Page 6 Hidayat and Dieulefit's pottery
The region around Dieulefit is not welcoming for farming. The two main activities are drapery and pottery. Unlike drapery, pottery remained artisanal. Pottery was in crisis in 1930 and before the second war, Dieulefit was declining economically. Morin’s drapery appeared to be the most important economic activity. Dieulefit’s population was around three thousand people and they integrated fifteen hundred people of all ages during the war. Half of the population was protestant and approximately the other half catholic.
Pottery in Dieulefit goes back two thousand years (40). Thanks to heat resistant, refractory fireclay found in the quality of clay queries in the area, this allowed the development of this industry for pottery for domestic use. Today, it is labeled “Dieulefit original. (41)”
Hidayat needed to work, beyond his teaching job at the Lycée Musical, to feed his family. He found a job in one of the numerous pottery factories. Initially, he had to work as labor working with the clay and this was challenging to his ego, as he recalled. Hidayat had to work with his feet in the clay to soften it up.
However, he did not have a choice and learned the trade as Hidayat was an extremely quick learner. He had taught himself electricity at Suresnes and equipped the house with electrical plugs throughout, initially to the great concern of his family for his own safety.
Hidayat proved himself very good at any task, but his sense of dignity and honor was at stake. Eventually, the owner of the pottery realized that Hidayat was well educated and could be more useful in the office. This allowed him to continue composing music in his little time off.
In 1828, there was twenty-four pottery factory in Dieulefit (43) and fifty-two in 1833. It declined after that but still remained an important part of the economy. During the period 1939 to 1945, turners rotated from factory to factory due to labor shortage (44).
This experience will deeply influence Hidayat and Leny as they opened their own pottery factory (45) in the basement of their family Suresnes home (46), Fazal Manzil or the house of blessings, once back there in 1947.
Hidayat and his family occupied Fazal Manzil ground floor and ran a ceramic workshop (La Céramique de Suresnes) located in the basement. Their son Fazal occupied a couple of rooms on the top floor (45).
La Céramique de Suresnes (47) run by Hidayat and Leny had twenty-five workers and thrived thanks to all that Dieulefit taught them about this artisanal pottery work (49).
Index
40
41
42
43
Pottery factories on Reymonds street in Dieulefit in 1828
Hidayat and Leny in Dieulefit
See index number 48
44
History of the pottery industry in Dieulefit
45
Khairunisa Inayat Khan
Harper, Claire & David. We Rubies Four. Page 190.
46
La Céramique de Suresnes
Financial statement dated February 21, 1947
47
La Ceramique de Suresnes
February 21, 1947
48
Hidayat and Leny in Dieulefit
Hidayat always dressed in jacket in tie all its life
49
Working in a pottery factory in Dieulefit
From: Hamida
Sent: Monday, October 7, 2019
Thank you, Jean Pierre,
Inayat can tell you that Hidayat and his wife had the ceramic factory in Fazal Manzil and she has some results from it. He was going to show me but never showed. Maybe she is willing to tell you something about it.
In the papers of Hidayat, some papers confirm the ceramic activities in Suresnes, bills or something like that.
In the South of France, where was it that Hidayat and family went to with Musharaff and Savitri? Nice?
Hidayat told me once that he worked in a ceramic factory there. You know him about dignity and honor. Well, there he had to work with his feet in the clay to make it soft or I do not know what (sorry, did not ask more, as he clearly felt humiliated in that job. There were so many other stories…) and at a certain moment, the/a manager discovered that Hidayat could read and write and took him up in the office. There Hidayat had an office bureau and in his spare time, he worked on his compositions.
Love
Hamida Verlinden
Soefi Museum – The Hague, ND
La Ceramique de Suresnes
Hidayat and Leny came back to their family home in Suresnes in 1947 and started a pottery factory employing up to 25 people. This shows the impact that Dieulefit's pottery experience had on Hidayat.
