LOTHING (Ar

CLOTHING (Ar. and Pers. lebās, Pers. pūšāk, jāma, raḵt).

General remarks.
In the Median and Achaemenid periods.
In the Arsacid period.
In the Sasanian period.
In pre-Islamic eastern Iran.
Of the Sogdians.
Of the Iranian Tribes on the Pontic Steppes and in the Caucaus.
In Persia from the Arab conquest to the Mongol invasion.
In the Mongol and Timurid periods.
In the Safavid and Qajar periods.
In the Pahlavi and post-Pahlavi periods.
Qajar and Pahlavi military clothing.
Clothing in Afghanistan.
Clothing of the Hazāra tribes.
Clothing of Tajikistan.
Kurdish clothing in Persia.
Clothing of the Kurdish Jews.
Clothing of the Baluch in Persia.
Clothing of the Baluch in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Clothing of Khorasan.
Turkic and Kurdish clothing of Azerbaijan.
Clothing of the Caspian area.
Clothing of the Persian Gulf area.
Clothing of the Qašqāʾī tribes.
Clothing of the Baḵtīārīs and other Lori speaking tribes.
Clothing and jewelry of the Turkmen.
Historical lexicon of Persian clothing.
Concordance of clothing terms among ethnic groups in modern Persia.

General Remarks

Of the twenty-seven subsequent articles in this series eleven are devoted to clothing of the Iranian peoples in successive historical periods and fourteen to modern clothing of various regions and ethnic groups in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Persia. The remaining two are compilations of terminology for various types of garment in these settings.

Although details of dress have frequently provided clues for scholars seeking to date or localize various monuments in the history of art, the systematic study of dress, especially dress of the Middle East, is still largely in its infancy. As for clothing in Persia in particular, scholars are only beginning to come to grips with fundamental issues, and the study of costume is still in the initial, descriptive phase.

Sources. Foremost among the issues confronting those who study clothing, as is repeatedly indicated by the contributors to this series, is the problem of sources. The Safavid period (907-1145/1501-1732) is the earliest from which any meaningful quantity of actual garments survive; before that time only rare and usually fragmentary pieces have been recovered from sites widely separated in time and place. For periods spanning more than 2,000 years, then, it is necessary to rely primarily on textual descriptions and pictorial representations. Not only does the richness of this documentation vary with the group or period being studied, but also it is often difficult to integrate the two kinds of evidence in a coherent picture. Interpretation of representations is further complicated by the difficulty of distinguishing the formal conventions and traditions of a particular medium from realistically observed details of the subject matter. Before the Safavid period it is often risky to conclude that clothing illustrated in manuscript paintings or relief sculptures faithfully depicts clothing actually worn in contemporary life. Very often particular styles of mantle or robe, particularly in courtly settings, may simply follow established “types” widely recognized as identifying “king,” “courtier,” “warrior,” “servant,” and the like. On the other hand, a marked change in particular types of representation may reflect either an observed change in the clothing worn or the impact of new artistic models. Conclusions must be reached independently in each specific instance.

Then, too, the documentation is usually uneven. Because most of the texts surviving from before the Islamic period are concerned with political and dynastic events in which the protagonists were almost exclusively male and because most representations are to be found on official, courtly, and religious monuments—relief and other sculptures, wall paintings, coins and seals, and metalwork—knowledge of the clothing of women in those early centuries is particularly scanty and for the most part limited to that of aristocrats and entertainers. As for male costume, the monuments provide information on princely dress and the garments of warriors and priests but almost nothing on what peasants and other classes of society wore. Nothing at all seems to be known about children’s clothing in the pre-Islamic periods (see ii-vii, below).

For the first millennium following the Islamic conquest textual and pictorial sources are generally more plentiful, but the problems of coverage and interpretation are equally severe. The texts continue to be focused on historic events and affairs of interest to men, with little attention to the details of daily life; information about the lives of women is only incidental. In addition, assessing how much confidence is to be accorded to visual documents requires even more caution than in previous periods, for representation of human figures is often characterized by a deliberate androgyny (Ettinghausen, p. 53), and it is thus difficult to differentiate the clothing of men and women, especially in the centuries before the Mongol invasions.

Persian manuscript painting was first developed into a form of fine art in the 8th/14th century and reached a peak in the 9th/15th century, when scenes from both epic and lyric poetry were illustrated with relative frequency (see ix, below). Until that time women other than entertainers were even rarer in artistic representations than before the Muslim conquests, owing to the strictures imposed on them by religious law and custom; women were discouraged from leaving their houses and were not permitted to appear outside the immediate family circle unless completely swathed in veils or mantles of various kinds (see viii, below). Although some of these restrictions apparently sat lightly on Turkish and Mongol princesses and noblewomen during the period after the Saljuq invasions of Persia (429-654/1038-1256) and in the ensuing Il-khanid (654-754/1256-1353) and Timurid (771-912/1370-1506) periods, for the most part women in the Islamic world were invisible (see Lambton, esp. pp. 481-83). In the same periods, however, depictions of male costume were more sharply differentiated than before, and the wealth of surviving material permits some identification of clothing associated with specific social groups: aristocrats and courtiers, clerics, warriors, merchants, servants, laborers, seamen, nomads, shepherds, peasants, and professional mourners. It is even possible in certain instances to observe variations in the dress of smaller component groups within these broad categories; for example, among religious figures several kinds of dervishes, preachers, and teachers are distinguished by their clothing. Children are only occasionally represented and then usually in the same types of clothing as their elders.

Beginning with the Safavid period, however, though textual and representational sources are still important, they can be supplemented with actual surviving garments, particularly courtly pieces fine enough to have been treasured and collected through the centuries. The available texts, including Western travelers’ accounts, are also more comprehensive in their treatment of artifacts and practices of everyday life in Persia. Furthermore, from the middle of the 13th/19th century traditional visual sources have been supplemented by photographs (see ix-xi, below; cf. Stein).

By the end of that century some Western travelers and field expeditions were beginning to collect contemporary clothing and jewelry in Persia and especially Central Asia. Some of these collections found their way into museums, for example, the Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin (primarily materials collected by W. R. Rickmers and the Turfan expeditions; Westphal-Hellbusch and Soltkahn, pp. 7-9), the Musée Historique in Bern (collection of Henri Moser), and the Danish National Museum (see xiv, below). More recently several institutions, notably the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh (Scarce) and the Ethnological Museum in Tehran (for illustrations of comparable material, see Shay), have exerted efforts to form comprehensive collections of Persian and tribal clothing, drawing on both donations and the marketplace.

Such collections help to add a historical dimension to the detailed field investigations of clothing by modern anthropologists and ethnographers. These field studies, based on both direct observation and verbal reports by members of the communities under study, yield a wealth of detail about specific distinctions among different types of garment and, taken together, provide a rich and subtle picture of the way in which clothing both contributes to and reflects the intricate social arrangements within each community. Details of headgear appear to be the main carrier of these social clues, but other garments can also function in this way. In view of the conservatism of clothing remarked by many of these investigators, it is possible that eventually, when the work of description is farther advanced than it is now, parallel conclusions about clothing in some earlier periods of history will become possible, though they will necessarily always be more speculative

Classification. A second problem confronting those who study clothing is that of classification. Most of the contributors to this series have adopted, whether explicitly or not, a general five-part classification, based on the position of the garment on the body: headgear, overgarments, undergarments, trousers, and footgear. Not every costume includes all these parts, and other items of apparel, for example, jewelry, belts, gloves, armor, and weapons are generally classified separately as accessories. There is no unanimity on further subclassification, however. Soviet archeologists, for example, divide garments worn on the body between those that hang from the shoulder and those that hang from the waist (cf. xv, below). An especially common approach is based on construction of the garment. A recent four-part classification derived from Western historic dress included draped garments, in which the shape depends on the fluid arrangement of textiles, often single flat pieces, on the body; straight-cut garments, in which geometric pieces are stitched together with straight seams; tailored garments, in which the component pieces are “sculpted” so that they maintain their shape even off the body; and garments shaped according to predetermined aspects of the cloth, for example, embroidered panels (Palmer).

Another approach to classification emphasizes the context in which the clothes are worn. Such classifications include, for example, the distinction between Achaemenid court and cavalry dress (see ii, below); distinctions among urban, rural, and nomadic dress; those between members of different occupational groups; and those between daily life and ceremonial occasions.

To some extent these classifications are determined by the type of evidence available. For example, an inductive survey of dress in a given historical period, based largely on pictorial representations, may be limited by the nature of the evidence to only the most general categorization of garment types, despite the complexity that may actually have characterized the clothing of the period. When evidence is more abundant, as in relatively modern times, the classification is more often dictated by the interests of the investigator; ethnographers, for example, are more likely to focus on the social function of garments.

Interpretive framework. Each issue of Costume, the organ of the Costume Society of London and a leading journal in this field, appears with the following statement of purpose: “to promote the study and preservation of significant examples of historic and contemporary costume. This embraces the documentation of surviving examples and the study of decorative arts allied to the history of dress, as well as literary and pictorial sources.” This approach is firmly rooted in the concrete reality of surviving evidence, and its proponents emphasize that “the study of clothing exists in its own right” (Saunders, p. 2). On the other hand, many scholars view the history of clothing as one aspect of the study of social history and value it mainly for what it can reveal about broader trends. Dramatic “clothing events” in the social history of Persia include the imposition by Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah (1264-1313/1848-96) of European ballet dress on the women of his harem (see x, below), the forcible banning of the čādor (q.v.) under Reżā Shah Pahlavī, and the equally forcible reimposition of the čādor by religious authorities after the Revolution of 1358 Š./1979 (see xi, below). Such shifts, though particularly severe in relation to women’s clothing, have also affected men: European-style military uniforms (see xii, below) and European-style civilian dress for officials were mandated by Reżā Shah (1304-20 Š./1925-41), but Western styles were generally unpopular with the clergy, and fundamental changes in men’s clothing thus also became part of the revolutionary agenda.

Although the study of Persian clothing has not yet been focused on discussion of method, it is possible to find some useful directions in the study of Western clothing. In a recent discussion of Central European dress Wolfgang Brückner has emphasized the ways in which scholars’ theoretical orientations influence and sometimes even dictate the direction of their investigations and their methods. Drawing upon principles previously formulated for the parallel study of house types, he has identified four complexes of theory and method, in the historical order of their appearance.

The first are so-called “ethnic theories,” in which specific types of clothing are assumed to identify specific language and regional or tribal groups. According to a second, diffusionist theory, actual garments should be viewed as descendants of some original basic type; for example, the simple cover with a hole for the head may be viewed as the ancestor of various kinds of shepherd’s dress known throughout the world. Third is the history of development, which encompasses both internal evolution and the assimilation of outside cultural influences. Finally, there are theories of social function, which Brückner characterizes as “ahistorical” (p. 17); they encompass, among others, semiotic approaches to clothing as a language of signs that can be decoded and read (see, e.g., Petraschek-Heim; cf. Lurie). With this level of abstraction, in which actual garments and their consideration as historical documents are of little interest (Brückner, p. 17), the study of clothing can be said to reach the polar extreme from that of “a field of study in its own right.”

Elements of the first three approaches can be found in the articles that follow; nevertheless, as information accumulates, it will become necessary to reformulate and refine this basic framework for specific application to Persia, Afghanistan, and the various ethnic groups that live there. In fact, a primary focus of research and controversy in the study of clothing in Persia is delineation of the specific contribution made by the Iranian peoples to the repertoire of clothing (see, e.g., Moorey; Stillman and Stillman, p. 747). All the array of sources, classifications, and methods outlined above have been brought to bear on this question. In addition, linguistic evidence promises further assistance in these fundamental investigations (see xxvii, xxviii, below; cf. Stillman, pp. 740-42; idem and Stillman). As in the study of the diffusion of technology, systematic collection and analysis of the terms for specific items of clothing may eventually permit conclusions about a characteristically Iranian vestimentary system, as well as helping to establish or confirm patterns of reciprocal influence between the peoples living in Persia and in neighboring lands.

Although none of the contributors to this series on clothing has taken a semiotic approach, nevertheless many of them have focused on different aspects of the social and economic functioning of clothing, for example, as diplomatic gifts or a repository for capital (see x, below). Others have focused on more subtle types of social symbolism rooted in intimate communal relationships, in an effort to understand and delineate the underlying dynamics of particular cultural groups. For example, the prevailing sobriety of the clothing of married women can be contrasted with the livelier dress worn by young girls in several traditional communities (see, e.g. xvi, xvii, xxii, below). Among Baḵtīārī men the type of trousers distinguishes full-fledged members of the community from outsiders (see xxv, below).

Bibliography : W. Brückner, “Kleidungsforschung aus der Sicht der Volkskunde,” in Mode. Tracht. Regionale Identität, Cloppenburg, 1985, pp. 13-22. R. Ettinghausen, Arab Painting, Geneva, 1962. C. Issawi, ed., The Economic History of Iran 1800-1914, Chicago, 1971. A. K. S. Lambton, “Al-Marʾa. 3. In Persia a. Before 1900,” in EI²VI, pp. 481-85. A. Lurie, The Language of Clothes, London, 1981. P. R. S. Moorey, “The Iranian Contribution to Achaemenid Material Culture,” Iran 23, 1985, pp. 21-37. A. Palmer, “The Royal Ontario Museum Costume and Textile Gallery, "Measure for Measure,"” Costume 24, 1990, pp. 114-16. I. Petraschek-Heim, Die Sprache der Kleidung, 2nd ed., Baltmannsweiler, 1988. J. E. Polak, Persien. Das Land und seine Bewohner, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1865. A. S. Saunders, “Editorial,” Costume 24, 1990, pp. 1-2. J. Scarce, Middle Eastern Costume from the Tribes and Cities of Iran and Turkey, Edinburgh, 1981. A. Shay, “Traditional Clothing in Iran,” Ornament 6/1, 1982, pp. 2-9, 42. D. Stein, “Early Photography in Iran,” History of Photography 7/4, 1983, pp. 257-91. Y. K. Stillman, “Libās i,” in EI² V, pp. 732-42. Idem and N. A. Stillman, “Libās iii,” in EI² V, pp. 747-50. S. Westphal-Hellbusch and G. Soltkahn, Mützen aus Zentralasien and Persien, Berlin, 1976.

(EIr.)

In the Median and Achaemenid Periods

Sources

Information on the dress worn by the peoples of the Median and Achaemenid empires is mainly related to male costume. Female dress will be described briefly at the end of this article. The data come from two categories of sources (Schoppa, pp. 55-70), references by classical authors (e.g., Herodotus, 7.61-80; Xenophon, Cyropaedia 7.3.13-14; Diodorus, 17.78.5) and antiquities of documentary value. Such antiquities can be divided into five groups.

1. The record relief of Darius I (q.v.; 521-486 b.c.e.) at Bīsotūn (q.v., esp. pl. X).

2. Figures representing the thirty subject nations (Figure 46) carved on the facade of the tomb of Darius at Naqš-e Rostam near Persepolis (details in Schmidt, III, pp. 80-90; Walser, p. 52) and copied on those of his successors; the figures at Naqš-e Rostam are identified by preserved inscriptions.

3. Persepolitan friezes (particularly on the eastern stairway facade of the Apadāna, q.v.) representing warriors, nobles, and delegates of various subject nations (Walser, pp. 68-103; Hinz, 1969, pp. 95-113; Schmidt, III, pp. 145-62); the glazed-brick friezes from Susa and Persepolis showing soldiers in different uniforms (Dieulafoy, pp. 280-94, pls. IV-VII; von Gall, 1972, pp. 264-65); and the figures engraved on the base of the Egyptian statue of Darius from Susa now housed in the Iran Bastan Museum, Tehran (Porada, pp. 816-19, with references)

4. Representations on various, especially portable works of art: Greek vases (Bovon; Schoppa, pp. 28ff.); contemporary Egyptian stelai (von Bissing); “Greco-Persian” seals (Boardman, pp. 308-58); paintings, especially those discovered in the Karaburuṇ I tumulus near Elmali (Elmalı) in the former province of Lycia in southwestern Turkey (Starr, pp. 79-87; Mellink, pp. 222-23; Cook, p. 165, pl. 30, with references); sculptures, especially those from Sidon and Lycia (Kleemann, pp. 173-74; Borchhardt; Dentzer; Shahbazi, 1975, with references); the “Oxus treasure” (Dalton); and, above all, the highly detailed hunting and combat scenes on the so-called Alexander sarcophagus from Sidon (shortly after 320 b.c.e.; von Graeve, pp. 95-100) and the Alexander mosaic (Winter) from the floor of the House of the Faun at Pompeii (1st century b.c.e., after a Hellenistic painting approximately contemporary with the sarcophagus).

5. Relics and remnants of clothing found in the Altai barrows, which are decorated with Achaemenid motives (Rudenko, pp. 83-98, 296-97, pls. 63-65, 151-57).

Of these groups, the first (the Bīsotūn relief) and the second (the tomb reliefs) afford absolute identification of figures and their clothing, as well as clear chronological indications. The seal of Animas (Shahbazi, 1975, p. 20, pl. LXXV) and the figure of Autophradates (q.v.), satrap of Lydia, on a Lycian monument (the tomb of Payava) also provide clear identifications. During the Median and Achaemenid periods many minor, mainly stylistic changes did occur, but in general the forms of the clothing remained the same and can therefore be discussed as a whole. The richness of these documentary sources has given rise to an enormous literature on the history of Iranian costume, notably by George Rawlinson, O. M. Dalton, A. S. F. Gow, Ernst Herzfeld, Helmut Schoppa, E. F. Schmidt, S. I. Rudenko, Gerold Walser, A. B. Tilia, Anne Roes, Geo Widengren, Walther Hinz, and Stefan Bittner (see bibliography).

Edith Porada has emphasized that “in Near Eastern art in general, differentiation among peoples was mostly made on the basis of dress” (p. 822). The ancient peoples of the Near East had favored styles of loose or draped costume consisting of pleated skirts, wrapped overgarments, and tunics. It is possible that as early as the end of the 2nd millennium b.c.e. the migrating Iranians brought with them a costume that had been developed in Eurasia, where the climate fluctuated sharply and life depended on cattle raising and the use of the horse, particularly in fighting (Widengren, pp. 228-41; Houston, p. 160; Goetz, p. 2228; Rudenko, p. 88 and passim). It consisted of a tall cap, tight-fitting leather jacket and trousers, a long-sleeved coat, and boots. The Persians modified and adopted the Near Eastern pleated dress (Walser, p. 72; Hinz, 1969, pp. 70-79), supplementing it with a headband or a tall, fluted hat (probably derived from an Assyrian feathered headdress; Gow, p. 144 n. 29; Barnett, in Survey of Persian Art). Hence scholars sometimes call this style “Persian costume” and the dress of Central Asian origin “Median costume” (Schoppa, pp. 46-48). These designations are not always accurate, however. Herodotus testified (1.135, 7.61-62) that the “Persians” habitually wore “Median” dress; on a seal impression from Persepolis Cyrus I (q.v.; ca. 630 b.c.e.) is shown as a horseman in the tight-fitting costume (Hinz, 1976, p. 53 figs. 16-17); the Achaemenid prince Artimas of Limyra (a cousin of Cyrus the Younger, q.v.; see astōdān) is represented on his seal (dated ca. 401 b.c.e.) in a similar way (Shahbazi, 1975, p. 120, pl. LXXV); and on Darius’s tomb his weapon bearer, Aspačanā (q.v.; Gk. Aspathines), whom Herodotus (3.70) specifically identified as “Persian,” wears “Median” dress (Schmidt, III, p. 86, pl. 24). Dress alone can thus not be used as the criterion of nationality, and it is safer to designate the loose, draped style as “court dress” (see, e.g., Schoppa, p. 47: “a costume that can be identified as court dress”) and the tight-fitting style as “cavalry costume” (Shahbazi, 1976, p. 24; idem, 1978, pp. 498-99; Porada, p. 815).

Male clothing

In general the male costume of the peoples of the Achaemenid empire may be divided into five categories: “Court dress” (I) of the Persians and Elamites; “cavalry costume” (II) of Iranian and related groups (Medes, Armenians, Cappadocians, Parthians, Bactrians, Areians, Zarangians, Arachosians, Sogdians, Choresmians, Skudrians, and Scythians); the “Greek” style, including a short tunic and a loose mantle open in front (worn by Carians, Lydians, Greek islanders, and Ionians); the “Indian” style, consisting of a kilt with or without a mantle (worn by Indians, Gandarians, Sagartians, and Makans); and the dress of the plains dwellers, including a long gown reaching to the knees or ankles and a cloak (worn by Arabs, Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Libyans, and Nubians). The emphasis here will be on the first two categories. In all, five items of clothing may be distinguished: headgear, overgarment, shirt or tunic, trousers, and footgear. Before discussing these items it is useful to note that in the ancient Iranian tradition the three social estates were differentiated through the colors of their costumes: The warriors wore red, the priests white, the pastoralists blue (Hinz, 1979, p. 61, with references; cf. Widengren, p. 240). Traces of colors have been detected on the clothing of the royal figures and dignitaries represented on certain Achaemenid monuments (Schmidt, I, p. 116, III, p. 80; Lerner, 1971; idem, 1973; Tilia, II, pp. 31-69); in an early 5th-century painting from Elmali (Mellink, pp. 222-23; Starr, pp. 82-83) with a banqueting scene involving “a grandee whose physical appearance, costume, and surroundings seem wholly Persian” (Cook, p. 165); and on a Greco-Persian stone relief depicting a man in “Median” dress (Boyce, Zoroastrianism II, pp. 146-47). The evidence has been interpreted as attesting that the old Iranian tradition was partially observed in Achaemenid ceremonial dress: The king wore red shot with blue and white to symbolize his authority over the three estates (Hinz, 1979, p. 61). Schoppa must be credited with the ingenious observation (p. 48), based on Greek data, that the “cavalry costume,” which is depicted in “Greco-Persian” minor arts with ample pleats, was shown at Persepolis without indications of drapery only because pleats and appliquéd decorations were indicated by the use of various colors. Indeed, at Persepolis the laces of the royal shoes were indicated only by colored outlines (Tilia, II, p. 55 n. 1).

Headgear. The best-documented item of clothing from the Median and Achaemenid periods is headgear (Schoppa, p. 47; Calmeyer, pp. 173-78). Seven types are associated with “court dress” (I). Type I.1 was a simple, twisted headband worn by the royal guard (see Figure 47). Type I.2 was a circlet or fillet (worn by Elamites and many “Persian” soldiers) and type I.3 a wider fillet (worn by soldiers, royal attendants, and monster-slaying heroes); either could be decorated with floral motifs: embroidered on cloth or felt and incised or applied on metal, as in the headgear of Darius’s attendants at Bīsotūn and Persepolis (Figure 48; for details, see Tilia, II, pp. 58-66). Type I.4 was a long scarf (of wool, linen, or possibly silk) wrapped around the head (for example, of the Persian figure on the Egyptian statue of Darius) or closely around the head and neck, leaving only the central features of the face bare, as worn by the royal towel bearer on the “Treasury relief ” at Persepolis (Schmidt, I, pl. 121), by the “servants” on the Tačara (palace) stairways (Schmidt, I, pls. 133-34), and by the members of Delegation IV on the Apadāna stairways (possibly Parthians or Areians; Walser, p. 76). Type I.5 was a plain cylindrical hat (taller when worn by royal figures, as on the “Treasury relief”; see also Figure 49). Types I.6 and I.7 were, respectively, shorter and taller fluted hats most commonly associated with “Persian” dignitaries (Figure 50). Both these types were evidently called mítra (cf. Herodotus, 1.195, 7.62.2, 7.90).

