TRIPOLI: Nestled among shops in a bustling market in north Lebanon’s Tripoli, Mohammed Al-Shaar is at his workshop making traditional tarboosh hats, keeping up a family craft despite dwindling demand.
With a thimble on one finger, Shaar, 38, cuts, sews and carefully assembles the pieces of the conical, flat-topped felt hat also known as a fez, attaching a tassel to the top.
Reputedly the last tarboosh craftsman in Lebanon, the Tripoli native has been making the hats for 25 years in know-how passed on by his grandfather.
“Our family has been carrying on this craft for 125 years,” said Shaar, who also studied tarboosh making in Egypt.
The brimless hats made with maroon, black or green felt, some bearing floral motifs or embroidered with Lebanon’s national emblem, the cedar, sit on display in the small workshop.
