A mabkhara ( or مبخرة ) is a censer found across the Arab World and Turkey. The word is derived from " bakhoor", incense. The mabkhara was traditionally made from clay or soft stone. Most mabkharas (or mabakhir, the Arabic plural) have a square pedestal with inward sloping sides which support a square cup with outward sloping sides. The wooden base is often carved out to form legs. The cup itself is lined with sheet metal. Older were decorated with patterned combinations of soft metal pegs and brass tacks, often with mirrors in the panels of the upper part. The legs were ordinarily covered with sheet metal.
More modern variations of the mabkhara are made of shiny plated sheet metal. While they retain the traditional shape, they tend to be decorated with , colored metals and come in many sizes, varying from a few inches to a few feet in height. The craft of making mabakharas is practiced today primarily by artisans, one of which living in Ha'il Province, one of the northern provinces of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
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