Crocheted Hat – Bahrain

Here’s a little something from the highest nobility of a very small country! Back in the 1950’s, Ole Brande-Lavridsen was endowed with a full Bahraini outfit, given to him by the ruler himself – Sheik Sulman bin Hamed al Khalifa, whose descendants are still leading the dynastic rule of over 200 years.

This, the hat, is from the Bani Jamrah village, and was given to Brande-Lavridsen along with a woven cape, robe, and a scarf to tie around the head, on top of the crocheted hat. Of the event, which apparently made the news back in Denmark, Brande-Lavridsen wrote:

On February 24th, we visited Sheik Sulman bin Hamed al Khalifa. That year’s gift was a brooch shaped like an ax and a polar bear skin. At 9 o’clock the next morning, a servant arrived on a motorcycle with gifts for all of us. Golden watches, capes, headgear. Among it all, this hat. Everything is described thoroughly by journalist Adam Wiehe in the Danish magazine ‘Hjemmet’, published in May-July 1959.

Unfortunately we aren’t able to show you the full outfit – but we do invite you to visualize it for yourselves. Or ask Google 😉

/ Ciara Coogan