Our installation of Ummu Ma’bad’s tent for Hijrah Exhibition at Ithra, Saudi Arabia

We were delighted 2 years ago to be invited by Ithra and Aramco to produced a traditional camel hair tent installation in Bedouin tent style for the Hijrah Exhibition at the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture - Ithra - Dharan.

The Hijrah exhibition is a celebration of the prophet Mohammed’s journey from Medina to Mekkah - the most important historical islamic event and an inspiration journey that shaped the beginning of Islam. This installation was commissioned to authentically bring to life the setting of Ummu Ma’bad’s tent when she met the prophet Muhammad on his journey. This traditional camel hair tent was hand-woven by Berber women in Morocco using the ancient weaving techniques of desert women. 

This Bedouin tent installation was designed, produced and installed by me and Samir along with our team at Moroccan Berber Carpets - we create these bespoke traditional hand woven camel hair tents in Morocco, using the ancient Bedouin method.

The Hijrah exhibition is the first traveling exhibition of its kind out of Saudi Arabia. It’s set to be “exhibited across Saudi Arabia then globally during its five-year run” with the hope that it shares “new perspectives and findings on the story.”

The exhibition so far has exhibited at Ithra and The Saudi National Museum, we are presently waiting to hear on the next destination. Our tent was the biggest installation of 140 in this exhibition. The curator Idriss Trevathan worked on the research of the exhibition for 9 years before commissioning this special tent.

Situated in The Great Hall at Ithra with it's special Oak floor, we had to make a tent frame that was stand alone and safe for the public whilst maintaining its asthetical shape of a traditional nomadic tent.

The carpets were sourced by me from all corners of Morocco, I had to select the correct hues so that they would blend evenly throughout the floor of the great tent. The wooden banquets were decorated with antique wooden tent pegs and the seating cushions covered with handwoven goat hair blankets from the Atlas Mountains.