Algerian bridal jewellery names: mahzma, khelkhal, meskia, skhab

A machta from Constantine and a machta from Tlemcen can discuss the same object for ten minutes without using one word in common. That is true of nearly the whole Algerian bridal parure: every piece carries a trade word, a French shop name and an Arabic spelling, and the three share no letters. This page sets them side by side, body position by body position.

One object, three names

Take the belt. The trade says mahzma. The product page says « ceinture de taille de mariée ». The Arabic says المحزمة. A customer who types one of the three and finds nothing concludes the shop does not stock it. It is a vocabulary problem rather than a catalogue one, and for this piece it is solved: mahzma, mehzma, m7azma, hzam, المحزمة and حزام all reach the same page. For some other words on this page it is not solved yet, and the last section says which.

The waist: mahzma, mahzmat el-louiz

The mahzma fastens at the waist over the outfit — karakou, gandoura, caftan — and it is what gives the traditional silhouette its line. The heirloom version has its own name, المحزمة اللويز, the mahzmat el-louiz: the Constantine belt built from gold coins of different values, worn over the gandoura. Our own product page draws the line — the catalogue mahzma is the version a machta can bring out for every bride, where the mahzmat el-louiz is prepared over years within a single family.

The forehead, in one paragraph

The brow carries the most names of any position, and three of them are one jewel: khit errouh in Algiers and the centre, zerouf and jbin in the west. Our own synonym table says so, and all three reach the same page. Other brow words exist — âassaba, taâssabt — and they are not all the same object; telling them apart has its own page: khit errouh, âassaba, taâssabt, tikka.

The ankle: khelkhal, halhal

خلخال is written khelkhal, khalkhal, kholkhal, khelkhel and 5el5al in Latin-with-digits. Among Turkish suppliers the same piece is halhal, which is the word on our own model line and in that page’s keywords — typing halhal here does return the khelkhal.

Kabyle words are not Arabic

The jewellery of Ath Yenni (Beni Yenni) carries no Arabic names: ibzimen for the fibulae, ddah or amesluh for bracelets, made in silver often alloyed with copper for strength, with cloisonné enamel and Mediterranean red coral. We do not sell that — it is here as the reminder that an Algerian jewel’s name is not necessarily an Arabic word.

The arm and the ears: meqias, boucles

In the trade المقياس, meqias, means a bracelet rather than a hand ornament, so what we sell at that position is not a meqias, and our page says so: the hand chain « has no old Algerian name », and we are not going to invent one for it.

At the ears it is the ordinary word that gets asked for — boucles, or أقراط — and that is how our pages are written. It is also the piece that turns over fastest across a night of three to seven outfit changes, which is why the earrings are sold four pairs at a time.

The neck: tagm, and two pieces we do not sell

The trade word for the set is طقم — tagm — and parure in French. Two neck words come up constantly and neither names a metal jewel. المسكية, the meskia, is Tlemcen in origin: it hangs at the centre of the bride’s chest on a chain and is filled with ambergris and musk — which is where the name comes from, مسك — and it is worn on the henna night. السخاب, the skhab, is a scented necklace rather than a metal one.

We sell neither, and we would rather write that than let it be assumed. We sell no precious metal either: our pieces are plated metal — brass or alloy depending on the piece — set with rhinestone, glass or cubic zirconia, and the Material line on each product page says exactly which. What stands in for the inherited tagm here is the boxed parure.

How to search this shop

The table sets the trade word, the Arabic spelling and the shop’s own name side by side.

Trade word	Arabic	In the shop
khit errouh, khit erouh, 5it errouh, zerouf, jbin	خيط الروح، زروف	Khit errouh forehead chain
mahzma, mehzma, m7azma, hzam	المحزمة، حزام	Mahzma bridal chain belt
khelkhal, khalkhal, kholkhal, khelkhel, 5el5al, halhal	الخلخال	Khelkhal anklets, the pair
tagm, parure	طقم	Bridal parure, 3 pieces
boucles	أقراط	Statement bridal earrings
meqias	المقياس	No equivalent — see the hand chain
meskia, skhab	المسكية، السخاب	Not stocked

The first five rows are search synonyms as well, each spelling tried one by one: type them the way you write them, in Arabic or in Latin, and they reach the page. The last two rows are vocabulary and not yet search — meqias returns nothing today, and neither do meskia and skhab, which for those two is consistent: we do not sell them.

A spelling that returns nothing is worth knowing about: it is counted, and the count is what grows this list. The full shelf is here — bridal jewellery.