What it means
نجار (najjar) is the Persian word for a carpenter, a joiner, the man who works wood. The trade covers a wide range: rough framing carpenters who build the wooden skeletons of construction projects, furniture-makers (mobl-saz) who specialize in cabinets and tables, and the high-end traditional carpenters who restore the carved doors and inlaid ceilings of historic Isfahan and Yazd houses.
Every Iranian neighborhood has a najjar. His workshop sits on a side street, the door is open in the morning so you can see the band saw and the smell of fresh cedar (سدر) and walnut (گردو) drifts out. He takes orders for kitchen cabinets, repairs broken doors, makes the bookshelf your wife wants in the corner of the living room.
How to use it
Use najjar for the carpenter. The workshop is نجاری (najjari). The word is everyday and current.
dar-e khune-mun kharab shode, najjar bayad biad.
Our front door is broken, the carpenter needs to come.
در خونمون خراب شده، نجار باید بیاد.
kabinat-e ashpazkhoone ra najjar-e mahaleh sakht, kheyli mohkam-e.
The neighborhood carpenter made the kitchen cabinets, they’re very solid.
کابینت آشپزخونه را نجار محله ساخت، خیلی محکمه.
The traditional craft
Iranian traditional carpentry is one of the great craft traditions. The wooden doors of the bazaars of Isfahan and Yazd, the carved minbar (منبر, pulpit) of mosques, the inlaid khatam (خاتم) work of Shiraz, the gereh (گره) geometric woodwork of historic houses: all of it is najjar’s craft at its highest level. A master najjar in Isfahan can spend a year on a single door. The work survives because UNESCO World Heritage status protects the houses, and the restoration economy keeps the masters working.
Where it comes from
Najjar is from Arabic نَجَّار, the intensive active participle of the root ن-ج-ر (n-j-r), to plane wood, to dress timber. Arabic نَجْر (najr) is the act of carving or shaping wood. Persian borrowed the word with the trade vocabulary of the early Islamic period and has used it as the standard term for carpenter ever since, alongside the older Persian درودگر (durudgar) which now sounds slightly archaic.
In our voice
The neighborhood najjar is one of the people you should know. Cheap modern furniture is everywhere, but a kitchen built by a working najjar with thirty years of experience will outlast three generations of flat-pack. The price is higher and the wait is longer. The work is worth it.
References
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