Yemenite Jewish silversmiths

Jewish silversmiths who hailed from Yemen were highly acclaimed craftsmen who dominated craft production in precious metals in the southern Arabian peninsula, from the 18th through the mid-20th century, a period and region during which Muslims did not engage in this work. These Yemenite silversmiths were noted for their use of fine granulation and filigree, producing such ornaments as women's bracelets, necklaces, finials, etc. that are renowned the world over.

Yemenite silversmiths, a trade held almost exclusively by Jews living in the traditional Yemeni society, were active from at least as far back as the mid 1700s. Some Yemenite silversmiths migrated to Israel in the late 1800s, a migration that continued in the early 1900s. Between June 1949 and September 1950, almost the entire Jewish community In Yemen, including nearly every silversmith in the country, migrated to Israel in an airborne mass migration known as Operation Magic Carpet. Muslims appear to have entered silversmithing in the Yemen in the mid-1900s as the Jews departed for Israel. Mass-produced gold and silver jewelry began to be imported into the Yemen in the 1930s, and dominated the market by the end of the 20th century, causing traditional silversmithing to dwindle.

According to Mark. S. Wagner, Professor of Arabic literature and Islamic Law at Louisiana State University, it is difficult to clarify precisely how silver- and gold-smithing came to be regarded as occupations that were too impure for Muslims in the Yemen to engage in; jobs that were similarly regarded in traditional Yemeni culture included pottery making, disposing of human waste from latrines, processing the carcasses of dead animals, soap-making, tanning, and making cakes of cow dung for use as fuel. Jewish silversmiths in this region sometimes moonlighted as dentists, since their jewelers pliers could be used to draw teeth.

Yemenite silversmiths melted silver coins to produce Janbiya (dagger) hilts, bridal jewelry and other silver objects. The Maria Theresa thaler, minted continuously since 1741, was especially favored for its consistent silver content and fineness, and which currency was widely in use in Yemen owing to the Mocha coffee trade with the French, and a Yemeni request that its produce be paid with thalers.

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