Four basic types of headgear were worn with the “cavalry costume” (II). Type II.1 consisted of a simple ribbon wrapped around the hair and tied in the back (plate l), worn by members of Delegation XV on the Apadāna stairways (perhaps Bactrians [Walser, p. 90], Areians [Hinz, 1969, p. 104], or Parthians [Schmidt, III, pp. 148-49]). Type II.2 was a plain rounded cap most commonly worn by “Median” dignitaries. This cap survives in the Fārs and Baḵtīārī regions, yet it was of Mesopotamian—or, more precisely, Elamite—origin (Walser, p. 69). A silver rhyton of the Achaemenid period (excavated at the site of Erebuni in Yerevan and now in the museum there) ornamented with the figure of a “Median” horseman (Arakelyan; Harper, p. 30) indicates that this cap was of a stiff material (probably felt), which in some instances was reinforced and adorned by an outer metal retainer with a ring in the back to which an appendage could have been attached (Figure 51). The figure of an eagle embroidered on the cap clearly anticipated a well-known Parthian and Sasanian tradition, the adorning of the cap (and costume) with “devices,” or signs of heraldry (for such “devices,” see Bivar, 1959). Type II.3 was a bonnet with three knobs in front, a short extension like a tail, and earflaps, worn by the members of Delegations III (Armenians), IX (Cappadocians?; plate li), and XVI (Sagartians) on the Apadāna stairway facades. This type was also of foreign origin, derived from an old Anatolian type of hat (Barnett, 1957, p. 69). Type II.4 was a hat attested by the Greeks as tiára, kídaris or kítaris (Lat. cidaris), or kyrbasía (rendering Ir. *kurpāsa, which may survive in Zāzā kur “hat”; see Bailey, p. 9; Schmitt, pp. 468-69; on the synonymous use of these terms by classical authors see Gow, p. 144 n. 30; Pauly-Wissowa, Suppl. XIV, cols. 792-93). It was a hood or cap of felt (Strabo, 15.3.15), leather, silk (as shown by the rendition on the Alexander mosaic; silk fabrics were known in Greece from the middle of the 4th century b.c.e. [Aristotle, De Animalibus 5.19; see abrǰšam iii. silk textiles in iran], and the general assumption is that they originated in the east), or, more commonly among the nobility, soft cloth (as in representations on satrapal coins and the Alexander sarcophagus). It covered the head, the neck (with a long, pointed neck guard), ears, cheeks, and chin (with very long side flaps that could be tied over the chin or at either side of the neck; see Figures 52, 53, plate lii). The magi wore, in addition, a kerchief (Av. paiti.dāna- > Pers. panām) to cover their noses and mouths loosely in order to avoid pollution of the sacred fire by their breath (Strabo, 15.3.15; Boyce, Zoroastrianism II, p. 20 n. 44). Herodotus mentioned (8.120) a gold-embroidered tiara among the gifts that Xerxes presented to the people of Abdera to win their friendship. Occasionally a ribbon was tied around the hat, with the end falling down over the back (Dalton, pl. XIV, no. 49; Ghirshman, p. 93 fig. 121a). This ribbon was the diadem, which, according to Xenophon (Cyropaedia 8.3.13), “the kinsmen” of the great king wore around their tiaras as “the mark of distinction.” Quintus Curtius described the diadem of Darius III (336-31 b.c.e.) as “blue (caerulea) variegated with white” (3.3.19; cf. 6.6.4, where it is described as “purple (purpureum) variegated with white”). The coins of Tissaphernes (see *Âčiθrafarnah 3) and Pharnabazus (Hinz, 1979, figs. 31, 12), as well as a figurine from Persepolis (Hinz, 1976, fig. 34), show that Persian magnates were allowed to knot their diadems in front of the tiara (Hinz, 1976, p. 141, with reference). In any event, the tiara had a top like a hood, often lined inside with luxurious animal fur. Ordinarily it was worn flat, either pressed down in front to form three knobs or falling in folds on either side. Only the great king had the right to wear his tiara (kyrbasía) “upright,” that is, with the top erect, presumably held by inner retainers (Xenophon, Anabasis 2.5.23; Arrian, Anabasis 3.25.3; Plutarch, Artaxerxes 26, 28; idem, Themistocles 29). The Greeks mockingly compared this version to a cockscomb (Aristophanes, Aves 487; Dio Chrysostomus, 4.66); hence the so-called “Darius krater” of the late 4th century b.c.e. in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, which shows the great king wearing a tiara resembling a cockscomb (Hinz, 1979, fig. 45), is of no documentary value (Gow, p. 148). As is well known, this type of Persian headgear became generally popular among Middle Easterners and was worn by monks and priests from Tibet to the Hellenistic realm, where—under the term “Phrygian cap”—it survived, with slight modifications, in Roman and European cultures (Dalton, p. xxx). Related headdresses of the 4th and 3rd centuries b.c.e. have been found in the frozen tombs of the Altai (e.g., at Pazyryk). One, made of stiff brown felt, was originally a tall hat with broad circular side flaps (Rudenko, p. 89) and was edged at the bottom with disks covered with gold leaf and decorated externally with leather (Rudenko, p. 90). Another (Figure 54) was made of two pieces of white felt bordered by an ornamented leather covering and provided at the apex with a square “turret” made from four leather cutouts covered with gold figures forming a battlemented “crown” (Rudenko, pp. 90-91). The Scythians wore the kyrbasía (cf. Rostovtzeff, pp. 55, 57) so tall that the tip bent backward, and one group (no. 15 on the tomb relief and Delegation XI on the Apadāna stairway facade; Figure 46, plate lii) wore hats so tall that the Persians called them “Tall-Helmet/Pointed-Hat Scythians” (Saka tigraxaudā; Kent, Old Persian, p. 186; Shahbazi, 1982, pp. 216ff., with references). The points, which curve toward the back, do not resemble the crest of the “upright” tiara, for, as can be seen from the Alexander mosaic and a gold statuette from the “Oxus treasure” (Dalton, pl. XIII/2-2a), the latter stood vertically and, in addition, bore precious adornments.

Overgarments. Several overgarments were associated with court dress. The vest (I.1) was worn by Darius the Great (in a hunting scene on his cylinder seal in the British Museum; Ghirshman, p. 268 fig. 329), the Persepolitan monster-slaying hero (plate liii; see Schmidt, I, pl. 147; Hinz, 1969, p. 78, pl. 27), and the Persian and Elamite throne bearers represented on the tombs (Figure 46). It had vertical pleats and, being sleeveless, left the wearer free to move quickly. It seems to be attested also on a Greek vase, where it is painted in red, with patterning and a broad white stripe down the front (Gow, pp. 146, 150 fig. 8), as well as on an enigmatic silver statuette from the “Oxus treasure” (plate liv; Dalton, pp. 1-2, fig. 41, pl. II/1). Scholars are sharply divided over the construction of the pleated robe (I.2) with very wide sleeves (Figure 49). Herzfeld (p. 259) maintained that it was “a simple rectangular piece of soft material, reaching in front and back from neck to ankle, and in width from wrist to wrist, arms outstretched, with a slit for the head. It was open at the sides and only girded around the waist by a belt.” His view has received wide support, at least in part (Houston, p. 162; Walser, p. 69 n. 5; Beck; cf. Schmidt, I, p. 163, III, p. 80, who, however, followed Rawlinson, p. 152, in incorrectly identifying it as the candys, q.v.). Roes, however, argued for a two-piece costume, a cape-like top with wide sleeves and a pleated skirt. Her reconstruction was supported by Hinz on linguistic grounds (1969, p. 70). Nevertheless, that it was a single piece girt in the middle by a wide cloth belt, below which it fell in tiers of pleats to form a “skirt,” is clear from the representation of a “Persian nobleman” engraved on the seal of Artaxerxes (III?; 359-38 b.c.e.), now in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg (see plate lv). The extraordinary wide sleeves were enlarged by the insertion of separate pieces at the back; they could be thrown back on the shoulders for greater ease of movement (see esp. Schmidt, I, pls. 114-16, 144-46). Additional pleats, straight or bunched at the sides, produced the fullness usually associated with court dress. The chest was well covered but, as Hinz observed on the figure of Vahyazdāta on the Bīsotūn relief (1969, p. 72, pl. 26a), the back was left open. The lower part could be lifted and tucked into the wide belt. At Persepolis Darius the Great, Xerxes I (486-65 b.c.e.), and Artaxerxes I (465-25 b.c.e.) are all depicted wearing the same royal robe, a luxuriously pleated garment originally of red or purple fabric, magnificently patterned with concentric circles and lotus blossoms (Figure 49). Blue strips edging the hems of the robe and sleeves, as well as along the vertical pleats in the “skirt,” are “embroidered” with figures of marching lions in red (for details, see Tilia, II, pp. 41ff.; 53ff., esp. p. 54 fig. 6).

Associated with “cavalry dress” was the “Median robe” (II.1) with long, narrow false sleeves worn slung over the shoulder (plates lvi, lvii); this overgarment is generally called “candys,” although doubts about the meaning of the word (for etymologies, see candys) and the identification of the garment are still being expressed (e.g., Hinz, 1969, pp. 70-72). Persian kings and magnates wore this cloak frequently (see esp. Xenophon, Cyropaedia 1.3.2, 8.3.10, 8.3.13; idem, Anabasis 1.5.8; cf. Bittner, pp. 188-92). Autophradates, a Persian satrap of Lydia in the first quarter of the 4th century b.c.e., is shown wearing this “Median” robe in an audience scene on the Perso-Lycian tomb of Payava from ancient Xanthus, in Lycia (now in the British Museum; Shahbazi, 1975, pp. 137-70, pl. lxxviii). Herodotus (9.109) mentioned a “long robe of many colors and very remarkable in appearance” that Xerxes’s wife, Amestris, “had woven with her own hands” and presented as a gift to her husband. Other ancient sources give the same impression. Xenophon (Cyropaedia 8.3.3) wrote of “the most beautiful garments” that Cyrus the Great had distributed among his nobles “and other Median robes . . . with no stint of purple or sable or red or scarlet or crimson cloaks.” He further described the candys of Cyrus the Great as “all purple” (Cyropaedia 8.3.13), and Quintus Curtius (3.3.17) depicted that of Darius III (336-31 b.c.e.) as “a cloak of cloth of gold, ornamented with golden hawks” (see also Kantor, pp. 6-8, pl. XI). Finally, Diodorus noted (17.77.5) that Alexander dressed himself in a white tunic (chitón) and the Persian sash and “everything else” except the trousers and the candys. A sleeveless robe reaching to the knees, worn slung over the shoulder and fastened in front by an elaborate fibula just below the right shoulder (II.2) was worn by Delegation IX on the Apadāna stairway (probably the Cappadocians; Schmidt, I, pl. 35; Walser, pls. 16, 54) and may be of Anatolian origin. The Sogdian (no. 7), the Choresmian (no. 8), and the Amyrgian Saka (Saka haumavargā, no. 14) on the tomb reliefs, as well as the members of Delegation XVII on the Apadāna stairway (Amyrgian Saka; Schmidt, III, pp. 112-13, 150), wear a tight-fitting, sleeved coat, cut obliquely at the side to allow ease of movement while riding (II.3). It was either made of leather with fur-lined edges or was entirely of fur or skin (similar to the modern pūstīn) and could vary in ornamentation and color (Walser, pp. 93-94). The name of this eastern Iranian coat may have been *gaunaka (> Gk. gaunákēs, with variants: Widengren p. 239 n. 2; Schmitt, pp. 462-63). Widengren derived the word from Avestan gaona- which means either “color” or “hair.” As he pointed out, however, other evidence suggests that the garment “got its name because it was an extremely hairy coat.” Finally there was a short, sleeved coat (caftan, II.4) made of sable fur or of a “double thickness of very thin white felt” decorated with leather appliqués covered with gold disks (Figure 55; Rudenko, pp. 83-87).

Shirts and tunics. “Court dress” included a garment that is best documented on Greco-Persian sculptures (e.g., the “Satrap sarcophagus” from Sidon and the “Payava monument”) and particularly in the frontal representation of a Persian magnate or prince (plate lviii) on the “Kamini stele” (Bivar, 1970, pl. I). This figure stands with outstretched arms, evidently holding a pair of beasts by the horns. He wears no outer clothing but only a full-length belted garment with long sleeves and a round neck. Both the Alexander monuments (von Graeve, pp. 95-98), as well as classical authors (Xenophon, Cyropaedia 8.3.13; idem, Anabasis 1.5.8; Diodorus, 17.77.5; Quintus Curtius, 3.3.17), attest to the wearing of undergarments (chiton) as part of cavalry costume. Xenophon (Cyropaedia 8.3.13) emphasized that the wearing of a purple chiton “shot with white” was a prerogative of the great king, and Quintus Curtius (3.3.17) confirmed the fact and described the item as “a purple-edged tunic woven about a white center.” Strabo (15.3.19) even reported that Persian commanders wore the white chiton under a variegated one, as well as three pairs of leather trousers. From the monuments it is clear that originally a tight-fitting, knee-length belted leather tunic formed part of the cavalry costume. Eventually a more elaborate cloth version with long sleeves and a wide V-shaped neck opening appeared; it is best documented on the Alexander mosaic and the Alexander sarcophagus (plate lix). The tunic was belted fairly high, and the skirt could be looped up over the girdle for action. Sleeveless tunics worn by Persians are also represented on a few Greek vases (Gow, pp. 146-47). A shirt with sleeves was found at Pazyryk (plate lx; Rudenko, pp. 83-85, fig. 29). The Greeks usually referred to such an undergarment (shirt or tunic) as chitón, but their lexicographers noted a Persian word for it, which they rendered as sárapis (Gow, p. 146; cf. Widengren, p. 238 n. 2, quoting the information from Pollux 7.61 that the “Median” purple chiton was called sárapis and from Hesychius that, “sárapis is Persian for chitón”). The Old Persian term has been reconstructed as *sarapiš (Widengren, p. 238 and n. 2) or something similar.

Trousers. The Greeks usually called Persian leather trousers anaxyrídes and remarked on their colorfulness (Xenophon, Anabasis 1.5.8; Herodotus, 1.71, 7.61, 7.64; cf. references in Pauly-Wissowa, I/2, cols. 2100-01), even ridiculing them for this feature (Aristophanes, Aves 1087); hence Alexander refused to wear them (Diodorus, 17.77.5). From another Greek term for Persian trousers, sarábāra, as well as Aramaic šarbālā (Book of Daniel 3:21) and Persian šalvār, the Old Iranian form has been reconstructed as *šaravāra (Widengren, p. 238) or the like. In court dress the long skirt formed a sort of kilt, and trousers were not worn, but cavalry dress included several types of trousers. One variety, represented among the gifts presented by the Medes, Sagartians, and Pointed-Hat Scythians (Walser, pls. 8, 18, 68), consisted of tight-fitting leather breeches terminating in shoes (plate lii), which obviated the horseman’s need for additional footgear (Widengren, p. 238; Walser, p. 69; von Graeve, p. 97). Another type, more common in eastern Iran and worn on the Apadāna reliefs by Delegations IV (perhaps Areians; Schmidt, III, p. 149) and VII (perhaps Arachosians; Schmidt, III, p. 149; Walser, pls. 11, 14), was shorter and wider, producing a “baggy” effect when tucked into boot tops (plate lxi). The Persians on the Alexander sarcophagus wear trousers of fine cloth tightly covering their legs and feet; they are painted in blue, yellow, violet, and red, sometimes patterned or ornamented with floral motifs (von Graeve, pp. 97-98; for patterned trousers, cf. Herzfeld, p. 205 fig. 314 center; Bovon). A variant, worn by members of Delegation XV (perhaps Parthians; Schmidt, III, p. 148; Walser, pl. 22) on the Apadāna stairway facade, by Persians on some Greco-Persian gems (Gow, pl. X/9-10), by a silver figure in Berlin (plate lvii; Gow, p. 147 fig. 5), and by a Persian magnate represented on an ivory plaque from Demetrias in Macedonia (plate lxii; Dentzer, p. 216 fig. 8) fell in horizontal folds, indicating that they were of very soft materials, perhaps silk.

Footgear (see esp. Schmidt, III, figs. 33ff.; von Graeve, p. 97; cf. Pauly-Wissowa, IIA/1, cols. 746-51). Two types of shoes were worn with court dress. “Persians” wore low shoes with plain toes, fastened by three or four straps or thongs (Figure 47, plate liii). Elamites wore half-boots, occasionally, as on the tomb of Artaxerxes I at Naqš-e Rostam (Schmidt, III, fig. 39/2), with upturned toes, closed by straps and buttons on instep and upper. The shoes and shoelaces of the Achaemenid kings represented at Persepolis were painted red (Tilia, II, pp. 55-56), whereas the archers represented on the glazed-brick frieze from Susa wear yellow shoes (cf. von Gall, 1972, pp. 264-65). Beside the leather shoes attached to trousers (Walser, p. 69; see above) knee-high boots were also worn; the toes could be “straight” (Areians or Arachosians: plate lx) or turned up (plate lxi). The boots were tied in front (e.g., the Zarangian on Xerxes’s tomb; Schmidt, III, fig. 42/9) and had contrasting tops or were turned down at the knees. This footgear was particularly suitable for fishermen and inhabitants of the lake areas around the Hāmūn in Sīstān (Nöldeke, p. 1). The magi depicted on plaques from the “Oxus treasure” (Dalton, pp. 19-20, pls. XIV-XV) and on a fire altar from Cappadocia (Bittel, pls. A-D) wear high boots with thick soles and fairly high heels, calling to mind Xenophon’s statement, in his description of Cyrus the Great’s adoption of “Median dress” (i.e., “court” dress; Cyropaedia 8.1.41), that the Persians “had shoes of such a form that without being detected the wearer can easily put something into the soles so as to make him look taller than he is.” Gow (p. 145 n. 33) remarks that “for the spindle-shanked . . . it had plain advantages.”

Women’s clothing

Persian official monuments do not include representations of women; accordingly, little is known of their costume in the Median and Achaemenid periods. There are, however, a few contemporary representations in other contexts: on a textile from Pazyryk (Figure 56; Rudenko, pp. 296-97, pl. 177c), Greco-Persian seals (Figure 57, plate lxi; Gow, pl. X/1-6; Boardman, nos. 854, 879, 891-92, 964), ivory objects (plates lxii, lxiii; Amiet, pp. 173ff.; Dentzer, pp. 216ff.), the “Satrap sarcophagus” (plate lxiv; Kleemann, pp. 21-23), the monuments from Ergili in northwestern Anatolia (Figure 58; Akurgal; Bernard), and small metal vessels (Figure 59; Culican; Gow, p. 137 and n. 14). There are also a few notices by ancient writers. Particularly informative is Ctesias’s reference to the wearing of the sárapis by Parysatis, mother of Artaxerxes II (Hinz, 1969, p. 74, with reference), Herodotus’ testimony (9.109) that Xerxes’s daughter-in-law asked him to give her a robe that his wife had woven for him, and Quintus Curtius’s remark that Darius III “was girt woman-fashion” with “a golden belt” (3.3.17). Indeed, the representations of women show that they usually wore the pleated “court dress” and the voluminous “Ionic” chiton (Gow, p. 137; Dentzer, figs. 7-8; Dalton, pp. xxxiii-xxxiv, and nos. 89, 93, 103, 104). Occasionally, as on some of the Ergili sculptures and the “Satrap sarcophagus,” they wore an overgarment that, like the modern čādor (q.v.), covered the head and neck (Figure 58, plate lxiv). The face, however, was always uncovered. The hair was often worn in a single plait at the back (plate lxv). By far the best available documentation of women’s dress from the Achaemenid period is the remnants of actual clothing found in the Pazyryk tombs (Rudenko, pp. 91-98), though in that distant region Achaemenid influence may have been considerably attenuated and probably reinterpreted. Excavated garments include a short cape or caftan (Figure 60) made of squirrel skin with the fur side inward and bordered with a band of black coltskin; it has narrow sleeves decorated with patterns of applied leather pieces (Rudenko, pp. 91-92). Another was a hood (plate lxvi) of a double thickness of fine leather covered in black coltskin and ornamented with rhomboid leather appliqués; it reached to the shoulders (Rudenko, pp. 96ff., pl. 65A). Finally, two pairs of boots were found. One had fine red-leather tops and vamps stitched to soles decorated on the underside with fantastic patterns. The other was soft, knee-high, with broad cuffs of leopardskin, leather vamps, and thick, rigid leather soles ornamented on the underside (Rudenko, pp. 93-96). This curious feature was practical because the wearer “sat with legs arranged so that the heels were turned out,” as is still customary in Central Asia (Rudenko, p. 96).

Bibliography : E. Akurgal, “Griechisch-persische Reliefs aus Daskyleion,” Iranica Antiqua 6, 1966, pp. 147-56. P. Amiet, “Les ivoires achéménides de Suse,” Syria 49, 1972, pp. 167-91. B. I. Arakelyan, “Klad serebryanykh izdeliĭ iz Erebuni,” Sovetskaya Arkheologiya, 1971/1, pp. 143-58, cited in P. O. Harper, The Royal Hunter. Art of the Sasanian Empire, New York, 1978. W. Bailey, “Ariana,” in Donum Natalicium H. S. Nyberg Oblatum, Uppsala, 1954, pp. 1-16. R. D. Barnett, “Assyria and Iran. The Earliest Representations of Persians,” in Survey of Persian Art, pp. 2997-3007. Idem, “Persepolis,” Iraq 19, 1957, pp. 55-77. P. Beck, “A Note on the Reconstruction of the Achaemenid Robe,” Iranica Antiqua 9, 1972, pp. 116-22. P. Bernard, “Les bas-reliefs gréco-perses de Dascylion à la lumière de nouvelles découvertes,” Revue d’archéologie 2, 1969, pp. 17-28. F. W. von Bissing, “Totenstele eines persischen Grossen aus Memphis,” ZDMG 84, 1930, pp. 226-38. K. Bittel, “Ein persischer Feueraltar aus Kappadokien,” in Satura. Früchte aus der Antiken Welt Otto Weinreich zum 13. März 1951 dargebracht, Baden-Baden, 1952, pp. 15-29. S. Bittner, Tracht und Bewaffnung des persischen Heeres zur Zeit der Achaimeniden, 2nd ed., Munich, 1985. A. D. H. Bivar, “Details and "Devices" from the Sassanian Sculptures,” Oriental Art, N.S. 5/1, 1959, pp. 11-14. Idem, “A Persian Monument at Athens, and Its Connections with the Achaemenid State Seals,” in M. Boyce and I. Gershevitch, eds., W. B. Henning Memorial Volume, London, 1970, pp. 43-61. J. Boardman, Greek Gems and Finger Rings, London, 1970. J. Borchhardt, “Epichorische, gräko-persisch beeinflusste Reliefs in Kilikien. Studien zur Kunst an den Satrapenhöfen Kleinasiens,” Istanbuler Mitteilungen 18, 1968, pp. 161-211. A. Bovon, “La représentation des guerriers perses et la notion de barbare dans la 1^ère moitié du V^e siècle,” Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 87, 1963, pp. 579-602. P. Calmeyer, “Vom Reisehut zur Kaiserkrone B. Stand der archäologischen Forschung zu den iranischen Kronen,” AMI, N.F. 10, 1977, pp. 168-90. J. M. Cook, The Persian Empire, New York, 1983. W. Culican, “Syro-Achaemenian Ampullae,” Iranica Antiqua 11, 1975, pp. 100-12. O. M. Dalton, The Treasure of the Oxus, 3rd ed., London, 1964. M. A. Dandamaev, Persien unter den ersten Achameniden (6. Jahrhundert v. Chr.), tr. H.-D. Pohl, Wiesbaden, 1976. J. M. Dentzer, “Reliefs au banquet dans l’Asie Mineure de V^e siècle av. J. C.,” Revue d’archéologie 2, 1969, pp. 194-224. M. Dieulafoy, L’Acropole de Suse, 2 vols., Paris, 1890-93.

