’ (coming and going), in relation to the method used in its production, where the single silver thread is passed back and forth, while there’s also ‘Bu Khostain’ (double strand) and ‘Bu Khosa’ (single strand), because it uses a silver strip of half the double’s width. The importance of preserving the local heritage and raising awareness of it prompted Dubai Culture to take the initiative to register Al Talli craft as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity with UNESCO for urgent safeguarding. Its inclusion on the list was announced during the 17th meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee, held in the Moroccan city of Rabat. This effort is part of the consolidation of the UAE’s role in leading nominations for the elements of intangible cultural heritage, starting with falconry, Al Sadu, Al-Taghrooda, Al-Ayyala dance, Al Azi art, Al-Razfa dance, Arabic coffee, Arabic calligraphy, Al Aflaj, Camel racing, the Majlis, the palm tree, Heda’a, and now Al Talli. The Authority is committed to preserving and celebrating heritage as a source and reference for future generations.