Khit errouh, âassaba, taâssabt, tikka: which forehead jewel for which outfit

On the same night, one family looks for a khit errouh, another for a zerouf, a third for a tikka — and one of the three receives an object she was not expecting. These words do not name as many jewels as there are names. They name two positions on the head, and it is the position that decides, not the region the word comes from.

Two objects, not four names

The first family crosses the brow: it takes the width of the forehead from temple to temple, it is held by the hair or by a cord, and it hangs in drops along the hairline. That is the khit errouh of Algiers, the zerouf and the jbin of the west, the âassaba, the Kabyle taâssabt, the thanayst of the Aurès. One family of objects, and as many words as there are regions.

The second crosses nothing. It is a single chain laid along the parting, ending in one drop — the damaa — at the centre of the forehead: the tikka. Our own product page puts it the same way: it is neither a khit errouh nor the traditional jbin, because those two cover the width of the forehead while the tikka sits on the parting.

So the question worth asking is one sentence long, and it is better than any name: does it cross, or does it come down?

What crosses the brow

The same problem — dressing the width of the forehead — was solved differently from one region to the next, and each solution kept its own name.

• Khit errouh, the thread of the soul — Algiers and the centre. A row of rosettes linked by rings, with the teardrop pendants the trade calls zerraref.
• Zerouf, zerrouf, jbin — Oran, Tlemcen, the west. The same jewel under another word. A customer in Oran does not type "khit errouh", and she is right not to; it is the seller's job to know both.
• Âassaba — Algiers. Seven perforated plaques joined to one another by hinges, held by a thread knotted to rings and passed through the hair. No hooks.
• Taâssabt — Greater Kabylia and the Aurès. Several plaques of different shapes — triangular, round or crescent — joined by thick rings, and almost always fitted with hooks to hold the veil.
• Thanayst — the Aurès. The same plaques, joined by fine chains rather than rings.
• In the M'zab, the Djebel Amour and Ouled Naïl country — small hollow stamped motifs shaped like date pits, fish or barley grains, joined by a thread or sewn to a ribbon, with small pendants fixed at the base.

Two things unite them, and both matter when buying: the piece takes the width of the forehead, and it is held by the hairstyle — cord, hooks, pins — never by the parting.

What comes down the parting: the tikka and its damaa

The tikka is a single chain. It starts in the hair just behind the parting, follows the parting to the edge of the forehead, and ends in a drop: the damaa. It fastens with a hook or a hair clip, and some models carry a small comb. In the trade the object is also called matha patti.

It arrived with the Indian change of the tasdira, the sari one, and that is where it belongs — that is what its page says, and what its trade name says. Better written plainly: it is not an Algerian heirloom forehead jewel. It is also the lighter of the two — the piece a bride brings back out on its own over an evening gown when she wants a dressed forehead without the weight of a khit errouh.

One drop, three, seven: what the number of zerraref counts

The number of pendants was never decoration. The rule passed down is short: one drop for the unmarried young woman, three for the married woman. Some families no longer follow it, others hold to it, and a machta hears it both ways in one season.

It lands exactly on the choice axis of our khit errouh, which is called "Number of drops (zerraref)" and offers one drop, three drops, or the loaded model at seven and above. So the choice is made when the order is placed, not afterwards.

The practical question is not a weight question: the page gives the same shipped weight for all three versions, 70 g including packaging. What changes is how much forehead is covered and how much there is to reset. The machta redoes the chignon at every change of outfit and the jewel goes back on afterwards; at seven drops there are simply more pendants to replace and recentre.

On head size and adjustment, our FAQ already answers under sizes.

Which outfit takes which

The change	What goes on the head
The departure, then the Algiers karakou	The khit errouh, across the forehead
The Tlemcen chedda	The same jewel under its western name: zerouf or jbin
The Indian change, the sari one	The tikka, on the parting, with its damaa
The white dress, usually the last change	Neither: the taj, set above the chignon
The evening gown, later in the night	The khit errouh worn as a necklace on its extender chain, or the tikka alone

The taj is the rigid piece and it has a rule of its own: it is not worn with the karakou or the chedda, which carry their own forehead jewels. The machta sets it above the chignon, in front of the veil or behind it.

And none of these pieces holds itself. What holds them are the combs driven into the chignon: they are what retains the veil for the white dress, and what replaces the veil with a jewel on the traditional changes. The hair vine is the flexible one — wound round the chignon or threaded into a braid — and it belongs to the white dress and the evening dress, never to the karakou or the chedda.

What ours is

An heirloom khit errouh, the one that comes out of a family trunk, has the same shape ours does: a row of rosettes linked by rings, with teardrop pendants. The shape we take — that is what the jewel is. What is not the same is what it is made of and where it comes from, and for ours both are printed on the page. An heirloom is not something a shop sells: it is handed down. We do not sell one and we do not make one.

Ours is gold-plated metal, not an heirloom khit errouh: a row of rosette settings with rhinestones, linked by rings, with the teardrop zerraref, and an extender chain that lets it come back as a necklace later in the night. Plated brass and nothing else; never zinc alloy; under our own label, chosen at the Mahmutpaşa wholesalers in Istanbul.

The tikka is of the same order: plated copper or brass alloy, set rhinestones, a crystal or zirconia drop, brought back from the Indian importers at Tahtakale. The taj is cast alloy, plated, set with faceted glass rhinestones. Every page gives the material, the dimensions and the shipped weight — head fit and extender length for one, chain length for the other — which is rare on this jewel.

Which one to take

• The night includes a karakou or a chedda — take the brow piece, under whatever name your family uses. There is no substitution: the tikka does not cover the width.
• The night includes the sari change — take the tikka; it alone sits on the parting.
• The tasdira runs through several outfits — take both, because they do not replace each other and each comes back out a second time: the khit errouh as a necklace, the tikka alone over the evening gown.
• The night closes on the white dress — neither, at that moment: the taj, and the combs that hold the veil.