C. T. Edmonds, “A Tomb in Kurdistan,” Iraq 1, 1934, pp. 183-92. H. von Gall, “Persische and medische Stämme,” AMI, N.F. 5, 1972, pp. 261-83. Idem, “Die Kopfbedeckung des persischen Ornats bei den Achämeniden,” AMI, N.F. 7, 1974, pp. 145-61. R. Ghirshman, Persia from the Origins to Alexander the Great, tr. S. Gilbert and J. Emmons, London, 1964. H. Goetz, “The History of Persian Costume,” in Survey of Persian Art, pp. 2227-56. B. Goldman, “Origin of the Persian Robe,” Iranica Antiqua 4, 1964, pp. 133-52. A. S. F. Gow, “Notes on the Persae of Aeschylus,” The Journal of Hellenic Studies 48, 1928, pp. 133-58. V. von Graeve, Der Alexandersarkophag und seine Werkstatt, Berlin, 1970. P. O. Harper, The Royal Hunter. Art of the Sasanian Empire, New York, 1978. E. Herzfeld, Iran in the Ancient East, London, 1941. W. Hinz, Altiranische Funde und Forschungen, Berlin, 1969. Idem, Darius und die Perser, 2 vols., Baden-Baden, 1976-79. M. G. Houston, Ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Persian Costume and Decoration, 2nd ed., London, 1954. H. J. Kantor, “Achaemenid Jewelry in the Oriental Institute,” JNES 16, 1957, pp. 1-23. I. Kleemann, Der Satrapensarkophag aus Sidon, Berlin, 1958. E. R. Knauer, “Ex Oriente Vestimenta. Trachtgeschichtliche Beobachtungen zu Ärmelmantel and Ärmeljacke,” ANRW II, XII/3, 1985, pp. 578-741, esp. p. 607. J. A. Lerner, “The Achaemenid Relief of Ahura Mazda in the Fogg Art Museum,” Bulletin of the Asia Institute of Pahlavi University (Shiraz), 2, 1971, pp. 19-35. Idem, “A Painted Relief from Persepolis,” Archaeology 26, 1973, pp. 116-22. Idem, “Some So-Called Achaemenid Objects from Pazyryk,” Source 10/4, 1991, pp. 8-15. H. Luschey, “Studien zu dem Darius-Relief von Bisutun,” AMI, N.F. 1, 1968, pp. 63-94. M. Mellink, “Anatolia,” in CAH ² IV, pp. 211-33. P. R. S. Moorey, “The Iranian Contribution to Achaemenid Material Culture,” Iran 23, 1985, pp. 21-37. T. Nöldeke, “Zum Herodot,” Klio 18, 1923, pp. 1-5. V. Pisani, “Altpers. -va-, avest. anai-im, lat. sura,” ZDMG 96, 1942, pp. 82-83. E. Porada, “Classical Achaemenid Architecture and Sculpture,” in Camb. Hist. Iran II, pp. 793-827.

G. Rawlinson, The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient World IV, London, 1867. A. Roes, “The Achaemenid Robe,” Bibliotheca Orientalis 8, 1951, pp. 137-41. P. Roos, “An Achaemenian Sketch Slab and the Ornaments of the Royal Dress at Persepolis,” East and West 20, 1970, pp. 51-59. M. Rostovtzeff, Iranians and Greeks in South Russia, Oxford, 1922. S. I. Rudenko, Frozen Tombs of Siberia. The Pazyryk Burials of Iron Age Horsemen, tr. M. W. Thompson, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1970. F. Sarre and E. Herzfeld, Iranische Felsreliefs, Berlin, 1910. E. F. Schmidt, Persepolis, 3 vols., Chicago, 1953-70. R. Schmitt, “Perser und Persisches in der alten attischen Komödie,” Orientalia J. Duchesne-Guillemin Emerito Oblata, Acta Iranica 23, Leiden, 1984, pp. 459-72. H. Schoppa, Die Darstellung der Perser in der griechischen Kunst bis zum Beginn des Hellenismus, Coburg, Germany, 1933. A. Sh. Shahbazi, The Irano-Lycian Monuments, Tehran, 1975. Idem, Persepolis Illustrated, Tehran, 1976. Idem, “New Aspects of Persepolitan Studies,” Gymnasium 85, 1978, pp. 487-500. Idem, “Darius in Scythia and Scythians in Persepolis,” AMI, N.F. 15, 1982, pp. 189-235. C. G. Starr, “Greeks and Persians in the Fourth Century B.C. A Study in Cultural Contacts before Alexander,” Iranica Antiqua 12, 1977, pp. 49-115. D. Stronach, “La statue de Darius le Grand découverte à Suse,” CDAFI 4, 1974, pp. 61-72. G. Thompson, “Iranian Dress in the Achaemenian Period. Problems Concerning the Kandys and Other Garments,” Iran 3, 1965, pp. 121-26. A. B. Tilia, Studies and Restorations at Persepolis and Other Sites of Fārs, 2 vols., Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, Reports and Memoirs 16, 18, Rome, 1972-78. G. Walser, Die Völkerschaften auf den Reliefs von Persepolis. Historische Studien über den sogenannten Tributzug an der Apadanatreppe, Berlin, 1966. G. Widengren, “Some Remarks on Riding Costume and Articles of Dress among Iranian Peoples in Antiquity,” in Arctica, Studia Ethnographica Upsaliensia 11, 1956, pp. 228-76. F. Winter, Das Alexandermosaik aus Pompeji, Strassburg, 1909.

(A. Shapur Shahbazi)

In the Arsacid Period

The Parthian period (ca. 250 b.c.e.-224 c.e.), when the Arsacid dynasty ruled, or claimed to rule, Persia, was the period in which trousers and sleeved coats became common garb throughout the Near East. These garments, the direct ancestors of modern dress, crossed political and ethnic boundaries and were worn from northern India to Syria, continuing styles already

documented for the Achaemenids (see ii, above; Bittner). The conquests of Alexander the Great and subsequent Seleucid rule produced no change in Persian dress. On the contrary, Persian styles spread and even on occasion influenced the dress of the Greeks.

Male clothing. The most distinctive Parthian garment was trousers (šalwār) of fairly fine fabric that fell in elliptical folds to the ankles (Kawami, 1987, pl. 11), where the hems might be fastened snugly or pushed into boot tops (Kawami, 1987, pls. 7, 4). It has been suggested that in some Parthian sculptures, for instance, the well-known bronze figure from Šāmī (Shami) in Ḵūzestān (ancient Elymais; see plate lxvii), the representations of trousers were actually intended as leggings of leather, worn for protection while riding (Godard, p. 158). The Šāmī “prince” does indeed wear leggings of an unidentified material, but they are worn over trousers, not in place of them, and the fine soft drape of the material does not evoke leather. A second type of trousers had sharp vertical pleats (Kawami, 1987, pls. 4, 26). The apparent stiffness of the pleats and their pronounced width suggest a heavy cotton, linen, or wool fabric (for Parthian textiles, see Kawami, 1989). A third type appears only on a relief from Bard-e Nešānda (Bard-i Neshandeh; see plate lxviii) in Ḵūzestān, where trousers with horizontal folds or wrinkles are depicted (Kawami, 1987, pl. 26). Neither the trousers with elliptical folds nor those with vertical pleats appear in the Achaemenid reliefs at Persepolis (see ii, above). The third type of trousers is, however, shown as part of the garb of the Bactrian delegation on the Apadāna reliefs (Schmidt, I, p. 195, pl. 41A-B), suggesting a northeastern origin for the garment.

Two types of sleeved garment were worn with the trousers, a fitted jacket that closed in front and a loose tunic with no discernible opening, both worn belted. These garments were worn by royal and nonroyal figures. The earliest version of the jacket resembles Achaemenid examples and is documented at Assur in northern Mesopotamia in the early 1st century c.e. (Colledge, pl. 28b). It was a short, hip-length garment wrapped diagonally across the chest, its snug fit accentuated by a narrow belt at the waist, appropriate dress for such active pursuits as hunting on horseback, when loose folds might have hampered movement. This type of jacket appears on sculptures from Ḵūzestān, on coins of the Arsacid kings, and in nonroyal representations (Kawami, 1987, pls. 7, 11; Camb. Hist. Iran III/1, pls. 4/1, 5/12, 6/1, 9/3). A related version, a knee-length coat left open in front to reveal a tunic underneath, is also known from many Achaemenid representations. In these earlier illustrations, however, the coat is always shown draped loosely over the shoulders, the sleeves dangling empty at the sides. Indeed, a fur coat with sleeves too narrow to be wearable has survived from the 5th-4th century b.c.e. (Kawami, 1989, p. 16 n. 50). Parthian representations of this coat are somewhat later in date than those of the short, fitted jacket. In Persia it is known only from Bard-e Nešānda, where both the Arsacid king and his attendants wear it (Kawami, 1987, pl. 26). Outside Persia, however, it is well documented on royal images, from Hatra in Mesopotamia to the Kushan kingdom in what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan (Ghirshman, p. 89, fig. 100; Colledge, pl. 14).

The second basic type of sleeved garment, the long tunic, was worn either under the open coat or, more commonly, by itself. Outside Persia it was sometimes patterned all over with diamond shapes, which could also appear on trousers. Persian tunics were ornamented with bands, probably embroidered or woven, at the wrists and necklines. Occasionally one to three ornamental strips ran down the front of the garment, evoking the decorated tunics of the late Hellenistic Mediterranean (Kawami, 1987, p. 142, pl. 4; Trilling, pp. 47-49, 64-72, 77). The tunic was frequently secured by a loose, low-slung belt worn at the hips. Such belts could be simple broad bands, presumably of leather, or they might feature a variable number of decorative medallions or plaques. A complete gold belt of a similar design has been excavated in northern Afghanistan (Sarianidi, no. 4.2, pp. 150-54, 246-47). Although outside the area of direct Parthian or Arsacid control, this find is dated to the Parthian period. In the second half of the Parthian period two types of tunic can be distinguished in representations. One type, worn with an elaborate broad belt, has a flaring hem suggestive of a smooth, stiff fabric. It has parallels in the dress of the Kushans (Ghirshman, pp. 269, 279; Colledge, pl. 14a-b) and other related groups to the east (Kawami, 1987, pp. 144-45). The other type is distinguished by fine, soft pleats and a narrow belt and is related to contemporary dress at Palmyra in Syria (Ghirshman, p. 3 figs. 4-5, pp. 78-79). Both types of tunic are documented in Ḵūzestān, where trade routes from eastern and western Asia met. The major regional distinction that can be observed in Parthian dress is the preference in most of western Persia for the short belted jacket, whereas the longer, fuller tunic was preferred in Ḵūzestān.

Another distinctive item of clothing, a long, narrow bundle of fabric worn over the left shoulder, is known only from Ḵūzestān. It occurs regularly in depictions of rulers on the early coinage of Elymais issued by the local Kamnaskirid dynasty (1st century b.c.e.-1st century c.e.; Camb. Hist. Iran III/1, pls. 11/12, 12/1-2) and later on sculptures in the same region (Kawami, 1987, pls. 26, 38, 59). It was never worn by the Arsacid kings and appears only once outside Ḵūzestān, at Bīsotūn (q.v.; Kawami, 1987, pl. 4). As it is usually worn by priestly, rather than secular, figures in these representations, it has been interpreted as a badge of religious office; the evidence of the Kamnaskirid coins would then suggest that they held such office themselves (Henning, p. 165). The origins of the roll are obscure; one possibility is that it was derived from the twist or loop of cloth carried by the figure directly behind the royal figure in a relief in the Treasury at Persepolis (Schmidt, I, pl. 121).

The footgear of this period, boots of soft leather, continues a general type known in the Achaemenid period, but the Achaemenid examples are worn only by delegations from the northeastern regions carved on the Apadāna reliefs at Persepolis (Schmidt, I, pls. 30B, 33B, 41A-B). The latter illustrate footgear that originated in the regions in which the Arsacid dynasty arose. The simple style precludes recognition of most utilitarian details, showing only the differences in the height of the boot tops and occasionally the use of straps with ornate buckles to secure the loose material at the ankle (Kawami, 1987, pl. 31). Examples of these buckles have been excavated at the Parthian site of Tilga Tepe in northern Afghanistan (Sarianidi, no. 4.1, pp. 182, 246, 247), but none is known from Persia proper. The multiple straps seen in some Achaemenid renderings (Bittner, pls. 2-5a) are not shown in Parthian representations.

Female clothing. Women are seldom represented in Parthian reliefs. Their main dress seems to have consisted of a long, full garment, belted at the waist and falling to the ankles in many fine pleats. It is distinguished from the loose male tunic only by its length. A second element of female garb was a veil covering the back of the head. Such veils were common throughout the Near East and the Aegean from the Achaemenid (see ii, above) through the Parthian period (Macurdy). Footgear was presumably similar to that of men, but the few known representations are too summary to warrant further conclusions.

See also armor; belts.

Bibliography : L. I. Al’baum, Zhivopis’ Afrasiaba (The paintings of Afrāsīāb), Tashkent, 1975. A. Arzhantseva, Poyasa na rospisyakh Afrasiaba (Belts in the Afrāsīāb paintings), Istoriya Material’noĭ kul’tury Uzbekistana 21, Tashkent, 1987. G. Azarpay et al., Sogdian Painting, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1981. A. M. Belenitskiĭ, Monumental’noe isskustvo Pyandzhikenta (The monumental art of Panjīkant), Moscow, 1973. Idem, Mittelasien. Kunst der Sogden, Leipzig, 1980. Idem and B. I. Marshak, “Voprosy khronologiĭ zhivopisi rannesrednevekovogo Sogda” (Chronological investigations of early medieval Sogd), Uspekhi sredneasiatskoĭ arkheologii (Progress report on Central Asian archeology), Leningrad, 1979, pp. 32-37. A. M. Belenitskiĭ and V. I. Raspopova, “Sogdiĭskie "zolotye poyasa"” (Sogdian gold belts), Strany i narody vostoka (Moscow) 22, 1980, pp. 213-18. I. B. Bentovich, “Pletenye izdeliya iz raskopok na gore Mug” (Wicker articles from the excavations at Mount Mug), in Kratkie soobshcheniya o dokladakh i polevykh issledovaniyakh Instituta istorii Material’noĭ Kul’tury (Moscow) 61, 1953, pp. 65-69. Idem, “Odezhda rannesrednevekovoĭ Sredneĭ Asii” (The clothing of early medieval Central Asia), Strany i Narody Vostoka (Moscow) 22, 1980, pp. 196-213. Drevnosti Tadzhikistana. Katalog vystavki (Ancient Tajikistan. Catalogue of the exhibition), Dushanbe, 1985. M. V. Gorelik, “Skifskiĭ muzhskoĭ kostyum v sisteme kompleksa odezhdy iranoyazychnykh narodov drevnosti” (Scythian male costume within the system of dress of the ancient Iranian-speaking peoples), in III. Vsesoyuznaya konferentsiya Iskusstvo i arkheologiya Irana i ego svyaz’ s iskusstvom narodov SSSR s drevneĭshykh vremen (Third joint conference on the art and archeology of Iran and its connections with the art of the peoples of the U.S.S.R. in ancient times), Moscow, 1973, pp. 32-33. [V. A. Livshits,] Yuridicheskie dokumenty i pis’ma. Chtenie i kommentariĭ V. A. Livshitsa (Juridical documents and letters. Readings and commentary by V. A. Livshits), Sogdiĭskiye dokumenty s gori Mug 2, Moscow, 1962. N. P. Lobacheva, “Sredneaziatskiĭ kostyum rannesrednevekovoĭ èpokhi” (Central Asian costume of the early medieval period), in Kostyum narodov Sredneĭ Asii (Costume of the people of Central Asia), Moscow, 1979, pp. 18-49. E. E. Nerazik, Raskopki Yakke-Parsana (The excavations at Yakka-Parsan), Materialy Khorezmskoĭ Èkspeditsii 7, Moscow, 1963. V. A. Shishkin, Varakhsha, Moscow, 1963. Skul’ptura i zhivopis’ drevnego Pyandzhikenta (The sculpture and paintings of ancient Panjīkant), Moscow, 1959. A. P. Vasil’ev, “Sogdiĭskiĭ zamok na gore Mug” (the Sogdian castle on Mount Mug), in Sogdiĭskiĭ sbornik, Leningrad, 1934, pp. 18-32. Yu. Yakubov, Pargar v VII-VIII vekakh nasheĭ èry (Pargar in the 7th-8th centuries c.e.), Dushanbe, 1979. Zhivopis’ drevnego Pyandzhikenta (Paintings of ancient Panjīkant), Moscow, 1954.

(Aleksandr Naymark)

Of the Iranian Tribes on the Pontic Steppes and in the Caucasus

The main attention of those who have studied the Iranians of the eastern European steppes has been focused on the headdress and the caftan of the aristocracy. Most of the rich gold ornaments of their costume, as well as detailed representations of them, are connected with the Scythians in the Ukraine in the 4th century b.c.e. and with the Alans (q.v.) of the 1st and 2nd centuries c.e., two periods when these nomadic peoples were in close contact with Greek colonists around the Black Sea.

The Scythians and related peoples. The Central Asian origin of the Scythians, mentioned by Herodotus (4.11), can be corroborated by means of specific parallels between the costume of the western Scythians and those of the Saka tigraxaudā and haumavargā, the Bactrians, and the Sogdians of the 6th-4th centuries b.c.e. (see ii, v, vi, above). Three varieties of western Scythian male dress associated with three different groups within the Scythian federation (the “royal Scythians,” the “nomads,” and the “farmers” [georgoi]; Strabo, 7.4.6, 11.2.1; cf. cimmerians) can be distinguished, mainly by the ornamentation of the trousers and the type of headdress. The mentioned parallels with Central Asian costume are to be found only in the clothing of the “royal Scythians,” the easternmost group (concentrated in the eastern Crimea and on the northern shore of the Sea of Azov) and also the most influential.

Both sexes wore caftans open in front (kurta), trousers, and a tunic with a round neck opening and long side slits, convenient for riding horses. The Scythian caftan was constructed of two pieces of cloth stitched at the shoulders and at the sides and hemmed. The front normally did not fasten but was wrapped to the left. In a special variant the hem of the caftan tapered to two vertical points in front. The caftan might be made of woolen cloth, textiles woven from hemp, deerskin, or thick felt. In the 1st century c.e. Roman silk began to be used, and in the 4th century linen was introduced. The opening and hem were often trimmed with fringe, rows of gold plaques or beads, and, after the introduction of silk, strips of gold brocade. Sometimes the caftan, and the trousers as well, was quilted from narrow strips of cloth. Winter cloaks (Gk. sísirna) were made of sheepskin or the skins of marmots and decorated with beaver, otter, and fox fur. In the 2nd-1st centuries b.c.e. the fashion of fastening them at the shoulder with fibulae was adopted. High boots were fastened by straps that wrapped around the leg; shoes sewn from one or two pieces of leather were fastened with laces. Other distinctive Scythian features were a small knot of hair centered on the forehead and a pair of locks curled in one of two ways flanking the face.

Representations of aristocrats can be identified particularly by special forms of headdress and such jewelry as torques, bracelets, and belts either made of gold or abundantly ornamented with it. Favorite ornamental motifs were animal-combat scenes, chthonic monsters, and the “tree of life.” “Royal Scythians” wore hemispherical headdresses cast from gold and also decorated with mythological themes. The color red was associated with the military aristocracy and predominated in all elements of the warrior’s costume.

The most typical Scythian woman’s headdress consisted of a rigid frame covered with gold plaques ornamented with figural motifs. This “Scythian calathos” (< Gk. kálathos, a vase-shaped basket worn on the head), the tiara, and the high conical headdress were always worn with a flowing scarf and gold pendants at the temples. A long skirt opening in front was also typical. An unusual type of cloak was the candys (q.v.), which contrasted with that worn by other Iranians in having wide, loose sleeves.

From early infancy the clothing of children was covered with beads and gold plaques, and a great number of amulets were attached to their garments. The dead were buried in new sets of ceremonial garments. In the graves of some aristocratic women two to four complete sets of ceremonial dress for different ritual functions were found.

In the 5th-4th centuries b.c.e. Scythian fashions heavily influenced the clothing of the aristocracy of tribes inhabiting the forest and steppe zones of the Ukraine, as well as the Maeotae (Strabo, 5.195, 5.201) of the Kuban region.

The Sarmatians and related peoples. Both the “early Sarmatians” (from the end of the 4th century b.c.e. to the middle of the 1st century c.e.) and the “late Sarmatians” (from the mid-2nd century to the end of 4th century c.e.) were related to the Massagetae and Dahae (q.v.) of the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea. During this period items of clothing similar to those worn by Scythians and also to some degree by Parthians and ancient Bactrians were widely diffused: short cloaks, caftans opening in front, loose trousers, headdresses with one or two disks over the forehead. The Sarmatians also sometimes bought clothing readymade from Greek merchants (Strabo, 11.2.3). The late Sarmatians wore high boots and leather stockings, shoes with turned-up toes, or high felt boots. At the end of the 2nd century c.e. a sleeveless dress fastened at each shoulder with a fibula was adopted by the women. Both men and women covered their bodies with tattoos (Pliny, Historia Naturalis 22.2.), and children were tattooed in infancy (Sextus Empiricus, 3.202). Layers of red paint have been discovered on several excavated female corpses.

