For those who haven't seen me for a while, I would like to clarify that despite by love for couscoussi and basbousa I have not ballooned to 20 stone. My buxom appearance is partly due to the fact that my aforementioned friends grabbed my poor breasts whilst exclaiming "shin hadha?" (what is this?) and then proceeded to shove several jumpers down my top.
When I was (being a bit of a cool cat) reading a 19 century account of Tripoli I realised that today's bridal dress is very similar to that worn by rich Tripolitanian women two hundred years ago. It is called the badla kabira, or large suit. I am wearing a large tunic, with an embroidered waistcoat over the top called a farmala. The farmala should have six buttons, but the sixth is given to a single girl as a good luck charm for marriage. On top of this, several metres of arrida, striped cloth woven is silk and silver are knotted to form the skirt and headscarf. If you go to a small shop near Marcus Aurelius Arch in the old medina, you can see arrida being woven on hand looms in a tiny workshop. Above this comes the khnag, the long necklace covered in gold medallions, heavy gold bangles called swar, gold broaches called khlal and a richly decorated golden headdress called a shimbir. Wedding jewellery, if purchased in real gold, often costs over 60,000 LYD ($47,000) which is why young Libyan men watch the price of gold nervously, and why if you're serious about gold digging the Jamahariyah could be a good choice.
Anyway, here goes:
