{"id":141,"date":"2023-04-19T04:58:03","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T04:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cissar.com\/?p=141"},"modified":"2023-04-19T04:58:03","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T04:58:03","slug":"the-saudi-teenager-who-mastered-an-age-old-traditional-craft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cissar.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/19\/the-saudi-teenager-who-mastered-an-age-old-traditional-craft\/","title":{"rendered":"The Saudi teenager who mastered an age-old traditional craft"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"printable-area shareable\">\n<div class=\"title-area show-for-printable-area\">\n<h2>The Saudi teenager who mastered an age-old traditional craft<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"img-area show-for-printable-area\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/n_670_395\/public\/main-image\/2023\/04\/19\/3779066-623247574.jpg?itok=746fSQbY\" alt=\"The Saudi teenager who mastered an age-old traditional craft\" title=\"The Saudi teenager who mastered an age-old traditional craft\"> <\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-highlight\">\n<ul>\n<li>Mohamad Alobaida takes inspiration from architecture, environment<\/li>\n<li>\u2018I started to love this profession when I was nine,\u2019 he says<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-meta hide-for-large no-print\">\n<div class=\"updated-ago\">\nUpdated 16 sec ago <\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-author\">\nSulafa Alkhunaizi <\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-date\">\n<time>April 19, 2023<span> 01:35<\/span><\/time> <\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-meta-footer\">\n<div class=\"grid-x align-justify\">\n<div class=\"cell shrink\">\n<div class=\"entry-views\"><span class=\"views-count-placeholder nid-2289241\"><i class=\"icomoon-icon icon-views\"><\/i><span><\/span><\/span> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"cell shrink\">\n<div class=\"entry-shares-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"a2a_kit \" addthis:title=\"The Saudi teenager who mastered an age-old traditional craft\" addthis:url=\"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2289241\" data-a2a-url=\"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2289241\" data-a2a-title=\"The Saudi teenager who mastered an age-old traditional craft\">\n<a class=\"a2a_button_facebook facebook-btn-hover\"><i class=\"icomoon-icon icon-facebook\"><\/i><\/a><br \/>\n<a class=\"a2a_button_twitter twitter-btn-hover\"><i class=\"icomoon-icon icon-twitter\"><\/i><\/a><br \/>\n<a class=\"a2a_button_linkedin linkedin-btn-hover\"><i class=\"icomoon-icon icon-linkedin\"><\/i><\/a><br \/>\n<a class=\"a2a_button_whatsapp whatsapp-btn-hover\"><i class=\"icomoon-icon icon-whatsapp\"><\/i><\/a><br \/>\n<a class=\"a2a_button_email\"><i class=\"icomoon-icon icon-envelope\"><\/i><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"#\" class=\"print-btn\"><i class=\"icomoon-icon icon-printer\"><\/i><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"large-shrink\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/arabnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\"twitter-follow-button\" data-show-count=\"false\" data-show-screen-name=\"false\">Follow @arabnews<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-content\" itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-io-article-url=\"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2289241\/saudi-arabia\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1581406038831-5\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>\nRIYADH: He may be just 17 years old, but Mohamad Alobaida is making quite a name for himself as a rosary-maker.<\/p>\n<p>\nActive in the family business since the age of nine, the teenager has been creating his own designs for the past four years.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cWhile making rosaries, I feel like I am traveling to the world of design where I see the arrangement with my own eyes, as it exists in my imagination, materializing in front of me. And I almost touch them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cMy work is inspired by the environment, terrain, architecture, as well as some events, people and topics of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Alobaida family shop, Sabhat Barzan, specializes in manufacturing, maintaining and selling rosaries, and it was where the youngster was first bitten by the creative bug.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cI have had exactly four-and-a-half years in the field of rosary making. I started to love this profession when I was nine years old,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cI used to help my brother, Ibrahim, in the shop and workshop. He is my brother, father, teacher and guide. He started in the craft of rosary 20 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cIbrahim was one of the first people in the craft of rosary in the Kingdom and he has a history of participating in local and international exhibitions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nThe rosary market in Saudi Arabia has been thriving for decades due to its cultural and religious significance.<\/p>\n<p>\nIn Islam, rosaries are called \u201cmisbaha\u201d or \u201csibha.\u201d They comprise a rope and prayer beads and are used to help memorize verses from the Qur\u2019an or keep track of the recitation of the 99 names of God.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe history of using memorization aids dates back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad, whom it is said used simple date seeds to perform his prayer ritual.<\/p>\n<p>\nThese days, elaborate and ornate jewelry rosaries are made of precious stones, wood, bones, horn and ivory. One of the most expensive and popular stones used is amber, a honey-yellow gemstone made from fossilized tree resin.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cThe most expensive rosary made in our workshop cost about 25,000 riyals ($6,665) from amber, and the most expensive rosary sold \u2014 I was a mediator \u2014 was about 70,000,\u201d Alobaida said.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe finest pieces might be expensive to buy, but the art of making them is highly skilled, the teenager said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cThe profession requires extremely high accuracy, so not just anyone can work with the craft. It needs professional equipment and it has high risks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nOnce the rosary-maker decides what stone to use, the next step is choosing the string that holds the beads together, which can be made of cotton, silk or simple nylon.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cA single rosary takes from one day to a month (to make), according to the type of raw material used in the manufacture,\u201d Alobaida said. \u201cThere are raw materials that need high precision, such as amber.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nKeen to show off his talents, the teenager recently had a stall at Ramadan District, one of the events under Ramadan Season, a series of cultural experiences organized by the Saudi Ministry of Culture across Riyadh, Jeddah and Makkah.<\/p>\n<p>\nHis creations went down well with visitors and Alobaida hopes he can one day take his talents to the world.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cThis craft is a source of additional income from a hobby, and God willing, we aspire to establish a factory in Saudi Arabia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cThen we hope to start exporting and be an effective part of the Kingdom\u2019s Vision 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Saudi teenager who mastered an age-old traditional craft Mohamad Alobaida takes inspiration from architecture, environment \u2018I started to love this profession when I was nine,\u2019 he says Updated 16 sec ago Sulafa Alkhunaizi April 19, 2023 01:35 Follow @arabnews RIYADH: He may be just 17 years old, but Mohamad Alobaida is making quite a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cissar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cissar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cissar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cissar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cissar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cissar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164,"href":"https:\/\/cissar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions\/164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cissar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cissar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cissar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cissar.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}