During the same period several waves of newcomers from the depths of Central Asia, whom the ancient writers called Alans (q.v.) and who are not to be confused with the Sarmatians, appeared. The first group, led by a chieftain named Anavsi, began to settle along the Kuban river at about the turn of the 1st century b.c.e. were followed by Alano-“Scythians,” who were to be found in the region of the lower Don in the 1st and early 2nd centuries c.e. In subsequent waves elements connected with the Huns, tribes from the region between the Sayan and Altai mountains, and the Yuezhi of Bactria (see chinese-iranian relations i. in pre-islamic times) settled farther west.

There were common features in the costume of these four migrating populations. Men wore a shirt made from a single piece of cloth with a deep triangular opening at the neck and a traditional tailored caftan with a front closing, its seams masked by gold beads strung on leather thongs. The cloak was fastened on the right shoulder. Women wore a dress that reached below the knees, with long, narrow sleeves and an opening over the breast; full trousers decorated with vertical rows of beads; and coats of varying lengths. In contrast to the men, they fastened the cloak on the left shoulder. There were no pockets in this costume; objects were suspended from the belt in specially made containers. The hair was generally worn in two plaits.

The shape of the dress worn by Sarmatians and Alans and the general style of ornamentation had a great influence on neighboring groups—Greeks, Maeotae, late Scythians. It can be traced in clothing of all social strata. Many aspects of this costume were still preserved by the Alans in the Middle Ages and by their descendants, the modern Ossetes.

Bibliography : E. V. Cernenko, The Scythians 700-300 B.C., London, 1983. M. B. Gorelik, “K ètnicheskoĭ identifikatsii personazheĭ, izobrazhennykh na predmetakh Amudar’inskogo klada” (On the ethnic identification of the personages depicted on objects from the “Oxus treasure”), in V. G. Lukonin, ed., Khudozhestvennye pamyatniki i problemy kul’tury Vostoka (Artistic monuments and problems in the culture of the east), Leningrad, 1985, pp. 36-46. L. S. Klochko, “Skifskie nalobnye ukrasheniya” (Scythian forehead ornaments), in V. D. Baran, ed., Novye pamyatniki drevneĭ i srednevekovoĭ khudozhestvennoĭ kul’tury (New monuments of ancient and medieval artistic culture), Kiev, 1983, pp. 37-58. T. V. Miroshina, “Skifskie kalafy” (The Scythian calathos), Sovetskaya Arkheologiya, 1980/1, pp. 30-45. Idem, “Nekotorye tipy skifskikh zhenskikh golovnykh uborov IV-III vv. do n.è.” (Some types of Scythian women’s headdress in the 4th-3rd centuries b.c.e.), Sovetskaya Arkheologiya, 1981/4, pp. 46-69. S. A. Yatsenko, “O drevnikh prototipakh muzhskoĭ plechevoĭ odezhdy Osetin” (The ancient prototypes of the Ossetic men’s shoulder garments), in V. A. Kuznetsov, ed., Arkheologiya i traditsionnaya ètnografiya Severnoĭ Osetii (Archeology and traditional ethnography of the Northern Ossetes), Ordzhonikidze, 1985, pp. 25-36. Idem “Diademy stepnykh kochevnikov Vostochnoĭ Evropy v sarmatskuyu èpokhu” (Diadems of the steppe nomads in eastern Europe in the Sarmatian period), in Kratkie soobshcheniya Instituta arkheologii Akademii nauk SSSR (Moscow) 186, 1986, pp. 14-20. Idem, “K rekonstruktsii zhenskoĭ plechevoĭ odezhdy Sarmatii” (On the reconstruction of the female shoulder garments of the Sarmatians), Sovetskaya Arkheologiya 1987/3, pp. 166-76.

(S. A. Yatsenko)

In Persia from the Arab Conquest to the Mongol Invasion

The Omayyad period (41-132/661-750). Investigation of costume in the Omayyad period is hampered by the scarcity of surviving representations; furthermore, many of those that do survive are purely symbolic and do not reflect what was actually worn. For example, all the so-called “kings of the world” in a wall painting at Qoṣayr ʿAmra in Jordan, of the 2nd/8th century (Ettinghausen, 1972, p. 190 fig. 2), wear Byzantine robes. Similarly, the approximately contemporary stucco reliefs from Čāl Tarḵān-ʿEšqābād, near Ray, in which a king is depicted hunting boar in full Sasanian royal regalia (Thompson, pl. II/1-2), probably do not accurately record contemporary princely dress; more likely they express the wholesale adoption of Sasanian attributes of power.

Nevertheless, there is some evidence that styles of the late Sasanian period in Persia continued to be worn for some time after the Islamic conquest. For example, the costume worn by “Bahrām Gōr” in a relief from the same site probably reflects that of a contemporary man of high rank: It consists of a smooth, close-fitting tunic with a jeweled belt at the waist, a wide skirt with jeweled hem below the knee, and tight sleeves ending in rolled cuffs or bracelets at the wrists worn over smooth trousers ornamented with pearls (Thompson, pl. II/3-4). Deborah Thompson (p. 21) has compared this garb with that worn by Ḵosrow II Parvēz (r. 591-628) on the Investiture and Boar Hunt reliefs at Ṭāq-e Bostān (see iv, above); the absence of a central fastening in front is most closely paralleled in the robe in the investiture and those worn by the courtiers in the boar hunt (Fukai and Horiuchi, I, pl. V; Peck, 1969, pls. XV-XVII). Stiff, close-fitting decorated caftans (long, heavy, often richly decorated robes with long sleeves, worn belted) and smooth pantaloons appeared in Sasanian Persia only in the 7th century and continued into the post-Sasanian period, as attested on the reliefs at Ṭāq-e Bostān and on silver vessels attributed to the 1st-2nd/7-8th centuries (Fukai and Horiuchi, I, pls. XXXV, XXXIX; Harper, 1981, pls. 19, 21, 27, 33, 36; idem, 1978, pl. 25). The flat cap with beaded fillet worn by “Bahrām Gōr” is also paralleled in the Boar Hunt relief, where it is worn by the king and some of his courtiers (Fukai and Horiuchi, I, pls. XLVIII, LVII). As Prudence Harper has pointed out, this cap, which is not characteristic of Sasanian dress, may have been introduced by Ḵosrow II, for it was incorporated into the royal headdress in representations on his coins (Peck, 1969, p. 121).

The taste for richly decorated caftans seems to have spread through Omayyad domains. Remnants of a stucco figure known as the “standing caliph,” from the unfinished 2nd/8th-century palace at Ḵerbat al-Mafjar, north of Jericho, probably built during the reign of the caliph Hešām (r. 105-25/724-43), show a smooth, close-fitting garment with wide skirt and narrow sleeves, girt with a jeweled belt and worn over full trousers and soft boots (plate lxxxv; Hamilton, pl. LV/1). The central fastening recalls the king’s coat in the Boar Hunt relief at Ṭāq-e Bostān, which was also worn with ample pantaloons (Fukai and Horiuchi, I, pl. XLVIII). This type of heavy coat had a long history in Persia (see v, above). Although it was worn in the early Sasanian period (Herzfeld, 1941, p. 309 fig. 402), its form at Ḵerbat al-Mafjar is closest to that in the late Sasanian representations at Ṭāq-e Bostān, which are closely paralleled in turn by garments in wall paintings and sculpture of the 5-8th centuries at Central Asian and Afghan sites like Bāmīān (q.v.), Qïzïl, Balalyk Tepe, Fondukistan (Fondoqestān) and Panjīkant (Panjīkaṯ; Rowland, pl. 57; T. T. Rice, figs. 83, 97, 157, 179; Belenitsky, 1968, fig. 143; see v, vi, above). Enough of the upper torso of the “standing caliph” has survived to suggest that the coat closed diagonally across the chest, from right to left. This type of closing recalls those on 4th or early 3rd-century b.c.e. tunics and jackets found at the Siberian site of Pazyryk, as well as rare Parthian and Sasanian examples (see iii, iv, above). The caftan worn by the standing caliph probably had lapels like those on the garments of smaller stucco figures from Ḵerbat al-Mafjar; (Hamilton, pl. XXXVI/6); this feature is also more closely linked with the caftans of Central Asia than with those represented at Ṭāq-e Bostān. The fastening, hem, and vertical slits on the sides of the skirt are edged with pearls, emphasizing the slightly pointed dip of the hem at the sides. The form of the skirt and the vents, suitable to a riding coat, are also known from late and post-Sasanian representations (Fukai and Horiuchi, I, pls. XXXV, XXXIX; Harper, 1981, pls. 19, 27, 36). The wide trousers, gathered at the ankles, hark back to Sasanian styles continued from Parthian and Kushan dress of the 2nd century c.e. (Kawami, pl. 31; Ghirshman, 1962, pp. 56 fig. 70, 155-56 fig. 197; Rosenfield, pls. 22, 120; Harper, 1981, pls. 10, 13, 16).

The dress of the “standing caliph,” which seems clearly to have been inspired by Sasanian and Central Asian models, is paralleled by a fur-lined green-silk caftan decorated with a pattern of sīmorḡs (legendary creatures generally represented in the art of this period as having the front quarters of quadrupeds combined with wings and peacocks’ tails) in roundels from a burial of the late 2nd/8th or early 3rd/9th century at Moshchevaya Balka in the northwest Caucasus and now in the Hermitage, Leningrad (Jeroussalimskaja, pls. I, XIII). It was probably worn belted over a lighter tunic, trousers, and soft leather shoes (Jeroussalimskaja, p. 186). This find provides evidence not only on the construction of early caftans but also on how they were fastened. The closing of the caftan, which was vertical, rather than diagonal, was from right to left in the Persian manner, as at Ḵerbat al-Mafjar, with small lapels (Figure 62); A. Jeroussalimskaja (p. 205) has noted that Chinese garments were wrapped in the opposite direction and that the Chinese considered a closing to the left characteristic of barbarians. The coat was fastened symmetrically by three or four pairs of tabs fastened to the right panel with covered buttons and containing buttonholes for a matching set of buttons on the left panel. A hidden button secured the waist, but the wide skirt, constructed of several panels of material, was unfastened in front, and the sides were slit for freedom of movement. Jeroussalimskaja (pp. 203-06) related the form and decoration of this garment to those of the royal caftan represented on the Boar Hunt relief at Ṭāq-e Bostān and to Central Asian examples. Only the wide sleeves, made separately and stitched to armholes, differ. Better-preserved men’s garments from Moshchevaya Balka suggest that the sleeves were generally longer than the wearers’ arms; though identical in cut to the sīmorḡ caftan, they are made of humbler materials, linen with silk borders or sackcloth.

The persistence of Sasanian styles of dress during the Omayyad caliphate is further exemplified by a stucco relief of a ruler from the palace at Qaṣr al-Ḥayr al-Ḡarbī in Syria, probably also dating from the time of Hešām. A tunic, decorated down the front and around the hem with a pearl band and at the knees with rosettes, is worn over ample trousers with jeweled bands down the front (Schlumberger, 1939, pl. XLV/3). The hem of the tunic is pulled up on the sides, probably by straps, which are represented as borders on the sides of the garment (Schlumberger, 1939, p. 353). This detail recalls the apron-like skirts of Sasanian Persia, which appeared first in the 4th-century reliefs at Ṭāq-e Bostān and were depicted on Persian metalwork into the 2nd/8th century (Fukai and Horiuchi, II, pls. LXVI, LXVIII, LXX; Harper, 1981, pls. 16, 19, 24, 29, 36). The Sasanian fashion, ultimately derived from Parthian dress, must have been adopted so that the long tunic could be worn for riding (see iv, above). The jeweled pantaloons were also adopted by the Sasanians from styles in vogue in Parthia and Palmyra (Ghirshman, 1962, pp. 47 fig. 60, 56 fig. 70, 79 fig. 91; Harper, 1981, pls. 13, 14, 16, 38). The headdress of the stucco figure at Qaṣr al-Ḥayr al-Ḡarbī was described by Daniel Schlumberger (1939, p. 328) as a flat cap with metallic fillet supporting a central jewel flanked by a pair of wings. The form recalls the caps depicted in the Boar Hunt relief at Ṭāq-e Bostān and in the “Bahrām Gōr” relief at Čāl Tārḵān-ʿEšqābād, but the wings were borrowed from Sasanian royal crowns.

Few depictions of nonroyal male figures have survived from the Omayyad period, but the late 2nd/8th-century finds from Moshchevaya Balka in the northwestern Caucasus provide evidence that men of lower social status probably wore garments similar at least in form to those worn by their rulers (Jeroussalimskaja, p. 203). In other stucco reliefs from Ḵerbat al-Mafjar riders of lesser rank wear stiff tunics over full pantaloons tucked into boots, a costume quite close to that of the “standing caliph” (Hamilton, pl. VII/2, 3, 7). Simple boots are most characteristic of Omayyad representations, though at Čāl Tārḵān-ʿEšqābād there is one example of boots with upturned toes (Thompson, p. 44, pl. IX/1). Figures of low social status are represented in the paintings of Qoṣayr ʿAmra with bare feet and legs and wearing simple short tunics with long or short sleeves (Almagro et al., pp. 182-86, pls. XXXIV-XXXVIII). This tunic was ultimately derived from the Greek chiton, which was secured by a belt and then pulled up and folded over it, and recalls tunics worn by servants in the Boar Hunt relief at Ṭāq-e Bostān, which in turn must hark back to depictions of servants’ garments on Palmyrene reliefs (Fukai and Horiuchi, I, pl. LXXIV; Peck, pp. 104, 105). Male figures depicted either hunting on horseback or butchering onagers are clad in longer robes with wide sleeves, the hems tucked up for greater freedom of movement (Almagro et al., pp. 133, 178, 180, pls. XXX, XXXII). Such clothing worn with neither shoes nor boots seems to echo Hellenistic traditions of dress, rather than those of Sasanian Persia. More elaborate male outfits are worn by two fan bearers flanking the enthroned caliph (Almagro et al., pp. 158, 159, pls. Xb, XI); they wear soft shoes, long robes with beaded collars, and mantles with elaborately patterned linings.

This costume is quite similar to that of a flute player depicted in a painting on the floor of a stairwell at Qaṣr al-Ḥayr al-Ḡarbī (Schlumberger, 1946-48, p. 89 fig. 4, pl. B), though the latter wears full trousers tucked into boots under his long belted caftan in violet cloth, with tight sleeves. The red of a tunic worn beneath shows at the cuffs and collar, and a long, transparent red cloak is worn over the whole. Flying ribbons and a jeweled scarf complete the costume (Schlumberger, 1946-48, p. 89 fig. 4, pl. B). Schlumberger (1946-48, p. 96) believed that this dress reflected Sasanian styles depicted on the reliefs at Ṭāq-e Bostān and on silver vessels, though in Sasanian art only royal or divine personages were shown wearing cloaks (see iv, above). The elaborate garments worn by the fan bearers at Qoṣayr ʿAmra and the flute player at Qaṣr al-Ḥayr al-Ḡarbī probably spread among both men and women of lower rank after the fall of the Sasanian dynasty.

In the main register of the same floor painting from Qaṣr al-Ḥayr al-Ḡarbī a hunter is shown wearing a close-fitting tunic with long sleeves similar to that in the “Bahrām Gōr” relief, though open below the waist to reveal trousers tucked into low boots (Schlumberger, 1946-48, p. 91 fig. 5, pl. B). The form of the robe is of Sasanian type, as are the knotted flying ribbons at the back of the head and the jeweled scarf fluttering from what is probably a leather belt (Schlumberger, 1946-48, p. 90, pl. B; Harper, 1981, pls. 10, 13, 15); as hunting was a royal pursuit, it is possible that a royal personage was being depicted.

Depictions of female dress surviving from the Omayyad period are even fewer than those of male dress. In a stucco relief of “Bahrām Gōr and Āzāda” from Čāl Tārḵān-ʿEšqābād the slave girl is shown in a close-fitting tunic with necklace, bracelets or rolled cuffs, full trousers, and small slippers. The dress falls in rippling folds, suggesting soft or transparent cloth, in contrast to the stiff textile of Bahrām Gōr’s caftan. Certainly the taste for close-fitting, diaphanous robes was already familiar in Sasanian times, reflected in representations of queens and goddesses on rock reliefs and of dancing girls on silver vessels (Ghirshman, 1962, pp. 173 fig. 215, 178 fig. 218, 215 fig. 256; Harper, 1978, pp. 60 fig. 18, 77 fig. 26). Trousers are not known to have been worn by women in the Sasanian period, however; they must have been introduced in imitation of male costume in the early Islamic period. Women wearing trousers are depicted on post-Sasanian silver plates (e.g., Survey of Persian Art IV, pls. 229A, 230B).

A more complex garment of approximately contemporary date is represented in the figure of a female lute player on the floor painting from Qaṣr al-Ḥayr al-Ḡarbī. A long white robe with narrow sleeves and a short overskirt is worn over an even longer green tunic. A violet mantle and soft shoes complete the attire (Schlumberger, 1946-48, p. 89 fig. 4, pls. B, XXV). The basic dress is reminiscent of Sasanian examples (Peck, 1969, pls. X, XI; Ghirshman, 1962, p. 218 fig. 259). The long cloak and multiple skirts were new fashions, worn also by female musicians on a post-Sasanian plate in the Hermitage (Survey of Persian Art IV, pl. 208A).

A woman’s headdress depicted on another fresco fragment from Qaṣr al-Ḥayr al-Ḡarbī consists of a low, cloth turban wound with a length of material surrounding the face, which could serve as a veil when necessary (Weiss, p. 433 no. 258). It is difficult to find earlier parallels for this turban, as few representations of Sasanian women other than queens and goddesses survive. Two harpists on the Boar Hunt relief seem to wear soft turbans, though damage to the surface has obliterated the details (Peck, 1969, pls. IXb, X; see iv, above, plates lxx, lxxi). The wound turban or ʿemāma (see ʿamāma) became the characteristic headdress of men in the Islamic world, and there is evidence that it was aready in use early in the Omayyad period (Masʿūdī, Morūj, ed. Pellat, IV, pp. 6-7; Ettinghausen, 1972, p. 30; Serjeant, p. 67).

In the wall paintings at Qoṣayr ʿAmra female figures appear in various styles of dress and undress. A flute player wears a long-sleeved garment patterned with floral roundels, diamonds, and flower sprigs (Almagro et al., p. 154, pl. VIb), reflecting the tradition of elaborately decorated female garments in the late and post-Sasanian periods (Fukai and Horiuchi, I, pls. LIX, LXIX, LXX; Ghirshman, 1962, pp. 215 fig. 256, 218 fig. 259). Dancers are shown either elaborately bejeweled but nude (Almagro et al., p. 175, pl. XXVIIc) or wearing draped blouses or sleeveless belted gowns with short overskirts, both costumes echoing classical attire (Almagro et al., pp. 154, 190, pls. V, XLIIc). The figure of Fortuna is also dressed in Hellenistic style, a draped robe with a veil drawn over her head (Almagro et al., p. 157, pl. IXb), whereas a “bacchante” is portrayed nude to the waist but adorned with collars, belts, and bracelets (Almagro et al., p. 157, pl. IXa). This alluring outfit is repeated on other Omayyad representations of courtesans and dancers: Stucco figures at the palaces of Qaṣr al-Ḥayr al-Ḡarbī and Ḵerbat al-Mafjar are shown nude to the waist and wearing elaborate torques with pendants, bracelets, anklets, and hair rosettes. Skirts, belted at the hips with twisted cords, are elaborately patterned; they are either pleated or wrapped like sarongs (Schlumberger, 1939, p. 354 fig. 25; Hamilton, pl. LVI/6-9). Although no such depictions survive in contemporary Persian sculpture, Schlumberger (1939, p. 354) compared them to representations on Sasanian and post-Sasanian silver objects. Certainly they call to mind the bejeweled dancers represented nude or in transparent, clinging robes on some vessels (Ghirshman, 1962, pp. 215-17 figs. 256-58; Grabar, pls. 19-23), but the style of the skirts is not known from Sasanian representations and seems peculiar to Omayyad and early ʿAbbasid art. In later times dancers were more discreetly clothed, with rare exceptions, for example, a drawing of a nude dancer (from Fatimid Egypt, probably 6th/12th century; Guest and Ettinghausen, pl. 12/43).

During the Omayyad caliphate dress for both men and women thus seems to have been derived in large part from the fashions of Sasanian and post-Sasanian Persia and Central Asia, though new elements had already appeared, for example, trousers and a complex arrangement of skirts worn by women. The clothing worn by rulers in sculptures from Qaṣr al-Ḥayr and Ḵerbat al-Mafjar suggests deliberate adoption of the attributes of power and authority associated with the vanquished empire.

The early ʿAbbasid period (132-ca. 422/749-1031). The trends observed in the Omayyad period continued through the early centuries of ʿAbbasid rule, with gradual evolution of new styles. In fragments of wall paintings and painted ceramic wine jars found in the palace of Jawsaq al-Ḵāqānī at Samarra in central Mesopotamia (218-27/833-42) male figures are depicted in the heavy, ornamented caftan with short, tight sleeves and hems dipping to points at the sides and ample, decorated trousers gathered at the ankles above small boots (plate lxxxvi). The caftan with short sleeves, a new feature, is worn over a tunic with long sleeves, recalling garments worn by both men and women in wall paintings from Qïzïl, perhaps dating from the 7th century c.e. (Herzfeld, 1927, pls. XVI, LXV, LXIX; Le Coq, 1926, p. 116). The bright hues of green, red, and pink seem to conform to the dictum of Abu’l-Ṭayyeb Moḥammad Waššāʾ (246-325/860-936) that men of position should wear pure colors and avoid “ugly” tones in their clothing (Serjeant, 1972, p. 214). A leather belt with short thongs, or lappets, is associated with the caftan worn by noble and warrior figures at Samarra (Herzfeld, 1927, p. 88 fig. 65, pls. LXV, LXVI, LXVIX). This belt, though also represented on the Boar Hunt and Stag Hunt reliefs at Ṭāq-e Bostān, was essentially a foreign fashion originally borrowed from nomadic peoples (Fukai and Horiuchi, I, pls. XXXV, XXXIX, L, LVII, LXXXIX). The first examples seem to come from 5th-6th-century burials of the Avars in Mongolia and southern Siberia, where two belts were customarily worn, the upper as a symbol of rank, the lower for suspending weapons (Ghirshman, 1953, p. 69; idem, 1963, pp. 305-06 fig. 13). The lappet belt was popular in Central Asia in the 6th-8th centuries, and on wall paintings there are many representations with small objects or weapons suspended from the thongs (Le Coq, 1924, pls. 14, 15, 17; Grünwedel, 1920, p. 128 fig. 14; Bussagli, p. 59; Belenitsky, 1973, pls. 9, 11, 122; see belts ii. in the parthian and sasanian periods).

