Beirut : City of Lines

For over thirty years now, Mr Abdel Halim Hicham has run a shop in the heart of Beirut's upmarket district of Hamra. On sale here is the woodwork inlaid with mother of pearl that he crafts by hand. Mr Hicham is a Lebanese artisan of a kind that is on the wane. He learned the trade at his father's knee and began work at the age of twelve. His is a family business, inherited through bloodline and Mr Hicham has a lifetime's knowledge of wood carving, of how to chisel the motehr of pearl into delicate, translucent shapes from broken bits of shell and how to inlay it carefully, in designs that are sometimes geometric and traditional, other times more flowing and dynamic. With utmost care, and slow precision, as if unaware of the passage of time, he glues each minute piece into the fragrant cedar wood of his country. Customers must wait until he is done. In fact, his show has more the air of a workshop, cluttered and used, the pieces of furniture, wall hangings and tabletops chaotically piled one on top of another. Some have collected dust and appear untouched for months. Others he polishes lovingly with a dirty rag dipped in turpentine. Mr Hicham keeps erratic hours. Often his shop is not open and potential customers can only peer in through the smudged window at the piles of inlaid woodwork inside. A handwritten message on the door cryptically says 'Call me', followed by a mobile number.