Nol Collective Revives the Barjis Board Game Through Palestinian Craft

Ramallah’s Nol Collective has has taken a detour from clothing and accessories to bring us their rendition of the historically Levantine board game, Barjis. Handmade in Palestine, this Tatreez-embroidered cloth, the foundation of the game, evokes a once seamlessly traversable Levant, when one could travel easily from Beirut to Damascus to Amman to Ramallah. Traditionally, Barjis was an essential part of a bride’s dowry, passed down across generations and played in old Levantine homes. Nol Collective’s process itself echoes the Palestinian struggle. The slow-fashion, feminist design collective collaborates with artisans across Palestine to create crafts that tell a piece of the Palestinian story. In their production, sourcing, and design, every stitch is born of circumstance or rooted in tradition. To source the materials for the Barjis board game, Nol visited a shop in Nablus that has stood for centuries in an area known as “Little Damascus.” There, they found the cowrie shells they needed, sourced straight from Syria. In Barjis, shells replace dice, rolled to advance pieces around the board. But the seller only had a few hundred, so the collective journeyed on to downtown Amman, where they found another 700 Syrian shells. Their final stop was Damascus itself, at Al-Hamidiyah Souq, the city’s largest market. While sourcing materials for Barjis, the collective looked inward, toward production techniques, materials, and communities that have endured on this land for centuries. For weaving, Nol turned to Samou Village, just beyond al-Khalil, where women work together in Bedouin tradition, balancing their craft with caring for their families and themselves. For tatreez (embroidery), the Palestinian cross-stitch, they collaborate with women in multiple areas of the West Bank, including Ramallah, Deir Jreer, and Naqoura. In Bethlehem, beside the apartheid wall, Nol works with Ibrahim Mourad’s sewing workshop, where he stitches alongside Khalto Amal and Khalto Adilah. A third-generation tailor, Mourad learned his craft from his father and grandfather. In Gaza, a man named Husam was among the last to keep the dying art of Majdalawi weaving alive with a small group of weavers. The craft is named after the thriving coastal Mediterranean town of al-Majdal, which was ethnically cleansed by Israeli militias during the Nakba in 1948. The fabric is woven on single-treadle looms with black and indigo threads, embellished by turquoise and fuchsia silk symbolising heaven and hell. The Nol Collective community helped evacuate Husam and his family from Gaza to Cairo, where he opened a Majdalawi weaving workshop. The Barjis board game is the newest addition to the collective’s crafts sourced from the region’s history and land, sustaining the Levantine and Palestinian legacy. You can choose from two versions on their website, one embroidered by the Nol Collective, or one you can embroider yourself. It is an opportunity to participate in Nol’s vision by practising or learning tatreez, guided by step-by-step instructions on how to bring these Khalili motifs to life. TOV Cover Slide: Nol Collective Revives the Barjis Board Game Through Palestinian Craft TOV Slide 2: Ramallah's Nol Collective is a slow-fashion, feminist design collective that collaborates with artisans throughout Palestine to create crafts that tell a piece of the Palestinian story. TOV Slide 3: "More than just a game, Barjis is a living tradition - once included in a bride’s wedding trousseau and passed down through generations. Whether at family gatherings or quiet afternoons, Barjis brings people together." - Nol Collective TOV Slide 4: The materials for the Barjis board game were sourced from a shop in Nablus' 'Little Damascus' neighbourhood that has existed for hundreds of years, which provided the Nol Collective with cowrie shells from Syria.