A belt with three long lappets tipped with metal, from which two swords are suspended, is shown on a wall painting of the 3rd-4th/9th-10th centuries from the palace of Sabzpūšān at Nīšāpūr (Figure 63; Wilkinson, 1986, pp. 206-07 figs. 2.39-40). The rider is clad in a stiff, decorated caftan with tight sleeves, ornamented trousers (or leggings that cover the heels), and high boots with pointed toes. On the upper sleeves of the caftan are ṭerāz (embroidered) bands of pseudo-Kufic writing, a common element of clothing in the early Islamic period. Charles Wilkinson believed that plain, uninscribed brassards were worn in Persia as early as the 3rd/9th century; they appear on the garments of what have been identified as “Persians” in wall paintings of approximately that date at Bäzäklik (Wilkinson, 1986, p. 211; Le Coq, 1926, pl. 20); it is more probable, however, that they are Central Asian donor figures. Although this parallel underscores the influence of Central Asian styles on Persian clothing, inscribed brassards seem to be a purely Islamic innovation in dress. According to Wilkinson, the headdress worn by the painted rider from Sabzpūšān is probably a helmet of silk and leather, which he considered unique in form (1986, p. 209). Next to the rider is a second, damaged figure wearing a stiff embroidered coat; what appears to be a stole; ample, decorated trousers; and small slippers reminiscent of Omayyad examples (Wilkinson, 1986, p. 207 fig. 2.40). The headdress, an onion-shaped turban, perhaps of ornamented silk, with a pseudo-Kufic inscription and a knobbed finial at the top, is a new style that prefigures Islamic headdresses known from later representations; only the finial has earlier parallels, in the 7th-8thcentury paintings at Panjīkant (T. T. Rice, p. 108 fig. 91; Azarpay, p. 66 fig. 31). The turban may, however, have had precursors in the Omayyad period: A conical cap of wrapped cloth is depicted in a late 2nd/early 8th-century wall painting at Qoṣayr ʿAmra (Almagro et al., p. 162, pl. XIVb).

Samanid buff-ware ceramics from Nīšāpūr, generally dated to the 3rd-4th/9th-10th centuries, also attest the Sasanian and Central Asian origin of garments worn in Persia during the early ʿAbbasid period. Decorated men’s caftans with stiff skirts and diagonal closings (usually from left to right) and lapels were worn over wide trousers and boots with pointed or upturned toes (plate lxxxvii; Wilkinson, 1973, pl. 2; The Arts of Islam, p. 35, pl. 4); sometimes there were also an overskirt and an undergarment. This costume is closely related to those shown on wall paintings at Qïzïl (Le Coq, 1926, p. 116; Wilkinson, 1973, pl. 2). The curious pointed boots are akin to those of the rider in the painting from Sabzpūšān and in one early representation at Čāl Tārḵān-ʿEšqābād (Wilkinson, 1973, pl. 2/62a; Thompson, p. 44, pl. IX/1). Possible Central Asian affiliations can again be cited, for upturned shoes of felt and leather are known from the late 2nd-3rd/8th-9th centuries at Mazar Tagh, east of Khotan (Whitfield, pl. 84). A unique feature of male dress depicted on Nīšāpūr buff ware is the bifurcated wing-like veils or sleeve attachments, which terminate in narrow points (plate lxxxvii; Wilkinson, 1973, p. 47 fig. 64, pl. 2; The Arts of Islam, p. 35, pl. 4). Judging from the ceramics, tight-fitting, decorated shirts and full, elaborate pantaloons, sometimes covered from ankle to knee with stiff leggings, were also popular at Nīšāpūr (Wilkinson, 1973, pp. 45 fig. 62, 47 fig. 64). Leggings, a distinctively nomadic accouterment, were first worn by Persian tribes in the Achaemenid period and continued to be worn through the Sasanian period (see ii-iv, above). The stiff version represented on the ceramics most closely resembles those of donor figures on the wall paintings at Qïzïl (Le Coq, 1913, pl. IV; T. T. Rice, p. 190 fig. 180).

There appear to be but few representations of early ʿAbbasid headgear other than helmets, and it is often difficult to distinguish caps from hairstyles. It seems, however, that at Nīšāpūr long, decorated head coverings with points were popular, in contrast to the pointed caps with ear flaps that were worn with stiff coats and boots in Mesopotamia (The Arts of Islam, p. 35, pl. 4; Atıl, p. 18 fig. 3; Grube, 1976, p. 77 fig. 38). A number of headdresses are also to be found on silver and gold ʿAbbasid medallions of the 3rd-4th/9th-10th centuries. The ruler may be shown in what seems to be a crenellated crown or in a rounded cap with beaded brim, tied at the sides with ribbons; the latter harks back to Sasanian styles (Sourdel-Thomine and Spuler, pl. 154d-e). A camel attendant wears a tall, conical hat and a lute player a small pointed cap with a brim (Sourdel-Thomine and Spuler, pls. 155b, 204c). By the 5th/11th century the ruler was depicted wearing not a cap or crown but an elaborate tulip-shaped turban (Sourdel-Thomine and Spuler, pl. 267b).

Literary and historical accounts contribute further information on male clothing in the early ʿAbbasid period. Waššāʾ described the fashionable footgear for men of rank: shoes and boots of black or red leather with fur trim. He approved of the use of fine silk and linen shirts worn with cloaks and hoods but decried the choice of saffron-dyed garments and those scented with musk and ambergris, as such trappings were more appropriate to dancing and serving girls (Serjeant, 1972, p. 214). Ebn Qotayba Dīnavarī (213-76/828-89) gave an account of the cloaks (borūd) of Baṣra in southern Mesopotamia, which were, according to an Arab informant, “sewn with blossoms of spring which caught the eye” (ed. Guirgass, I, p. 300; Serjeant, p. 90). This description recalls the elaborately decorated garments depicted at Samarra and Nīšāpūr. The stiff contours of many of the early illustrated caftans may be explained by the statement of Ṯaʿālebī (d. 412/ 1021) that for winter silk (ḵazz) robes were lined (mobaṭṭan) with silk and quilted raw silk (qazz; Ḡorar, p. 710; Serjeant, p. 68).

On a few polychrome-painted ceramic wine jars from the Jawsaq al-Ḵāqānī palace monks or priests are depicted (Herzfeld, pls. LXI, LXIII). Their habits consist of striped shawls or vestments worn over long, decorated robes; hoods like balaclavas cover their heads and necks. The garb of a figure represented on an approximately contemporary luster-painted jar from Mesopotamia, consisting of along robe with a pointed hood and long veil, has been interpreted as that of a priest (Atıl, pp. 20-21 no. 4), though the presence of earrings suggests that the figure may be female. (There is no doubt that a comparable image on a luster-painted bowl from Fatimid Egypt, probably of the early 6th/12th-century, is a priest wearing a long, decorated robe with wide sleeves and a pointed hood; Lane, pl. 26a.)

A particularly valuable source of information on Persian costume in this period is a manuscript of Ketāb ṣowar al-kawākeb al-ṯābeta (Treatise on the fixed stars) by ʿAbd-al-Raḥmān b. ʿOmar Ṣūfī (q.v.), written in 355/965 for the Buyid ʿAżod-al-Dawla (q.v.) and copied by the author’s son in 400/1009. In the drawings of the personified constellations male and female clothing of the early 5th/11th century is represented in some detail. The basic male garment is a tunic similar in form to the caftan, with a diagonal closing from right to left and lapels, open in front below the waist to reveal knee-length trousers or long, loose pantaloons covering the heels. This tunic was worn over a shirt with longer sleeves (plate lxxxviii). It differs from the caftan in that it is shorter, has wider sleeves, and is made of soft material (Wellesz, pls. 2/3-4, 3/5, 4/7-8, 5/9). The most common male headdress represented in this manuscript is the soft, wound turban, flat in silhouette and set squarely on top of the head (Wellesz, pls. 2/4, 4/8, 5/9, 7/14). The personification of the constellation Cepheus, however, wears a tall hat, rounded at the top and covered with a lattice pattern (plate lxxxviii), probably representing the qalansowa ṭawīla (tall qalansowa). Richard Ettinghausen has identified the qalansowa as the official headgear of the Omayyad and early ʿAbbasid caliphs on the basis of historical and literary sources (1972, pp. 30-33), though no early pictorial representations survive, with the possible exception of the tall, rounded cap worn by a camel attendant depicted on a silver medallion of the caliph al-Motawakkel (232-47/847-61; Sourdel-Thomine and Spuler, pl. 154e). Ettinghausen traced its origin from the kyrbasía of the Achaemenids (see ii, above) through the 1st-century b.c.e. pointed hats represented at Commagenian Nimrud Dagh in southeastern Turkey and Parthian examples; tall, rounded caps were also current during the Sasanian period (Ghirshman, 1962, pp. 153-54 fig. 196, 169-170 fig, 212). By the beginning of the 5th/11th century the qalansowa had come to be worn by men who did not have royal status, even by non-Muslims. The taller version was probably of silk over a framework of reeds, whereas the shorter one may have resembled the modern fez and was most often worn wrapped in a turban. The use of the qalansowa ṭawīla is documented in illustrated manuscripts as late as the 8th-9th/14th-15th centuries (Ettinghausen, 1972, fig. 89; see ix, below).

Depictions of female dress in the 3rd-5th/9th-11th centuries are less numerous than those of male dress. A variety of styles is, however, depicted on the wall paintings from the Jawsaq al-Ḵāqānī palace at Samarra. In a particularly well-known example (plate lxxxix) two dancing girls are clad in long-sleeved hip-length tunics, long skirts, and soft shoes; the tunics are girdled at the hips with two strands of beads. Scarves are draped over the arms and across the front. On their heads the dancers wear rounded caps with gold diadems and strands of pearls in their hair, which is worn in long plaits. There are pearl drops in their ears. The pink garment on the left is patterned with “v”s, and the blue robe on the right has a broad, frilled collar. These bejeweled figures with their clinging robes and scarves are reminiscent of the dancers on Sasanian silver vessels (see iv, above, plate lxix). The broad collar and hip-length tunics are new features, however, probably derived from the costume of female entertainers like those on a post-Sasanian plate in the Hermitage (Survey of Persian Art IV, pl. 208A). A similar collar is also worn by male figures represented on post-Sasanian silver plates (pls. 208A, 218), and the caps of the Samarra dancers recall the round, filleted headdresses worn by male figures on still another vessel in the Hermitage (pl. 207B). Other dancers are also represented in the Samarra wall paintings; they are bare to the waist and wear brightly colored and patterned skirts girdled at the hips with corded sashes (Herzfeld, 1927, pls. XX-XXI), evoking the costumes depicted on Omayyad stuccos from Ḵerbat al-Mafjar and Qaṣr al-Ḥayr al-Ḡarbī (see above). Other female dress depicted at Samarra includes tightly fitted tunics with a variety of patterns and narrow short sleeves worn over long-sleeved undergarments, again resembling some male costumes (Herzfeld, 1927, pl. XVI). This type of tunic was also worn by both men and women somewhat earlier in Central Asia (Le Coq, 1926, p. 116).

Aside from the paintings at Samarra, depictions of women are rare from the Islamic world in the 3rd-4th/9th-10th centuries. Two women on a Samanid bowl are dressed like their male counterparts in heavy belted caftans with tight sleeves and simple undergarments; the caftans are wrapped diagonally from right to left and have lapels (Atıl, p. 24 no. 6). That such caftans were in fact worn by women is also clear from the donor figures on the wall paintings at Qïzïl (Le Coq, 1924, pl. 1; idem, 1926, p. 116). In the Ṣūfī manuscript already mentioned most of the female figures representing constellations are rendered as dancing girls. Two distinct types of costume are illustrated. One is a long, soft tunic with a diagonal closing; it is belted with a jeweled girdle over full trousers. Like the male tunics represented in the same manuscript, it has features in common with slightly earlier caftans but is of soft material and is worn with an undergarment with long sleeves and possibly a decorated skirt (Wellesz, pls. 3/6, 7/13): it lacks the lapels that usually appear on the male version, however. Female figures are frequently also represented wearing a more complex fashion. It consists of a close-fitting tunic with short scalloped sleeves and hem over an ankle-length dress with longer sleeves. A third skirt, short and open at the front, is held in place by a twisted scarf; sometimes tight, decorated trousers are worn beneath the dress as well (Wellesz, pls. 5/10, 6/11-12). All the female figures in the manuscript are adorned with jewelry: diadems with single composite jewels in front, necklaces, bracelets, hoop earrings, and anklets. The jewel on the diadem of one image of Andromeda is a rosette contained in a crescent, which is derived from elements of the Sasanian crown (Wellesz, p. 14, pl. 6/12). Although in general the jewelry and diadems are similar to those of dancers on Sasanian and post-Sasanian silver (e.g., Ghirshman, 1962, pp. 215-17 figs. 256-58), the dress is new and may reflect the actual attire of entertainers at the Buyid court.

The Saljuqs and the post-Saljuq period. The decorated caftan retained its popularity as a male garment into the 5th/11th century and can be seen in the wall paintings from one of the Ghaznavid palaces at Laškarī Bāzār in central Afghanistan, probably built by Masʿūd I (421-32/1030-41). On the inner faces of the piers in the throne room were painted friezes of richly dressed nobles, probably originally sixty of them, in stiff coats, which close diagonally from right to left and have lapels only on the right of the openings. The single lapel appeared at Balalyk Tepe in Sogdiana perhaps as early as the 5-6th centuries and occurs side by side with double lapels at Qïzïl (T. T. Rice, pp. 101 fig. 83, 97 fig. 112, 180 fig. 190). It seems that this Central Asian fashion was continued at Laškarī Bāzār. The caftans are worn over elaborate undergarments and are embellished with inscribed ṭerāz borders on the upper arms (Schlumberger, 1952, pls. XXI, XXII/1). They are belted with thonged girdles, from which small objects are suspended. Full trousers and high boots complete the outfit. Schlumberger (1952, p. 264) suggested that such inscribed garments were robes of honor presented by Muslim rulers to members of their retinues or to important allies. As details of the caftans, belts, and boots were apparently imported from Chinese Turkestan, he concluded (1952, p. 267) that these figures represent the Ghaznavid sultan’s Turkish bodyguard. A soft headdress resembling a turban in a wall painting from room IV in the same palace (Schlumberger, 1952, pl. XXXII/2) is also paralleled in Central Asia, in a wall painting at Bäzäklik of the 8th or 9th century (Bussagli, p. 110).

Few representations of either male or female dress seem to have survived from the period after the advent of the Saljuq dynasty (429/1038) in Persia through the early 6th/12th century. Illustrations in a manuscript of Ṣūfī’s treatise dated 525/1130-31 (Topkapı Sarayı, Istanbul, Ahmet III 3493) demonstrate some modernization of male dress in the century and a quarter since the Bodleian manuscript had been copied; although the basic forms of the turban and tunic remained the same, a belt with thongs for suspending weapons had been added (Wellesz, pl. 18/45). Silver belt ornaments from a Saljuq hoard said to have been found at Nehāvand (Gray, p. 75, pl. XXXII) attest that this type was still worn at the end of the 6th/12th century.

Continuity of dress styles between the two Ṣūfī manuscripts can, however, be assumed on the basis of representations on 11th-12th-century pottery, ivories, wall paintings, and woodwork from Fatimid Egypt, where Persian garments like the flat turban had a strong influence (Lane, pl. 26B; Atıl, p. 128 no. 57; Kühnel, 1971, p. 229 fig. 194; Ettinghausen, 1942, p. 123 fig. 23; Jenkins, fig. 6). It is shown, particularly on luster-painted pottery, along with the familiar embroidered caftan decorated with brassards and worn over boots. These garments differ from their Persian prototypes, however, in their wider sleeves and complex, polygonal necklines, a style peculiar to Fatimid Egypt (Lane, pl. 26B; Atıl, p. 128 no. 57; Ettinghausen, 1942, fig. 23). A taste for loose robes with wide sleeves seems to have had no parallel in Persia, though the surviving evidence is scant. Laborers and hunters in Fatimid art are shown wearing either short decorated tunics with sleeve bands and short underskirts or longer robes tucked up for greater freedom of movement (Kühnel, 1971, p. 229 fig. 194; idem, 1929, p. 408 fig. 404), costumes that may be traceable to styles depicted in the early 4th/11th-century Ṣūfī manuscript. A complex series of paintings on the ceiling of the Cappella Palatina at Palermo in Sicily, dated to about 534/1140, also attest the continuity of earlier styles of male dress: rounded turbans and long robes with sleeves and brassards worn with full trousers like those of the Fatimids (Ettinghausen, 1942, figs. 7-8; idem, 1962, p. 45). A three-pointed crown of reversed heart-shaped leaf forms is represented several times; it is reminiscent of ornate crowns depicted in the wall paintings from Panjīkant (Ettinghausen, 1962, p. 45; idem, 1942, fig. 7; Belenitsky, 1968, fig. 142).

Representations of women are also common on luster pottery and wall paintings of Fatimid Egypt. They, too, wear jeweled diadems and headdresses derived from Sasanian royal crowns or the fillets of dancers from silver vessels (Grube, 1968, p. 13 fig. 4; Philon, pl. XXIIA; D. T. Rice, p. 127 fig. 93). The women wear loose, decorated robes with wide sleeves banded with ṭerāz and polygonal necklines, similar to those worn by men. The robes may be girt with jeweled belts and worn over wide trousers (Grube, 1968, p. 13 fig. 4; Philon, pls. XXIIA, XXV; Robinson, pl. 3/1.7; D. T. Rice, p. 127 fig. 93).

The number of surviving illustrations of costume from the late 6th/12th and early 7th/13th centuries, the period of the small dynasties that succeeded the Great Saljuqs in Persia, is much greater, especially for men and women of high rank. Representations on ceramics and metalwork, as well as in wall paintings, manuscript miniatures, and stucco sculptures, permit a fairly comprehensive description of the clothing worn at court, among which new styles probably introduced by the Saljuqs were combined with older fashions.

Most characteristic for high-ranking men was a stiff, decorated caftan closing diagonally from right to left. D. S. Rice identified this garment as a qabāʾ (1953, p. 133; see xxvii, below), and L. A. Mayer suggested that the closing from the right was specifically Turkish, in contrast to the closing from the left, which he believed characterized “Tartar,” or Mongol, robes (p. 21). In fact, the closing from the right was typical of Persian caftans, worn with high boots, from the last decades of the Sasanian dynasty through the early centuries of Islam and also paralleled in Central Asian examples (see above). In the Turkish period the version with narrow sleeves and wide skirt was the single most important male garment. It is depicted in an early 7th/13th-century illustrated manuscript of Varqa wa Golšāh by ʿAyyūqī (q.v.) and on contemporary pottery without decoration other than gold arm bands, which appear to have been very common (Ateş, pls. 1/2-3, 5/13, 15; Atıl, pp. 82 no. 35, 92 no. 40, 100 no. 44). It sometimes closed vertically in front, with jeweled borders; the brassards were inscribed “the faithful” (al-moʾmenīn) or a similar expression; there might also be shoulder ornaments similar to epaulettes (plate xc), recalling late Sasanian and Central Asian embellishments at Ṭāq-e Bostān and Panjīkant (Fukai and Horiuchi, I, pl. LXVI; T. T. Rice, p. 108 fig. 91).

Nevertheless, the most distinctive feature of late Saljuq and post-Saljuq male dress was the popularity of patterned textiles for these garments. On pottery simple patterns of dots or groups of three dots (also a conventional textile pattern on Sasanian silver vessels) appear, as well as more complex patterns of tiny scrolls or arabesques of palmettes and half palmettes, some of them even incorporating figures (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 640B, 642, 643A-B, 651, 653, 673B; Atıl, pp. 68 no. 28, 72 no. 30, 78 no. 33, 102 no. 45, 104 no. 46). Various stripes and overall geometric patterns were also common (Lane, pl. 68; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 652, 654, 656A, 657A, 666-68; Atıl, pp. 78 no. 33, 84 no. 36, 96 no. 42). That these patterns do not merely represent ceramic conventions is clear from the rendering of garments in fragmentary wall paintings and in illustrations from the copy of Varqa wa Golšāh already mentioned, as well as in frontispieces to the volumes of Abu’l-Faraj Eṣfahānī’s Ketāb al-aḡānī dated 614-16/1217-19 and to two copies of Ketāb al-deryāq (Book of antidotes) by Pseudo-Galen, dated 596/1199 and ascribed to the second quarter of the 7th/13th century respectively (Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 554A-B; Ateş, pls. 1/3, 6/16, 18; D. S. Rice, 1953, figs. 14-19; Ettinghausen, 1962, pp. 65, 85, 91). The last three manuscripts, all of them attributed to northern Mesopotamia, show that the stiff coat with diagonal closing and arm bands was also worn in that region from the end of the 6th/12th century. The wavy patterning on some garments represents a local convention for rendering folds. The same garment was also depicted on contemporary inlaid metalwork from the same area (Du Ry, pp. 116-17; Guest and Ettinghausen, figs. 11-16). A variant of this coat had wide sleeves, similar to the robes known from Fatimid Egypt and the ceiling of the Cappella Palatina. Versions made from decorated textiles and with ṭerāz bands are depicted on contemporary Persian ceramics and in the illustrated Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript (Lane, pls. 55A, 58B, 68A; Atıl, 102 no. 45; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 641B, 687; Ateş, pls. 6/18, 10/27). They also appear on late 6th/12th-century metalwork (Baer, figs. 3-4), worn open at the neck with two lapels; though made of undecorated textiles, they are adorned with arm bands.

The dress for men of high station included a variety of head coverings, some of them harking back to older styles, others clearly of Saljuq Turkish derivation. The turban, which had been the most characteristic headgear for Muslim men since the Omayyad period, continued to be worn by men of importance, its larger size and typical flat-topped silhouette echoing those of the turbans depicted in the early 5th/11th-century Ṣūfī manuscript (see above). Turbans constructed from either plain or decorated lengths of cloth are illustrated on pottery and metalwork of the late 6th/12th and early 7th/13th centuries (Atıl, p. 72 no. 30; Lane, pls. 52C, 55A, 58B, 63A; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 642, 643B, 672, 686, 693; Guest and Ettinghausen, figs. 12-16, 73). In illustrations from the autograph Persian translation of Ṣūfī’s text by Ṭūsī (597-672/1201-74), dated 647/1249-50 (Topkapı Sarayı, Istanbul, Aya Sofya 2595), the turbans are even larger and more elaborate, adorned with ṭerāz bands inscribed in Kufic (plate xci; Wellesz, figs. 46, 48). Although no pictorial depictions of turbans with ṭerāz bands have survived from before this period, it is mentioned in historical sources that the late 4th/10th-century Fatimid caliphs wore them (Serjeant, 1972, p. 158). Smaller, more rounded turbans, sometimes with long ends dangling, are depicted in the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript (Ateş, pls. 1/1-3, 6/17-18, 7/20, 10/27, 11/32, 13/38); this type seems to have been much more common in the Arabic-speaking countries, where it, too, grew larger with the passage of time. In fact, despite the continuing use of the turban in Persia at the end of the 6th/12th and early 7th/13th centuries, it seems not to have been as popular there as in Syria and northern Mesopotamia. In contemporary manuscripts from the latter areas a great variety of styles not known from Persia are illustrated (Ettinghausen, 1962, pp. 75-77, 79, 87, 97, 106-07, 113-14, 116, 118-19).

