Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1124848
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 2 JUNE 2019 JAMES DEBONO A heritage group has request- ed the green light to restore an old farmhouse on the road from Zejtun to St Thomas Bay, for its unique 'muxrabija' window – a Mediterranean feature dating back to Arabic times. The heritage NGO Wirt iz- Zejtun will restore the farm- house, whose muxrabija ar- chitectural feature is found atop the main door. The farmhouse was original- ly located near the old church of St Thomas, which was de- molished in the 19th century, and is now in a very bad state of disrepair. "Although the farmhouse is not in Zejtun, we could not turn a blind eye to numer- ous requests to help save this building from further deterio- ration," Wirt iz-Zejtun presi- dent Ruben Abela told Malta- Today. The farmhouse is one of 36 buildings which include a muxrabija and was granted Grade 2 protection by the Planning Authority in 2016. "But unfortunately this unique part of our vernacular heritage may soon be extinct due to the small number of surviving examples, which al- so suffer from deterioration," Abela told MaltaToday. The muxrabija generally consists of a wooden frame protruding out beyond a small window which was complete- ly covered, leaving peepholes in the front, sides and bottom of the box. They were devel- oped around the Middle East and North Africa, mainly to cool the building interior by allowing the breeze to circu- late through the trellis-work. The muxrabija served as a "safe window to the outside world for women" whose socialisation in the outside world was somewhat limited, according to folklorist Carol Jaccarini in an article penned in 2002. The muxrabija would be positioned on the first floor of the facade overlooking the main door and the viewing peepholes vary from holes in the front, sides and bot- tom of the box structure, to louvre-like slits. This allowed the person on the inside to observe outside, and yet not being visible to the people on the street. The muxrabiji found in the Maltese Islands carry dis- tinct characteristics, as due to the lack of trees in Malta, the older ones are construct- ed in local limestone instead of wood. The muxrabija is also known as 'in-nemmiesa', 'ix-xerriefa' and in Gozo 'il- kixxiefa' or 'lkixxijìja' and 'il-glusija' (probably derived from the French jalousie meaning 'envy'). In Maltese architecture, the earliest version of the muxra- bija dates back to the late Middle Ages (1300-1400) but the tradition could date back to Malta's Islamic past which lasted till the middle of the thirteenth century. "It is not known whether the muxrabija was directly introduced by north Afri- can Arabs or indirectly from Spain and Sicily," wrote Jac- carini. But according to other scholars it is more likely that the muxrabija reached Malta, through commercial con- tacts with Egypt, "centuries NEWS Farmhouse's unique muxrabija window Zejtun farmhouse is one of 36 buildings which include Arabic- sytle muxrabija