My father's village, Jiroud, located in the Qalamoun region at the edge of the Syrian Desert, has long been connected to settled Bedouin communities. I remember that almost every household there owned a piece featuring Sadu patterns.

 

Sadu is a traditional handwoven textile created by nomadic and Bedouin women across regions such as the Arabian Peninsula and the Syrian Desert (Badiyat al-Sham), using goat hair, sheep wool, or camel hair. Its geometric patterns carry cultural meanings related to nature, nomadic life, and tribal symbols.

 

In the early twentieth century, the rise of modern nation-states and political borders transformed Bedouin life across the region. Processes of settlement gradually replaced nomadic movement, restricting mobility and impacting many traditions, including Sadu itself.

 

My interest in Sadu lies in its relationship to movement: between places, across time, between traditional and digital forms, and between lived experience and memory.