In Persian art courtiers are also depicted wearing the winged crown. Although ultimately derived from the Sasanian royal ceremonial headdress and subsequently adopted by Omayyad rulers (see, e.g., the stucco figure from Qaṣr al-Ḥayr al-Ḡarbī), by the late 6th/12th century it had lost its royal connotations and become a decorative headdress for the nobility. In both ceramic and stucco representations it is shown as a pair of wings flanking a jewel in the shape of a lotus bud or placed above jeweled fillets (plate xc; Atıl, pp. 188 no. 52, 120 no. 53; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 687, 707C).

Among the new styles of headgear in Persia at this time were a variety of caps and hats of different shapes and sizes, ranging from small decorated creased or dented hats (Atıl, p. 68 no. 28) to flat caps with or without central knobs (Atıl, pp. 78 no. 33, 82 no. 35) to those with fur brims or made completely of fur (Atıl, p. 94 no. 41; Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 653). Flat hunting caps trimmed with fur are depicted on Saljuq wall paintings from Nīšāpūr (Wilkinson, 1986, fig. 28). Other headdresses were taller and slightly conical, with brims, or more similar to the modern fez, with finials (Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 643B, 646A, 688A; Atıl, p. 110 no. 50). Similar small hats with knobs and upturned brims were illustrated in wall paintings (Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 554) and in the illustrated Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript (Ateş, fig. 27), where fur-trimmed conical caps (plate xcii) and a tall forked headdress of curious shape (Ateş, pl. 1/3; İpşiroğlu, fig. 16) also occur. Tall, rounded caps with palmette-shaped cockades on the side or in front are also worn by courtiers in the frontispieces to the Ketāb al-aḡānī manuscript from northern Mesopotamia (e.g., Ettinghausen, 1962, p. 65). That these new types of headgear, rounded or pointed in outline, conical or brimmed, were introduced by the Turks is clear from earlier representations of similar forms at such Central Asian sites as Qïzïl, Dandan Öiliq, Bäzäklik, and Panjīkant (Grünwedel, 1920, pls. XXVII, XLIX; Le Coq, 1926, pl. 20; Whitfield, pl. 69; Belenitsky, 1968, fig. 144; Seyrig, pl. II).

The most distinctive headdress worn by rulers and courtiers was a conical cap with a wide fur band that also bordered a tall, rounded metal plaque in the front (plate xciii). It is illustrated on both glazed and unglazed ceramics from Persia and northern Mesopotamia (Lane, pls. 37B, 63A, 64B, 68A, 78A; Atıl, p. 96 no. 42; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 651, 672, 675, 688, 708). In the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript, on the other hand, the plaque is much taller than in the pottery representations, and the cap itself is often even taller, resembling the qalansowa ṭawīla (see above; Ateş, pls. 13/36, 14/39). In northern Mesopotamia and Syria this cap, as illustrated in the Ketāb al-aḡānī frontispieces and in the two copies of Ketāb al-deryāq already mentioned, as well as in several contemporary manuscripts of the Maqāmāt (Assemblies) by Ḥarīrī, was low and rounded, hidden by the taller plaque (Ettinghausen, 1977, pp. 65, 91; D. S. Rice, 1953, figs. 16-19; Buchthal, fig. 6). D. S. Rice (1953, p. 133) identified it with the šarbūš favored by the Zangids, a Turkish dynasty that ruled parts of northern Mesopotamia and Syria (521-619/1127-1222), and their successors (cf. Mayer, p. 28). It is difficult to trace the earlier history of this cap. Hats with rectangular plaques in both front and back, which may have been trimmed with fur (Le Coq, 1926, pl. 20), were depicted on the 3rd/9th-century wall paintings at Bäzäklik and may have been early versions of the Turkish šarbūš.

Finally, a characteristic fashion for rulers and men of high rank in the late 6th/12th and early 7th/13th centuries was tall boots, a natural choice of footgear for nomadic peoples, with a long tradition in Persia, from the Achaemenid period onward (see v, above). It is difficult to determine the form of the boots from post-Saljuq representations, as the tops are almost always hidden under the hems of the caftans. They were slim, close-fitting, with slightly pointed toes, and seem to have been made of soft leather (plate xciii). On pottery they are shown in a variety of colors: black, brown, red, blue, and green (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 668D, 686, 687, 705; Atıl, p. 100 no. 44), and some seem to have been patterned with scrolls, rosettes, and spirals (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 653, 651). In a few instances it is possible to glimpse the complete form of these boots, which rise to single points at the knees (Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 705), recalling the boots worn by servants in the Sasanian Boar Hunt relief at Ṭāq-e Bostān (Fukai and Horiuchi, I, pls. XXV, XLIII) and those depicted on post-Sasanian silver vessels (Harper, 1981, pls. 19, 27, 36). They were probably derived from Central Asian examples like those represented at Qïzïl, Dandan Öiliq, Fondukistan, Bäzäklik, and Panjīkant (Le Coq, 1928, pp. 116; Bussagli, pp. 57, 59, 80; Ghirshman, 1962, p. 32 fig. 430; Belenitsky, 1968, figs. 143-44) and on a Sogdian silver plate (T. T. Rice, p. 115 fig. 101).

On two ceramic pieces the pointed boot tops are elongated to form straps, which were apparently attached to inner belts in the manner of the leggings worn by the Parthians and Sasanians (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 672, 686; see v, above). That the boots illustrated in the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript were attached in this way is clear from battle scenes, in which the displacement of the coat reveals a broad thong reaching from the knee to an inner belt (plate xciii; Ateş, pls. 1/2, 2/4, 4/11, 5/13, 9/24; İpşiroğlu, fig. 17; Melikian-Chirvani, opp. p. 99, fig. 38). This method of securing boots was certainly of Central Asian origin and is represented in 6th-7th-century sculptures from Fondukistan, and 8th-9th-century wall paintings from Bäzäklik (Ghirshman, 1962, p. 321 fig. 430; Le Coq, 1913, pl. 22). Although the man’s caftan was almost always worn with trousers tucked into boots, the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript shows wide pantaloons worn outside (Ateş, pl. 11/32).

Male figures of lower social status are not represented wearing caftans and boots. In the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript the butcher and the baker are unshod and bare to the waist, wearing only loose white trousers (Ateş, pl. 1/1). Foot soldiers and attendants are shown in wrapped leggings or loose pantaloons and short jerkins (Ateş, pls. 8/21, 15/42). Varqa himself wears only loose pantaloons after being taken captive, apparently the usual garb for prisoners (Ateş, pl. 4/11; Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 692B; Grube, 1976, pl. 142). In the Ketāb al-deryāq manuscript of 596/1199 laborers and gardeners wear either knee-length trousers with bare torsos or short tunics without trousers (Ettinghausen, 1962, pp. 84, 85); on contemporary metalwork from the same region they wear short trousers with tunics tucked up and caught at the waist (D. S. Rice, 1949, p. 338 fig. D; idem, 1957, fig. 11). Although these workmen are often bareheaded, they also wear a variety of hats: tall conical bonnets with upturned brims (D. S. Rice, 1949, p. 338 fig. D), small pointed caps (D. S. Rice, 1957, fig. 11), and tiered caps (Ettinghausen, 1962, p. 85). One distinctive headdress that seems peculiar to northern Mesopotamia is a tall pointed hat with a broad brim, suitable for shading the face from the sun. It is seen on illustrations of gardeners and laborers on both inlaid metalwork and the later Ketāb al-deryāq manuscript (D. S. Rice, 1949, p. 338 fig. D; Ettinghausen, 1962, p. 91). In the same manuscript it is also worn as a traveling hat by horsemen wearing the decorated caftan associated with high rank (Ettinghausen, 1962, p. 91); on an inlaid ewer from Anatolia it is worn by a hunter (Allen, pl. 7, detail, p. 60).

A few figures are also shown clad in either loose or tight trousers of a richer sort, decorated with patterns and worn with elaborate short tunics. They include fallen enemies and fantastic winged creatures (Atıl, p. 112 no. 50; Lane, pl. 69A), as well as men engaged in enigmatic physical activities, perhaps acrobatics or dance (Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 712).

Representations of women in the 6th/12th and early 7th/13th centuries, though far more numerous than in earlier periods, are sometimes difficult to distinguish from beardless youths, as they also wear decorated, stiff caftans with narrow sleeves and diagonal closings from right to left (Atıl, pp. 99 no. 41, 96 no. 42, 104 no. 46, 120 no. 53; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 672, 689). These caftans are ornamented in the same way as those of their male counterparts, with arm bands and patterns of dots, scrolls, geometric, and figural designs. Robes with wide sleeves, recalling Fatimid examples (plate xciv), were apparently more popular for women than for men (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 641 B, 653, 693). Indeed, all female figures in the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript wear them, whereas the men almost always have narrow sleeves (plate xcii; Ateş, pls. 1/2-3, 5/15, 6/17-18, 7/19, 9/25-26, 10/28-29). These robes are sometimes worn under open, patterned coats with wide sleeves (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 651, 691 A, 720A). The woman’s caftan is sometimes shown open below the waist, revealing either wide white trousers or striped or plaid pantaloons underneath (plates xcii, xciv; Ateş, pls. 1/2-3, 5/15, 7/19, 10/28-29, 11/31, 14/39 and 41, 15/43; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 652, 664, 672), a garment that had first been adopted by women in the early years of the Omayyad period (see above).

Women of the court are depicted wearing small, pointed slippers in the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript (plate xcii; Ateş, pls. 1/2-3, 7/19, 10/28-29, 11/31, 15/43). On pottery one slipper may be worn while the other foot is shown bare with a tattooed or hennaed design and an anklet (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 651, 652, 653). Boots were seldom worn by female figures, though they do appear occasionally on ceramics (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 641, 672; Atıl, p. 10 no. 53).

Women of the court wore a variety of hair ornaments, crowns, and hats. Perhaps the most characteristic headdress, shown on pottery, on metalwork, and in manuscript illustrations, was a jeweled diadem ornamented in front with a round lotus bud or a trefoil-shaped jewel and sometimes bound with long, decorated ribbons (Atıl, pp. 94 no. 41, 104 no. 46; Lane, pls. 59 B, 84 A; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 641 B, 646 B, 651, 693; Grube, 1976, p. 183; Du Ry, p. 116). Such hair ornaments are worn by women in the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript (İpşiroğlu, fig. 16; Ateş, pls. 1/3, 13/38), the Ketāb al-aḡānī frontispieces, and the Ketāb at-deryāq of 595/1199 (D. S. Rice, 1953, fig. 17-19; D. T. Rice, 1965, pl. I, opp. frontispiece). They are very similar to those depicted on the female constellations in the early 5th/11th-century Ṣūfī manuscript (see above; Wellesz, pls. 3/6, 5/10, 6/11-12), which were ultimately derived from the diadems of dancers on late Sasanian silver vessels (Grabar, 1967, pls. 19-22).

A small flat cap adorned with a jewel or plaque in front or tied with ribbons was also a popular feminine style (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 653, 672; Lane, pl. 68A; Atıl, p. 96 no. 42). Other headdresses resembled those worn by men: round caps, flat hats with central knobs, and “fezes.” It is this similarity in particular that makes it difficult to distinguish between male and female representations (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 641 B, 664, 666, 688, 703; Atıl, pp. 120 no. 53, 121); only when the figures are represented wearing the characteristic tiered and looped earrings is it certain that they are female (plate xcii; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 641, 646, 652, 690, 691). These hats, which originated in Central Asia, are worn by female donor figures in wall paintings at Qïzïl (Grünwedel, 1920, pl. XXVII). The winged crown derived from Sasanian prototypes was also worn by high-ranking women. It is represented on ceramics, in the frontispiece to the 7th/13th-century Ketāb al-deryāq, and in the Persian translation of Ṣūfī’s text (plate xciv; Atıl, p. 120 no. 53; Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 687; D. T. Rice, 1965, pl. I opp. frontispiece; Wellesz, pl. 20/49). In the Ṣūfī manuscript the constellation wearing the winged crown is Andromeda, represented as a dancer or court entertainer. She is dressed in a fitted tunic, closing from right to left and belted with a sash; wide, floating trousers; pointed slippers; and a wealth of jewelery, including a necklace with pendant, earrings, two bracelets on each wrist, and anklets. The richness of her ornaments links this figure to dancers on Sasanian and post-Sasanian silver vessels and in Omayyad and early ʿAbbasid representations, though in the late 6th/12th and early 7th/13th centuries such dancers were more fully clothed.

In illustrations winged figures unfurling canopies above the heads of rulers or shown in conjunction with important personages are also dressed as court dancers. On ceramics they are usually shown wearing the jeweled diadem, slippers, wide trousers, and decorated tunics (Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 686). In the frontispiece to the Ketāb al-deryāq of 596/1199 such figures are dressed in brightly colored tunics tied up with sashes in front to allow greater freedom of movement; these tunics are decorated with arm bands and scrolled patterns and are worn over loose trousers with flaring cuffs in contrasting patterned textiles (D. T. Rice, 1965, pl. I, opp. frontispiece). The figures also wear elaborate jewelry. The central seated figure in the frontispiece is clad in the same way, with the addition of an elaborate loose coat with little underneath. In the Ketāb al-aḡānī frontispieces similar winged figures are shown in rich tunics and pantaloons (D. S. Rice, 1953, figs. 16-19).

In this period women were sometimes represented wearing scarves wound round their heads and draped over their shoulders, as in an illustration of Cassiopeia in the Ṣūfī manuscript dated 647/1249-50 (Wellesz, pl. 20 fig. 51) and in the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript, where it seems to characterize Golšāh’s mother and older women in general (Ateş, pls. 9/26, 10/29). In images on ceramics this scarf may be shown pulled up to veil the lower half of the face, especially during travel (Lane, pl. 62B); in one miniature from the 7th/13th-century Ketāb al-deryāq women traveling by camel are shown with their veils secured by headbands (Ettinghausen, p. 91).

It is clear from these examples that Persian clothing during the first six centuries of Islamic rule was strikingly conservative. Although new styles were introduced, especially after the advent of the Turks, innovative fashions in headgear and elaborate jewelry under the Saljuqs altered the basic form of Persian costume very little. There was also a definite trend toward a more androgynous mode of dress; in the 6/12th and 7th/13th centuries the caftan was worn as often by females as males, and women adopted such previously male accessories as boots and certain headdresses. Nevertheless, despite this shift, the traditional nature of Persian clothing remained fundamentally unchanged. The stiff, decorated caftan worn with boots and pantaloons, retained from late Sasanian and Central Asian fashions, continued to be worn by high-ranking men and women in Persia until the advent of the Mongols and even afterward (see vii, below).

Bibliography : J. W. Allen, Islamic Metalwork. The Nuhad es-Said Collection, London, 1982. M. Almagro et al., Qosayr ʿAmra. Residencia y baños en el desierto de Jordania, Madrid, 1975. The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, 1982. A. Ateş, “Un vieux poème romanesque persan. Récit de Warqah et Gulshāh,” Ars Orientalis 4, 1961, pp. 143-52. E. Atıl, Ceramics from the World of Islam, Washington, D.C., 1973. E. Boer, “An Islamic Inkwell in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” in R. Ettinghausen, ed., Islamic Art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1972. M. Belenitsky, Central Asia, Cleveland, 1968. Idem, Monumental’noe iskusstvo Pyandzihikenta, Moscow, 1973. H. Buchthal, “"Hellenistic" Miniatures in Early Islamic Manuscripts,” Ars Islamica 7, 1940, pp. 125-33. M. Bussagli, Painting of Central Asia, Geneva, 1963. J. Du Ry, Art of Islam, New York, 1970. R. Ettinghausen, “Painting in the Fatimid Period. A Reconstruction,” Ars Islamica 9, 1942, pp. 112-24. Idem, Arab Painting, Geneva, 1962. Idem, From Byzantium to Sasanian Iran and the Islamic World, Leiden, 1972. S. Fukai and K. Horiuchi, Taq-i-Bustan, 2 vols., Tokyo, 1969-72. R. Ghirshman, “Notes iraniennes V. Scènes de banquet sur l’argenterie sassanide,” Artibus Asiae 16, 1953, pp. 51-76. Idem, Persian Art. The Parthian and Sassanian Dynasties, New York, 1962. Idem, “Notes iraniennes XIII. Trois épées sassanides,” Artibus Asiae 26, 1963, pp. 293-311. O. Grabar, Sasanian Silver. Late Antique and Early Mediaeval Arts of Luxury from Iran, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1967. B. Gray, “A Seljuk Hoard from Persia,” The British Museum Quarterly 13, 1939, pp. 73-79. E. J. Grube, The Classical Style in Islamic Painting, New York, 1968. Idem, Islamic Pottery of the 8th to the 15th century in the Keir Collection, London, 1976. A. Grünwedel, Altbuddhistiche Kultstätten in Chinesisch-Turkistan, Berlin, 1912. Idem, Alt-Kutscha, Berlin, 1920. G. D. Guest and R. Ettinghausen, “The Iconography of a Kāshān Luster Plate,” Ars Orientalis 4, 1961, pp. 25-64. R. W. Hamilton, Khirbet al Mafjar. An Arabian Mansion in the Jordan Valley, Oxford, 1959. P. O. Harper, The Royal Hunter. Art of the Sasanian Empire, New York, 1978. Idem, Silver Vessels of the Sasanian Period I. Royal Imagery, New York, 1981. E. Herzfeld, Die Ausgrabungen von Samarra III. Die Malereien von Samarra, Berlin, 1927. Idem, Iran in the Ancient East, New York, 1941. M. S. İpşiroğlu, Das Bild im Islam, Vienna and Munich, 1971. M. Jerkins, “An 11th-Century Woodcarving from a Cairo Nunnery,” in R. Ettinghausen, ed., Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1972. A. Jeroussalimskaja, “Le cafetan aux simourghs du tombeau de Mochtchevaja Balka (Caucase septentrional),” Studia Iranica 7, 1978, pp. 183-211. T. S. Kawami, Monumental Art of the Parthian Period, Leiden, 1987. E. R. Knauer, “Toward a History of the Sleeved Coat. A Study of the Impact of an Ancient Near Eastern Garment on the West,” Expedition 21, 1978, pp. 18-36. E. Kühnel, Die islamische Kunst, Leipzig, 1929. Idem, The Minor Arts of Islam, New York, 1971. A. Lane, Early Islamic Pottery, New York, 1948. A. von Le Coq, Chotscho, Berlin, 1913. Idem, Die buddhistische Spätantike in Mittelasien IV. Die Wandmalereien, Berlin, 1924. Idem, Buried Treasures of Chinese Turkestan, London, 1926. L. A. Mayer, Mamluk Costume, Geneva, 1952. A. Melikian-Chirvani, “Le Roman de Varqe et Golšâh,” Arts Asiatiques 22, 1970, pp. 1-262. E. H. Peck, “The Representations of Costumes in the Reliefs of Taq-i Bustan,” Artibus Asiae 31, 1969, pp. 101-46. H. Philon, Benaki Museum Athens. Early Islamic Ceramics, 9th to Late 11th Centuries I, Westerham, Eng., 1980. D. S. Rice, “The Oldest Dated "Mosul" Candlestick A.D. 1225,” The Burlington Magazine 91, 1949, pp. 334-40. Idem, “The Aghani Miniatures and Religious Painting in Islam,” The Burlington Magazine 95, 1953, pp. 128-34. Idem, “Inlaid Brasses from the Workshop of Aḥmad al-Dhakī al-Mawṣilī,” Ars Orientalis 2, 1957, pp. 283-326. D. T. Rice, Islamic Art, New York, 1965. T. T. Rice, Ancient Arts of Central Asia, New York, 1965. B. W. Robinson et al., The Keir Collection. Islamic Painting and the Arts of the Book, London, 1976. J. M. Rosenfield, The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans, Los Angeles, 1969. B. Rowland, The Art and Architecture of India, Baltimore, 1954. D. Schlumberger, “Les Fouilles de Qasr el-Heir el-Gharbi (1936-38),” Syria 20, 1939, pp. 324-73. Idem, “Deux fresques omeyyades,” Syria 25, 1946-48, pp. 86-102. Idem, “Le palais ghaznévide de Lashkari Bazar,” Syria 29, 1952, pp. 251-70. R. B. Serjeant, Islamic Textiles. Material for a History up to the Mongol Conquest, Beirut, 1972. H. Seyrig, “Armes et costumes iraniens de Palmyre,” Syria 18, 1937, pp. 1-53. J. Sourdel-Thomine and B. Spider, Die Kunst des Islam, Propyläen Kunstgeschichte, N.S. 4, Berlin, 1973. D. Thompson, Stucco from Chal Tarkhan-Eshqabad near Rayy, Warminster, Eng., 1976. H. Weiss, ed., Ebla to Damascus. Art and Archaeology of Ancient Syria, Washington, D.C., 1985. E. Wellesz, “An Early Al-Ṣūfī Manuscript in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. A Study in Islamic Constellation Images,” Ars Orientalis 3, 1959, pp. 1-26. R. Whitfield, The Art of Central Asia. The Stein Collection in the British Museum, London, 1985. C. K. Wilkinson, Nishapur. Pottery of the Early Islamic Period, New York, 1973. Idem, Nishapur. Some Early Islamic Buildings and Their Decoration, New York, 1986.

(Elsie H. Peck)

In the Mongol and Timurid Periods

It is difficult to discuss clothing in Persia in the Il-khanid and Timurid periods with any certainty because very few garments, in fact, very few textiles, actually survive from these periods. Armor and military trappings will not be considered here.

Contemporary sources. Contemporary Arabic and Persian texts provide little information; most often textiles are named without description of garments made from them. The most frequent reference to clothing is to robes (ḵeḷʿa) and belts (kamar) awarded as honors on various occasions (e.g., Ebn Baṭṭūṭa, ed. and tr. C. Defremery and B. Z. Sanguinetti: Voyages d’Ibn Batouteh. Texte arabe accompagné d’une traduction . . . , Paris, 1857, III, p. 19, tr. Gibb, III, p. 549; Šaraf-al-Dīn, II, p. 426, ll. 16-17; tr. Thackston, p. 93; see xxvii, below).

