"La Tangérienne Israëlite" by Victor Eckhout 1878

Introduction

When Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, they carried with them the Traje de Berberisca, or Henna dress. This richly hand-made dress was embroidered with golden thread and worn at special, formal occasions during Spain’s Golden Age. Today the Henna dress remains the sole and unique heritage of that era. Concerned with perpetuating this tradition, Mrs. Molly Sultan has taken it upon herself to reproduce the Henna dress in exacting detail. This garment, a precious vestige of ages past, is rich in Kabbalistic symbolism that only a few families have been privileged to possess and pass on from generation to generation. As journalist Elias Levy wrote in the Canadian Jewish News, “Mrs. Sultan is probably the only person in the world who has successfully managed to recreate this rare remnant from ages past.”