Amongst Bedouins, modern life blunts demand for ancient daggers
Nawwaf Khazaeeya lives each day on a knife’s edge.
From his tent near the livestock souq in Madaba, at the edge of the central Jordanian desert, Mr. Khazaeeya spends his day pounding out steel.
“This is more than a knife,” Khazaeeya says. “This is life and death.”
Khazaeeya belongs to one of the last families of shibriya makers, carrying on an ancient craft handed down through generations that has armed Bedouin nomads for centuries.
Yet modern bans on weapons, the Bedouins’ increasingly urban lifestyle and an influx of cheap Chinese imitations are undermining the market for traditional . Dagger-makers warn they
Ottoman knowhow, Bedouin skillsAn ancient weapon in a modern world