European sources expand the picture somewhat. According to Ruy González de Clavijo (q.v.), ambassador to Tīmūr from Henry III of Castile and Leon, in Rabīʿ I 807/October, 1404, on the same occasion mentioned by Šaraf-al-Dīn (II, p. 426, II. 16-17; tr. Thackston, p. 93; Clavijo, p. 236) he and a number of other ambassadors were presented by Tīmūr himself with robes, matching shirts, and hats of kincob (camocas among many other variants; better rendered as kamḵāb and understood as “gold brocade,” Pelliot, I, pp. 145-50; Wardwell, esp. p. 96 and n. 6). Clavijo also mentioned silk, wool, and linen cloth and furs—ermine, marten, fox, and sable; clothing with pleats and embroidery; velvets and quilting; and a close-fitting jacket with a marten collar (p. 276). He described Tīmūr at their first meeting as wearing a “cloak of plain silk without any embroidery, and . . . a tall white hat on the crown of which was displayed a balas ruby” (p. 220). Several weeks later he saw Tīmūr’s grandson Pīr-Moḥammad dressed in the Tartar manner, in a blue silk robe with gold embroidery, “which back and front covered his chest and shoulders and passed down the material of the sleeves” (p. 254), recognizable as the “cloud collar” (Chin. yün-chien/yun-jian) derived from Chinese prototypes, which in Il-khanid and Timurid Persia consisted of a large motif with four trefoils decorating the neck of a garment, extending front and back, as well as over the shoulders, either applied separately to the overgarment or embroidered directly onto it (see Cammann, 1951, and idem, 1972, p. 39). He also commented on the festive clothing of the Great Khanom on the same occasion: an outer robe of red silk embroidered with gold, high-necked but sleeveless, with a train so long it required the assistance of fifteen ladies, and a thin white veil attached to a towering headdress of gold-embroidered red stuff ornamented with gold, pearls, turquoises, balas rubies, and plumes of white feathers (pp. 258-59). Other European travelers, particularly the Venetian ambassadors to Uzun Ḥasan Āq Qoyunlū in the 870s/1470s, were far less informative about clothing than Clavijo, though they did note the places where certain textiles were manufactured (textile names derived from which are not necessarily considered definitive by modern textile historians; cf. Serjeant, p. 56; Bier, p. 5). An anonymous Venetian merchant described the dress of people he saw in Tabrīz during the reign of Uzun Ḥasan (Grey and Roy, p. 172): “Their dress is the same as has always been—the Persian costume—wearing it open at the breast, showing their bosoms . . . . All the Persian women, and particularly in Tauris . . . wear men’s robes, and put them on over their heads, covering them altogether. These are robes of silk, some of crimson cloth, woolen cloth, velvet, and cloth of gold. . . .”

Surviving textiles and clothing. The few Mongol and Timurid garments that survive almost all come from tombs; they reveal more about material and weaves, designs and colors, than about cut. For example, a silk-and-gold lampas fabric, the “ṭerāz of Abū Saʿīd,” used for the burial of Rudolf IV (Dom- and Diözesanmuseum, Vienna, Survey of Persian Art, pp. 2049-50, 2056, pl. 1003; Wardwell, pp. 108-09, fig. 45), was not made up into a garment before its export to the West. The pattern (compound stripes of staggered medallions and diamonds and running animals, alternating with inscriptions in Arabic) suggests that it may well have been intended for clothing like that worn by the seated king in a painting from a dispersed Šāh-nāma manuscript of about 770/1370 (Topkapı Sarayı, Istanbul, H. 2153, fol. 55r; Grube, 1980, pl. 10).

Textiles found in the tomb of Cangrande I della Scala (d. 1329) in Verona have been attributed to locales from China to the Middle East (Sangiorgi, 1922; Stoffe). Five of them (A, D, E, G, H; Stoffe, pp. 45, 76-91, 100-23, 130-62) have recently been subjected to technical analysis that places them among a group woven in Central Asia (Wardwell, passim and Appendix I); those made into garments (D, the cap; E, the tunic; H, the overvest) were made up in the West, and, like the “ṭerāz of Abū Saʿīd,” they thus provide no information about clothing made from such sumptuous fabrics in Persia or Central Asia.

Of Persian clothing from the 9th/15th century, only fragments of the burial garments of Tīmūr, Šāhroḵ, Oloḡ Beg, and Mīrānšāh remain. Although Oloḡ Beg was buried in the clothing in which he had been murdered, his burial garments appear to have survived more completely than those of the others. The turban was a finely woven, “delicate” stuff; the shirt was woven of mixed silk and cotton, very long, and tucked into “Uzbek-cut” trousers at the back and sides, falling to the knees in front and held in at the waist by a “broad, silk band ornamented with a checker pattern of white and light blue squares” (Gerasimov, p. 143; said to be kept in the Navoi Literature Museum of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences, Tashkent). Finally, a lavishly embroidered quatrefoil yoke, in the classical form of the cloud collar, with designs of winged peris against a floral background, has been reevaluated and published as Timurid (Lentz and Lowry, pp. 216-17 no. 116).

Manuscript illustration. The incomplete picture of what people wore in Persia in the Mongol and Timurid periods derived from documentary sources and surviving garments may be expanded by means of another visual source: contemporary manuscript illustrations and drawings by artists working in courtly ateliers (ketāb-ḵānas). Clothing, unlike rugs and carpets, is defined by cut, as well as by the composition of fabric, weaves, designs, and colors. Persian clothing surviving from the Safavid period and later (Survey of Persian Art, pp. 2069ff., pls. 1024, 1034, 1060, and 1088; Spuhler, pp. 163-64; Bier, pp. 41-45), as well as garments represented on Safavid figured textiles (Survey of Persian Art, pp. 2078-2108 passim), generally resembles clothing shown in paintings in the essential features of cut (cf. Persian and Mughal Art, nos. 55; 138; 142 iv, lii, v, or x), though not necessarily in colors or patterns (pace Scarce, p. 36). Furthermore, the actual designs, for clothing ornamentation were generated by artists of the ketāb-ḵāna, and some of their drawings have survived (Grube, 1974, fig. 127; Lentz and Lowry pp. 194-97 nos. 95-98, 216-18 nos. 114-16).

Nevertheless, as with carpets of the same periods (see carpets vii), the most stringent criteria of quality, purpose, and especially subject must be applied in using Mongol and Timurid paintings as a guide to clothing of a period in Persian history from which very few actual garments survive (Survey of Persian Art, pp. 2044-55, 2061-68, for example, should be read with great caution).

Mongol period. Illustrations: right half of a double-page composition, Tabrīz, ca. 700/1300, Topkapı Sarayı Library, Istanbul, H. 2153, fol. 148v, Grube et al., pl. 8 (plate xcvi); Rašīd-al-Dīn, Jāmeʿal-tawārīḵ, Tabrīz, 706/1306, Edinburgh University Library, Arab 20, fols. 122r, 139v, 117r, Rice and Gray, pp. 142, 170, 178; Bīrūnī, al-Aṯār al-bāqīa, Tabrīz, 707/1307-08, Edinburgh University Library, Arab 161, fol. 158v, Gray, p. 27; Ferdowsī, Šāh-nāma [“Demotte” Šāh-nāma, dispersed], Tabrīz, 730-40/1330-40, Sackler Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., nos. S86.0100, S86.0102, S86.0107, S86.0105, Lowry and Nemazee, pp. 78-85 nos. 8-11, and The Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., no. 38.3, Gray, p. 32 (plate xcv); Kalīla wa Demna, Tabrīz (?), ca. 760/1360, Istanbul University Library, F. 1422, fols. 11v, 24r, Gray, pp. 38-39; fragment from a dispersed Šāh-nāma, Tabrīẓ (?), ca. 770/1370, Topkapı Sarayı Library, Istanbul, H. 2153, fol. 65v, Gray, p. 42; single painting, Baghdad, ca. 780-800/1380-1400, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, no. 57.51.20, Grube, 1968, pl. 14.

It can be deduced from surviving garments, written sources, and contemporary painting that men in the Mongol period wore the qabā, a long sashed or belted coat either wrapped in front and fastened under the right armor closing in the center, with lapels (Schroeder, p. 124; figures represented in such coats are not, however, always Persian) and long or elbow-length sleeves. It was worn over a long-sleeved tunic or shirt, qamīz or pīrāhan, and trousers tucked into boots or low shoes. Overgarments included coats or cloaks, sometimes fur-lined and sometimes with slit sleeves. A square of ornament might appear on the chest of the overgarment of a man of rank, and the upper arms and shoulders of the qabā might also be decorated. This convention is common in early Il-khanid painting (Rice and Gray, pp. 142, 168, 170, 172; Lowry and Nemazee, pp. 84-85 no. 11). The question of whether or not the ornamented square was intended to represent the cloud collar (Lowry and Nemazee, pp. 82-83 no. 10) is but one example of the difficulties of relying on painting styles to interpret changes in fashion. Headgear appears to have been varied (Schroeder, pp. 120-21). Mongol “bonnets” had many shapes and were often adorned with feathers; presumably they went out of fashion after the fall of the dynasty in 736/1336. Other distinct types were hats with large brims, slit at the sides for flexibility, crowns of varying heights and shapes, decorated finials, and occasionally what appear to be fur brims; low-crowned hats with flat, shallow brims; and either large turbans wrapped around colored kolkās (caps) or medium-sized turbans. To judge from paintings, garments could be patterned in contrasting colors or gold, and contrasts between qabā and pīrāhan were fashionable, though again it is unclear how closely these features reflect reality. Women also appear to have worn long garments closing down the front, with sleeves of variable length and cut, over at least one, perhaps more, additional layer of clothing; the garment closest to the body was also called a pīrāhan. Sometimes women’s coats are also shown decorated with cloud collars or with squares or other ornament on the breast and shoulders. Depending on background and social status, the head was covered by a stiff white or transparent veil falling down the back or fashioned like a cowl or a hood, or a softer, dark-colored shawl was wrapped around the head, neck, and shoulders. Mongol women of rank wore the headdress called boḡṭāq, a tall construction of felt and willow (wood or bark), the cloth covered with ornaments (see Doerfer, I, pp. 210-12). It is curious (and symptomatic of the problems of using paintings to document no longer existent clothing) that this unmistakable headdress does not appear in the surviving paintings of the “Demotte” Šāh-nāma, despite Grabar and Blair’s recent interpretation of this manuscript as an Il-khanid court manuscript; Clavijo’s precise description leaves no doubt that it was still being worn in Timurid Central Asia early in the 9th/15th century.

Timurid period. Illustrations: single painting on silk, Samarqand or Herat, ca. 810/1410, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, no. 57.51.24, Grube, 1968, pl. 16 (plate xcviii); anthology of Eskandar-Solṭān, Shiraz, 813/1410-11, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, no. LA 161, p, 125, Gray, p. 75; Kollīyāt-e tārīḵī, Herat, 818-19/1415-16, Topkapı Sarayı Library, Istanbul, no. B. 282, fol. 16r, Grube et al., p. 72; anthology of Bāysonḡor, Herat, 830/1427, Berenson Collection, I Tatti, Settignano (Florence), fol. 26v, Gray, p. 86; Kalīla wa Demna, Herat, 833/1429, Topkapı Sarayı Library, Istanbul, no. 8.1022, fol. 45r, Grube et al., p. 76; Neẓāmī Ganjavī, Ḵamsa, Herat, 849/1445-46, Topkapı Sarayı Library, Istanbul, no. H. 781, fols. 48v, 62r, Grube et al., p. 80, and Grube, 1980, pl. 31; Ẓafar-nāma, Herat, 872/1467-68 (miniatures up to twenty years later), Johns Hopkins University, Eisenhower Library, Baltimore, fols. 82v-83r, Lentz and Lowry, pp. 264-65; ʿAṭṭār Nīšāpūrī, Manṭeq al-ṭayr, Herat, 892/1487, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, no. 63.210.28, fol. 28r, Lentz and Lowry, p. 279; Saʿdī, Būstān, Herat, 893/1488, Egyptian National Library, Cairo, Adab Fārsī 22, fols. 1v-2r, Lentz and Lowry, pp. 260-61; Neẓāmī Ganjavī, Ḵamsa, Herat, 900/1494-95, British Library, London, Or. 6810, fol. 39v, Lentz and Lowry, p. 277; portrait of Solṭān-Ḥosayn Mīrzā, Herat (?), ca. 900/1500, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, Mass., no. 1958.59, Lentz and Lowry, p. 243 (plate xcvii).

To the extent that paintings provide evidence of changes in fashion in the Timurid century, men’s qabās appear to have been less extravagantly patterned; they were sometimes buttoned down the front and more often shown with belts of leather and metal elements, instead of with a sash. Occasionally jackets are shown, with fuller, baggy trousers, still tucked into boots or shoes. Headgear appears to have included the cap with high, sectioned crown and slit brim, the flatter low-crowned decorated hat, and the turban, most often shown as white but sometimes striped in bold colors; the colored kolāh is sometimes shown. Both men and women are frequently shown with a cloak thrown over the shoulders; it is sometimes fur-lined and often decorated at knee and shoulder and down the front. Women might also wear coats with sleeves. Such coats appear to have opened down the front and sometimes to have had short, flat lapels, and sleeves of varying lengths. They were worn over the pīrāhan, still apparently closest to the body, which had a high neck but was sometimes apparently cut to expose the chest between neck and bosom. Belts or sashes kept all but the outermost garment close to the waist and are often shown as extremely long, with ends fluttering in extravagant ripples. Transparent veils and hoods appear to have given way to less voluminous headcoverings, but sometimes an additional shawl is shown; white or colored scarves appear to be fastened at the back of the head and to fall to the feet behind, or they are secured under the chin by a string of what appear to be beads or jewels. Sometimes a fan-shaped headdress, apparently held in a knot at the front and then falling down the neck, is shown. The number of women portrayed with golden crowns can hardly be taken as evidence that they were actually worn in such numbers; rather many of the stories illustrated in these paintings involve royal women.

Bibliography : C. Bier, ed., Woven from the Soul, Spun From the Heart. Textile Arts of Safavid and Qajar Iran, 16th-19th Centuries, Washington, D.C., 1987. S. R. Cammann, “The Symbolism of the Cloud Collar Motif,” The Art Bulletin 23, 1951, pp. 1-9. Idem, “Symbolic Meanings in Oriental Rug Patterns. Part II,” Textile Museum Journal 3/3, 1972, pp. 5-41. R. González de Clavijo, Embassy to Tamerlane, 1403-1406, tr. G. Le Strange, London, 1928. M. M. Gerasimov, The Face Finder, tr. A. H. Brodrick, New York, 1971. O. Grabar and S. Blair, Epic Images and Contemporary History. The Illustrations of the Great Mongol Shahnama, Chicago, 1980. B. Gray, Persian Painting, Geneva, 1961. C. Grey and S. A. Roy, trs., “The Travels of a Merchant in Persia,” in A Narrative of Italian Travels in Persia in the 15th and 16th Century, London, 1873, pp. 139-207. E. J. Grube, The Classical Style in Islamic Painting, n.p. [New York], 1968. Idem, “Notes on the Decorative Arts of the Timurid Period,” in Gururājamañjarikā. Studi in onore di Giuseppe Tucci, Naples, 1974, pp. 233-80. Idem, La pittura dell’Islam, Bologna, 1980. Idem, F. Čağman, and Z. Akalay, Islamic Painting. Topkapi Sarayi Collection, Tokyo, 1978. T. W. Lentz and G. D. Lowry, Timur and the Princely Vision, Los Angeles, 1989. G. D. Lowry and S. Nemazee, A Jeweler’s Eye. Islamic Arts of the Book from the Vever Collection, Washington, D.C., 1988. P. Pelliot, Notes on Marco Polo, I, Paris, 1959. Persian and Mughal Art, London, 1976. G. Sangiorgi, “Le stoffe e le vesti tombali di Cangrande I della Scala,” Bolletino d’arte del Ministero dell P. I., April 1922; repr. in Contributi allo studio dell’arte tessile, Milan and Rome, n.d., pp. 33-57. Šaraf-al-Dīn ʿAlī Yazdī, Ẓafar-nāma, ed. and tr. M. ʿAbbāsī, Tehran, 1336 Š./1957. J. M. Scarce, “Vesture and Dress. Fashion, Function, and Impact,” in C. Bier, ed., Woven from the Soul, Spun From the Heart. Textile Arts of Safavid and Qajar Iran, 16th-19th Centuries, Washington, D.C., 1987, pp. 33-56. E. Schroeder, “Ahmed Musa and Shams al-Dīn. A Review of Fourteenth Century Painting,” Ars Islamica 6, 1939, pp. 113-42. R. B. Serjeant, “Material for a History of Islamic Textiles up to the Mongol Conquest,” Ars Islamica 9, 1942, pp. 54-92. F. Spuhler, Islamic Carpets and Textiles in the Keir Collection, tr. G. and C. Wingfield-Digby, London, 1978. Y. K. Stillman and N. A. Stillman, “Libās iii. Iran 2. The Īlkhānid and Tīmūrid Periods” EI² III, pp. 748-49. Le stoffe di Cangrande. Ritrovamenti e ricerche sul 300 veronese, Verona, 1983. D. Talbot Rice and B. Gray, The Illustrations to the "World History" of Rashid al-Din, Edinburgh, 1976. W. M. Thackston, A Century of Princes. Sources on Timurid History and Art, Cambridge, Mass., 1989. J. Vollmer, “Technical and Ethnic Considerations of Costume Depictions in the Istanbul Albums H. 2153 and 2160,” Islamic Art 1, 1981, pp. 136-44. A. E. Wardwell, “Panni Tartarici. Eastern Islamic Silks Woven With Gold and Silver (13th and 14th Centuries),” Islamic Art 3, 1988, pp. 95-173. L. Wooley, “Mediaeval Textiles Excavated at Ghubayra,” Iran 27, p. 1989, pp. 51-56.

(Eleanor Sims)

In the Safavid and Qajar Periods

In the late 15th century the poet Neẓām-al-Dīn Maḥmūd Qārī (Neẓām Qārī) of Yazd devoted an entire collection of poems to the subject of dress, the Dīvān-e albesa (for an index of contemporary clothing terminology, see pp. 195-206). The continuing and even increasing importance of dress in the following centuries is reflected in the richness of available documentation on this subject from the Safavid and Qajar periods, compared with earlier periods. In spite of the vagaries of fashion, the basic approach to dress and the components dictated by social custom and the performance of religious duties, for example, the ḵaḷʿat (Ar. ḵeḷʿa; robe of honor; see xxvii, below), the turban, and the čādor (q.v.), remained constant in Persia.

Sources. Contemporary textual and archival sources; illustrations and, in the later 19th century, photographic documentation; and surviving garments combine to illuminate the essential character of the dress of these periods. Persian sources, including literary and historical texts and court documents, provide information on robes of honor, turbans, terms for textiles and garments, centers of production, and the impact and range of European materials and styles. Especially for the Qajar period there is also considerable information on the social and political background that is so important for an understanding of the practical purposes of clothing and changes in fashion. Reports of European observers provide specific descriptions of both male and female dress, enriched by details that supplement those given in the Persian sources. Furthermore, aside from Europeans’ persistent emphasis on the Persian love of fashion and the expense involved in satisfying it, there are scattered references to class distinctions in dress, providing valuable insights into a little-documented aspect of Persian social history.

The limited range of surviving garments (compared to the numbers and variety of contemporary rugs and textiles), especially from the Safavid period, is owing in part to heavy wear (Du Mans, p. 191; Chardin, p. 2), the perishable nature of fine silks and cottons, the habit of burning court garments to recover the gold and silver used in them (Moḥammad-Hāšem, II, p. 212), and especially the destruction of the Safavid court wardrobes during the sack of Isfahan in 1135/1722. Introduction of European fashions and consequent disregard for traditional costume in court circles have also contributed to the scarcity. Furthermore, the dating of garments that have survived is often complicated by the fact that robes were sometimes recut and fine brocades reused after their initial use. Among the best represented survivals are men’s robes from all periods but especially the 17th century; sashes of the same period; and women’s jackets, as well as accessories and jewelry for both sexes, of the 19th century. Such garments were sent as royal gifts to European princes or collected by local agents and diplomats of the European powers in the 19th century and have thus been preserved primarily in European collections. Persian museum and family collections are another source that has so far been little used (see Ashmolean, pp. 28-30).

Pictorial sources for both the Safavid and Qajar periods provide a comprehensive survey of costume types and are thus an important tool, as long as it is remembered that Persian painting is often idealized and standardized (see ix, above). Nevertheless, in these periods it was usually correct in essentials, for great care was taken to render decorative details accurately. Paintings, beside being particularly important for documenting the dress of periods from which few garments survive, have a special usefulness in showing how various parts of the costume were worn together, for Persian dress consisted of an elaborate layering of different elements. Detailed and often quite frank rendering of women in their domestic costume is particularly useful in this respect, for, as women were usually veiled in public, few observers (at least until the late 19th century) were able to describe their dress at first hand. Furthermore, the importance of photographs, which provide a totally accurate record of costumes from the mid-19th century, cannot be underestimated.

The Safavid period (907-1135/1502-1722). Safavid costume in the 16th century can be described generally as comprised of layered garments in luxurious materials, cut close to the torso and then spreading out in loose, flowing lines and worn with a variety of headgear, jewelry, ornaments, and accessories. As Jean Chardin (p. 50) remarked a century later, after viewing the robes of Tīmūr (771-807/1370-1405) preserved in the royal wardrobe, early Safavid dress still reflected Timurid styles (see ix, above). The basic garments of men and women were almost interchangeable, except for the headgear: turbans and caps for men, veils for women. With the exception of such categories as grooms and dervishes, most of the available information is related to the dress of the upper classes. It can nevertheless be suggested that the same basic type of dress was worn by all classes, with varying degrees of simplification.

Many reports in Safavid texts provide clues to the social significance and unequaled richness of court dress in this period: for instance, the gold-embroidered or brocaded tāj (twelve-gored cap, symbolizing the twelve Shiʿite imams) and robe of honor sent by Shah Esmāʿīl (q.v.; 907-30/1501-24) to the Turkman amir of Iraq Bārīk Beg and the brocaded robes and cloaks, as well as čahār ḏaṛʿīs (robes 4 cubits long), given by Moḥammad Ḵodābanda (985-96/1578-88) to Amīr Khan Torkamān, who married his daughter in 988/1580-81 (Eskandar Beg, tr. Savory, I, pp. 54, 384). Ottoman sources confirm the great luxury of Persian court costume, as observed in the dress of Shah Ṭahmāsb’s ambassadors on the occasion of the coronation of Salīm II in 974/1566: There were 120 envoys clothed in silks, velvets, and gold weaves and others who wore polychrome state robes embroidered with birds, flowers, and animals; the turbans were of gold cloth. In 982/1574, for the coronation of Sultan Morād III, Ṭahmāsb’s envoys wore silks with designs of lions, tigers, horses, and human figures (Martin, p. 12). Anthony Jenkinson, an English merchant traveling in Persia in 969/1562, described the sumptuous dress of the khan of Šamāḵī (Shemakha) in the Caucasus. It included robes of silk brocade embroidered with pearls and jewels, a brocaded silk tāj “tolipan” (Turk. dülbent or tülbent < Pers. dūlband “rope”) a half-yard high, and a gold enameled aigrette set with plumes (pp. 367-68).

