HRAJEL: High in Lebanon’s rugged mountains, hatmaker Youssef Akiki is among the last artisans practising the thousand-year-old skill of making traditional warm woolen caps once widely worn against the icy winter chill.

Akiki believes he may be the last commercial maker of the sheep wool “labbadeh” — a named derived from the Arabic for felt, or “labd” — a waterproof and warm cap coloured off-white, grey, brown or black.

“The elders of the village make their own labbadehs”, said Akiki, who also dresses in the traditional style of baggy trousers.

Akiki, 60, from the snow-covered village of Hrajel, perched more than 4,000 feet up in the hills back from Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast, said making the hat requires a careful process.

After drying sheep’s wool in the sun, he moulds it with water and Aleppo soap — which includes olive oil and laurel leaf extracts — to turn it into felt with his hands.

“It helps the wool shrink, so it becomes malleable like dough”, he said, showing his hands, rough with years of work.

It is a slow process that allows him to fashion “three labbadehs in one day, at most”, he said. Though the hats are practical and warm, few people wear them today.

Those buying the caps are mainly tourists — or Lebanese nostalgic for their childhood — and they often buy them not to wear them but to display them at home.

“The state should guarantee us markets and places to exhibit,” the craftsman said.

Published in Dawn, February 22th, 2023