The reconstruction of 16th-century Safavid dress proposed here is based on the few surviving garments and, most important, the numerous richly illuminated manuscripts of the period (plate xcix). A typical man’s costume consisted of a collarless silk shirt, white or colored, fastened at the right shoulder, and loose trousers tapering to the ankles. Although little is known about the details of these undergarments, it is probable that in essentials they were identical with those worn in the next century (see below). Eskandar Beg Monšī (q.v.) mentioned that Shah Esmāʿīl donned a quilted ḵaftān (tunic) under his armor before the battle of Dīārbakr in 913/1507 (tr. Savory, I, p. 51). A shirt with painted talismanic inscriptions, now in a London private collection, has been attributed to Shah Esmāʿīl (Karīmzāda, pp. 1455, 1559 pl. 73). Over the shirt and trousers a jacket or long robe was worn; it either opened down the front or was fastened under the armpit (for reconstructions of this and other garments, see Scarce, 1987a, p. 36). A narrow velvet or leather belt with jeweled rosettes or a similarly narrow sash encircled the waist. At times a second sash was looped through the first. Finally, another long robe, either open at the front or V-necked, was worn over the entire outfit. This outer robe was of two types; one with wide, elbow-length sleeves, the other worn as a mantle with long, tapering sleeves dangling loose and slits at the shoulders through which the arms passed. The legs were covered in long stockings, which rose above the knee, and were fastened with cord. Peasants wore strips of cloth wound around the lower legs. Footgear consisted of pointed, flat-soled shoes, clogs, or short boots or riding boots. These boots were probably made of shagreen dyed red or green, as in the 17th century (Le Bruyn, p. 214; Chardin, p. 51, cf. 81).

In courtly dress robes were primarily of plain or brocaded silk or cotton. They were in bright colors (black was rarely worn; Herbert, pp. 232-33), and gold embroidery was also used for scalloped collars and as decoration around the neck or front opening. By the 940s/1530s sophisticated patterns of animals and figures were in use for decorating textiles (plate c). Surviving men’s garments include a magnificent silk robe (jobba) with long sleeves and a front opening, datable to the mid-16th century by the style of the repeat design of a young man throwing a rock at a dragon (State Armory Museum, Moscow, no. TK2845; Hayward Gallery, p. 107 no. 75; Survey of Persian Art, pls. 1024-25); similar, though not identical, motifs are known from manuscript paintings of that period (Treasures, p. 88 no. 56; for surviving fragments of velvets with comparable patterns, see Bier, pp. 198-99 no. 33, 250-52 no. 60, 252 no. 61). Another example of the same approximate date has a woven design of male and female figures wearing the contemporary layered robes; the women’s embroidered trousers (šalvār) are typical of the period (State Armory Museum, Moscow; for a detail, see Survey of Persian Art, pl. 1028). These garments reflect the high standards of design in the royal workshop, which provided the models used by the weavers for their figural textiles. Coats with gold braid across the chest and buttons covered in gold or silver thread were also worn. Robes and coats could be quilted or lined with contrasting materials for both warmth and beauty. Fur-lined outer robes and sheepskin mantles were worn in winter.

Aigrettes with gold chains and plumes were attached to turbans, and flowers could be tucked into their folds as well. Jeweled armbands and belts were worn, and penboxes, daggers, swords, kerchiefs, bags, seals, and rings were attached to the belts. The fine workmanship of these accessories is illustrated by an important belt of velvet with gilded openwork plaques made for Shah Esmāʿīl and a single armband in the same style signed by the craftsman Nūr-Allāh (Topkapı Saray, Istanbul, nos. 1842, 1843; Rogers, p. 206 nos. 115-16).

The most distinctive item of men’s costume was, of course, the headgear, which indicated not only gender but also religious and political allegiance (see, e.g., Schmitz, p. 110). The head was always shaved, though younger men retained a ponytail and light side-whiskers and older men sported well-trimmed moustaches and beards. The early Safavid turban (mandīl) was usually wrapped around a twelve-gored felt or brocade cap (tāj) with a tall, pointed finial (see Scarce, 1987a, p. 37, for construction of the turban), under which a flat skullcap (araqčīn) was worn. The cap was most often red, but other colors were sometimes worn to coordinate with the costume as a whole. It was sometimes decorated only by gold chains or plumes but usually covered with a turban, consisting of a long white sash wound in graceful folds and ending in a fan-shaped cockade. The material of this sash could be either silk or fine cotton, plain with patterned ends or covered all over with delicate embroidery. Sometimes striped brocade or colored fabrics were preferred. The most elegant shape was drawn up to a graceful point from which the finial emerged, but more globular versions were worn as well. Low, rounded turbans, pointed and rounded caps with fur linings, and caps with wide, slit brims were also worn in this period (see, e.g., Treasures, p. 110 no. 76).

Miniature painting reveals to the modern historian all the elegance of the Safavid lady in the privacy of the andarūn (q.v.); in the 16th century her clothing was also composed of layers similar to those worn by men. Most distinctive was the long, loose shirt with an opening to the waist in front, edged with contrasting fabric and fastened by a brooch; in some miniature paintings the deep décolletage of this garment, which was practical for nursing, is clearly visible under the long robe, which fastened down the front with two or three loops or had a V neck (see plate ci). Trousers were often of diagonally striped material, either embroidered or woven. A mid-16th-century portrait of a princess clearly shows the transparent sleeves of her undergarments, her jewels and tiara, her embroidered collar, and the complementary colors of the different garments (plate cii).

The main differences from men’s costume, however, were to be observed in the headgear and in outdoor dress. The head was swathed in delicate veils, often folded and starched to flattering effect or looped under the chin. The veils might either be shoulder length or cover the chest completely. They were attached by means of brooches or pins to little caps tilted at an angle or held in place by a length of narrow fabric. Aigrettes, tiaras, plumes, necklaces of pearls or stones worn high under the chin, earrings, rings, and bangles completed the outfit. The hair was pulled back in long plaits with a few wisps around the face; the plaits were sometimes enhanced with decorative ropes, ribbons, and pearls, which hung down the back. Cosmetics (q.v.) included kohl for the eyes and henna for the hands and feet; the breast and hands were tattooed with small-scale designs (ḵāl-kūbī). The outdoor costume consisted of a floor-length, all-enveloping white čādor worn in conjunction with a white face veil or black horsehair visor, both of which ensured the required modesty and anonymity (Scarce, 1975a, p. 2).

The reign of Shah ʿAbbās I (996-1038/1588-1629) ushered in one of the most splendid centuries in Persian history, which was reflected in luxurious dress. Information from text sources is more plentiful and detailed; for instance, eyewitness accounts supply descriptions of undergarments previously unavailable. Shifts of delicate checked or striped fabric were worn by both men and women. Men wore them to the knees, tucked into drawers, to which loose stockings (čāqšūr) were attached. They also wore a cotton waistcoat (arḵāloq) under the robe (Du Mans, pp. 101-02). The women’s shift, worn only with attractive plain or striped drawers, reached the floor, and the neckline was sometimes embroidered with pearls (Herbert, pp. 232-33; cf. Chardin, p. 50).

Persian manuscript illustrations from this period are complemented by albums of portraits and paintings of typical local figures, mural paintings (see, e.g., Âčehel sotuᵛn, isfahan), and engravings from foreign travel accounts as corroborative sources for fashion innovations. A certain casualness and a perceived increase in sensuality of dress remarked by some scholars are owing rather to stylistic emphasis in miniature painting of this period, not to actual changes in fashion (pace Housego, p. 208 fig. 6; Stillman and Stillman, p. 749).

Men’s court costume was as sumptuous as in the 16th century. In 1038/1659 Moḥammad-Maṣʿūm b. Kᵛājagī Eṣfahānī described a set of royal ḵaḷʿat from the reign of ʿAbbās’s successor, Shah Ṣafī I (1038-52/1629-42), which consisted of an outer robe of gold-embroidered velvet, a coat of squirrel fur (pūstīn-e samūr-abrah wa maḵmal-e zarbaft), cloaks and other outer garments of gold and silver brocade and silk (qabā wa bālāpūš-e zarbaft-e ṭelābāf wa noqrabāf wa dārāyī bāf), gold-brocade turban material (mandīl-e tamām zar), and brocade and plain silk fabric for a čahār-ḏaṛʿī (pp. 46-47; reference owing to S. Babai). One surviving garment may have been included in the rich gifts sent by Shah Ṣafī to the Russian court in the 1630s. It is a short, fitted coat (nīm-tana) fastened at the side and ornamented with figural designs in velvet on a ground of gilded silver brocade; it was presented by Tsar

Michael to Queen Christina of Sweden in 1644 and is now in the Royal Armory, Stockholm (plate ciii). Equally fine is a long-sleeved silk court robe (qabā) of floral design (plate civ). Jean-Baptiste Tavernier recorded the components of a set of royal ḵaḷʿat given to him by Shah Solaymān (1077-1105/1666-94), which is realistically depicted in a portrait of him by Nicolas Largillière now in the Herzog-Anton-Ulrich-Museum in Braunschweig, Germany (Schuster-Walser, 1971, p. 131; cf. Herbert, pp. 232-33).

As the 17th century progressed, new variations in the basic dress were adopted (plate cv). Men’s robes and coats became progressively shorter. The most striking change was in the cut of the robe, which was worn fitted over the torso, stiffened at the hips and cuffs with quilting, with a flaring, bell-shaped skirt. The sleeves had pointed cuffs (for the elegance of Persian cut and tailoring, see Chardin, p. 85). In describing the court costume current in 1035-36/1626-27 the English traveler Herbert noted that the “close coat nearly reaches to their calves and bears round” (pp. 232-33). Sayyed Ḥosayn b. Morteżā Ḥosaynī Astarābādī, who wrote in the early 18th century, attributed certain innovations to the reign of Shah ʿAbbās II (1052-77/1642-66): the introduction of čāqšūr (trousers) in English broadcloth, robes with skirts (qabā-ye dāmandār), and round or band (qalama “straight”) collars or lapels (p. 134). Further details of costume were provided by European travelers who visited Persia during the reigns of Shah ʿAbbās II and Solaymān (plate cvi). Chardin described a three-quarter-length robe (cabai = qabā) and two types of outer robe: a short sleeveless jacket resembling a waistcoat (courdy = kordī) and a long-sleeved jacket (cadebi = kātebī, p. 50; cf. Du Mans, p. 101: katteby). A type of short jacket with sleeves came increasingly into fashion in the early 17th century, replacing the long jobba; it was worn wrapped across the chest and fastened at the sides (portrait of Sir Anthony Sherley; Wheelock et al., pp. 154-55 no. 28; cf. Treasures, no. 95). Although these changes seem to date from the reign of Shah ʿAbbās I, they are not commonly seen in miniature paintings and albums until after mid-century (Ivanov et al., 1962, pls. 98-100).

A number of sumptuous examples in gold- and silver-brocaded silk or taffeta survive in Western museum collections; some are also ornamented with gold and silver frogging. Fabrics were characterized by repeat floral or striped designs in rich pastel colors; the edges were trimmed in bands of stamped cotton (galamkār) and floral silk brocade. These examples include a silk robe with carnation design trimmed with contrasting material (Victoria & Albert Museum, London, no. 331-1920; Royal Academy, p. 82); another, also in the Victoria & Albert Museum, with a composite plant design and butterflies inwoven with the word rasūl (messenger; Los Angeles, no. 128); and a third in silver brocade with a repeat design of yellow carnations within a stamped lattice framework (Musée Historique des Tissus, Lyons, no. 31517; Musée du Louvre, p. 49 no. 25 and facing illustration; Philadelphia Museum, no. 67-30-48). Fur continued to be used for lining robes and jackets and as facing on the lapels. Marten and sable were imported from Russia; fox fur and sheepskin were also used (Chardin, p. 50).

A number of other fine garments survive from the latter half of the Safavid period; they have sometimes been dated well into the 18th century on the basis of the small scale of the repeat patterns in the design of the fabrics and linings, the increasingly stiff quality of the brocade, and other factors. In fact, linings may prove helpful in establishing more specific dating: Cotton was used throughout this period, but in the 16th and 17th centuries it was quite coarse and unpatterned. In the 18th and following centuries designs of floral būtas (lit. “bushes,” small pointed plant forms related to the familiar “paisley” motif) and stripes became increasingly common and were used to great effect in the sleeves and along the slits in the skirts of outer garments; it is not yet possible to say whether linings of this type were introduced earlier. A man’s sleeveless hip-length coat (kordī) of gold brocade patterned with būtas in the style of the 18th century and with lapels probably intended to be lined with fur is the only extant example of its type (Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, no. I.8/69; Hauptmann von Gladiss and Kröger, pp. 277-78 no. 609; plate cvii). Also of the 18th century are two short jackets. One example is of wine-colored silk with a pattern of large lotuses on leafy stems in silver and gold and pastel-silk embroidery, a reflection of the bejeweled court dress of the period (Victoria & Albert Museum, no. 1935-1886; plate cviii). A velvet jacket cut in the later style but with a trefoil collar in a 17th-century floral silk brocade, in a private collection (Islamic Textile Design, p. 18 no. 39), exemplifies the rich materials and decorative silver frogging and buttons described in the sources. Hip-length or slightly longer jackets either fastening in front or with an additional front panel that wraps to a side closing (Textile Museum, Washington, D.C., nos. 1985.5.1, 1985.3.93, 1985.3.149, Bier, pp. 214 no. 41, 218-19 nos. 44-45; Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, no. 1772, Zaki, p. 78) are also generally dated to the 17th-18th centuries. Longer coats were also worn (Hauptmann von Gladiss and Kröger, no. I.8/73, pp. 279-80 no. 428; Textile Museum, nos. 3.94, 3.112, Bier, pp. 214 no. 42, 217 no. 43; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, no. L2100.132.57-4, p. 65 no. 146; Fundação Gulbenkian, nos. 85-88).

Belts were worn wider and longer, up to 8 m, and knotted in front. They were of rich fabrics, like gold and silver brocade with stripes or floral patterns (for surviving examples, see Survey of Persian Art, pls. 1073-74). Sometimes a second belt was added (Du Mans, p. 102). Light cotton shoes (gīva), slippers, shoes in various colors with heels of nails or iron, and boots were worn by the urban elite (Herbert, pp. 232-33; Chardin, pp. 50-51). Turbans were wider and more loosely tied, and the finial of the tāj no longer protruded. Although white continued to predominate for some time, by mid-century it had largely been superseded by colored brocades with flowers woven into the ends, pleated and wrapped over a new type of tāj with a protrusion in front (Moḥammad-Ṭāher Waḥīd, cited in Keyvani, p. 293) or rolled in a thick tube and coiled (Treasures, p.127 no. 100). Sometimes the cap beneath was made of leather, rather than the traditional felt. A variety of other headgear was also worn, usually in larger and more pointed shapes than in the preceding century. One distinctive cap worn by both sexes had a wide brim and was set well back on the head (Housego, p. 209 fig. 7).

The subject of various turban types and their terminology still needs clarification. A number of travelers commented on the variety of both turban types and belts, each associated with a different social group (Herbert, pp. 232-33; Du Mans, p. 101; Chardin, p. 51). Persian authors named some of the types of turban current at the courts. For example, Mīrzā Samīʿā, author of Taḏkerat al-molūk, a manual of Safavid administration written for the Afghan conquerors in the early 18th century (Dānešpažūh, p. 476), described a special headgear presented by the shah to his amirs as “of gold brocade on a gold base” (tāj-e wahhāj az zarbāft-e būm-e zar; ed. Minorsky, p. 66; cf. p. 136). Moḥammad-Hāšem referred to the ḵalīl-ḵānī turbans worn by the court officials of Shah Solṭān-Ḥosayn (1105-35/1694-1722; cited in Keyvani, p. 83). Contemporary research has suggested the introduction of a new turban style as early as the reign of Shah ʿAbbās I (Schmitz, p. 106), yet it seems premature to associate specific visual examples with those described in text sources.

Women’s court dress underwent changes similar to those in men’s dress (plate cix). The shorter robe was accompanied by short boots of brocade or embroidered velvet rising 8-10 cm above the ankle (Chardin, p. 6; Le Bruyn, p. 301; plate cx). Headdresses included a brocade pillbox cap and a triangular tiara in brocade fabric worn with a variety of veils. New styles of čādor also appeared. One version was tied at the top like a sack (Herbert, p. 48); another included a face veil of net (rū-band) attached at either side of the forehead (Chardin, p. 52).

The cosmopolitan atmosphere of Isfahan at mid-century was clearly reflected in dress. Some men’s robes were cut in the “Georgian” manner, opening in front with buttons and loops (Chardin, p. 50). New shoes (kafš) in the “Georgian” and European (be-kār-e farang) fashion were made in the bāzār (Keyvani, pp. 51, 267), and trousers, robes, and stockings were made of English broadcloth (Du Mans, p. 187; for a discussion of broadcloth, known as landara, see Keyvani, p. 57 n. 14). There was even a special guild of tailors and sellers of “London cloth” (Keyvani, pp. 220-21). Dandies dressed in European styles (plate cxi), and in the privacy of the harem ladies wore European tight bodices with décolletage and ruffled sleeves peeping from under long sleeves (plate cxii). Tight-fitting trousers under transparent gathered skirts in the Indian style were illustrated by miniature painters but are not otherwise attested (Titley, p. 120 pl. 20).

Textiles were used to make ecclesiastical robes for the European and Armenian communities, and sashes were made for export to India and to Poland, where local imitations were made (see, e.g., Textile Museum, no. 82.1; Bier, p. 233 no. 50). A woman’s robe of floral brocade in a lattice design is evidence of European influence on the cut of late Safavid elite dress; it may have belonged to an Armenian or Georgian lady (Victoria & Albert Museum, no. 1060-1906, unpublished; for a similar dress, see the portrait of Lady Sherley, a Circassian, by Van Dyck; Wheelock et al., pp. 154-55 no. 29).

Raphaël Du Mans (p. 247) provided a detailed description of peasant costume in the mid-17th century; it consisted primarily of heavy cotton clothes cut in the urban fashion. In winter peasants added thick felt cloaks or lambskin coats. They went barelegged or bound their legs with linen strips and wore flat shoes or green leather soles attached with cords (čāroq).

Because of the economic importance of raw silk and textile manufacture in the Persian economy and society, the production of textiles and clothing at the court in Isfahan, in the bāzārs of that city, and in provincial centers is frequently mentioned in the sources. Mīrzā Samīʿā (pp. 65-66) provided a great deal of information about the production of clothing and costume usage at the Safavid court in Isfahan. He described the royal wardrobe and the royal and amirial tailoring departments. The latter were responsible for ordering fabrics, sometimes from provincial centers; cutting the textiles for court dress; and preparing the royal ḵaḷʿat for distribution to the amirs. There is evidence for textile manufacturing in other cities as well (Keyvani, p. 8; Della Valle, III, p. 163). Du Mans (p. 103) mentioned the importation by Dutch merchants of cotton from Golconda in India for use as turban material. Mīrzā Moḥammad-Ṭāher Waḥīd, a poet active during the same reign, left a collection of poems in the genre šāhrāšūb (poems about shop apprentices), Dīvān-e Reżwān, inspired by the activities he observed in the bāzārs of Isfahan. He mentioned such elements of clothing as čāqšūr, časbān-qabā (fitted robe), pūstīn (fur), and kafš and such trades as soqorlāṭ-dūz (maker of scarlet robes), jūrāb-dūz (stocking maker), and tāj-dūz (turban maker; cited in Keyvani, pp. 263-95). Other sources yield additional terms, for example, šaʿr-bāf (brocade weavers, including weavers of luxurious čādors; see Keyvani, p. 50). A scroll of Shah Solaymān preserved in the British Library contains a record of the different sections of the bāzār, including those where landara, lambskin cloaks (pūstīn) from Khorasan, silk fabrics for sashes (šāl) and turban cloths (mandīls) from Yazd, and cloth for women’s veils from Ardestān were sold (Keyvani, pp. 236-38).

The early 18th century and the fall of the Safavid dynasty, with resulting interruption of commerce, were documented by only a few foreign travelers. Most important was the Dutch painter Cornelis Le Bruyn, who was in Persia in 1115/1704. He commented on the sharp class distinctions reflected in costume and voiced particular disapproval of the extreme luxury of clothing for men of the elite. As for women, his detailed description of their cloth headgear, bedecked with jewels and pearls and varied according to rank, is of great value (pp. 299-301). In fact, clothing for both sexes had not changed substantially since the reign of Shah Solaymān, except to become even more decorated and studded with jewels. In the mid-18th century, during the reign of Karīm Khan Zand (1163-93/1750-79; see below), Moḥammad-Hāšem Āṣaf, known as Rostam-al-Ḥokamāʾ, described the costumes of high-ranking courtiers on a ceremonial occasion in the time of the last reigning Safavid shah, Solṭān-Ḥosayn (cited in Keyvani, p. 83). Such luxury and refinement could be achieved only at great expense, an expense that would finally help to bankrupt the Safavid state.

The Afsharid (1148-1161/1736-48) and Zand periods (1163-1209/1750-94). The destruction of the Safavid empire by Afghan forces, the subsequent interruption of commerce, and the establishment of a modest regional government in Shiraz under the Zands in the latter part of the century are documented in only a few sources. Surviving garments are rare, and it is difficult to distinguish between Safavid styles and those of the ensuing decades (see above). The most important documentation is paintings, primarily album paintings and works in lacquer from the first half of the century and oil paintings produced at Shiraz in the latter half.

It can be suggested that dress under the Afsharids and Zands varied little in style from that under the late Safavids but was less luxurious. One sympathetic observer, the Englishman Jonas Hanway, who visited the country in 1157-58/1744-45, described it as practical, attractive, and of elegant yet simple taste (I, pp. 228-29). The French traveler Jean Otter, who was in Persia in 1148/1736, also commented on the elegant cut of men’s costume, noting its similarity to that of Europeans and contrasting it with the long, loose robes of the Ottoman Turks (1, p. 39).

Men’s headgear again provides a barometer of dynastic change. Nāder Shah (1148-60/1736-47), who was a Sunnite, introduced a new four-pointed cap (kolāh-e nāderī), usually in red, representing the first four Islamic caliphs; a silk šāl or scarf of delicate brocaded wool manufactured in Kermān was often wrapped around it (Otter, I, p. 39; Cook, I, p. 444; plate cxiii). According to Hanway (I, pp. 227-28), the kolāh-e nāderī reached as high as 10-12 inches and was quite effective against the cold. He also noted the use of expensive Kermān-wool šāls wound around it. It could also be worn without wrapping, decorated with jewels or aigrettes. Karīm Khan Zand replaced the kolāh-e nāderī with a tall cylindrical cap, which could be wrapped with turban materials or not (British Library ms. no. 4938 no. 1, Browne, Lit. Hist. Persia IV, pl. V, facing, p. 142; plate cxiv).

Despite a general decline in the quality of textile manufacturing and silk production, men’s court costume continued to be characterized by sumptuous display. Moḥammad-Kāẓem (II, p. 448) and Mīrzā Moḥammad-Mahdī Astarābādī (p. 167), historians of the period, recorded a rich variety of fabrics in the robes of honor distributed at the coronation of Nāder Shah; they supposedly numbered 100,000, doubtless an exaggeration. Abu’l-Ḥasan Ḡaffārī, an official and court scribe in the service of Karīm Khan Zand, provided an eloquent description of the robes distributed by the ruler to important amirs in Azerbaijan; he noted that they were as beautiful as when a garden takes a mantle of blooming flowers (fols. 110-16). Robes of brocaded silk, in less labor-intensive fabrics than previously, in plain weave or woven in smaller-scale floral and figural patterns, were still decorated with fur pelts and frogging with heavy almond-shaped buttons of precious-metal threads. The short fur-lined outer coat and the robe with long, pointed sleeves continued to be worn, and quilted silk and cotton materials were still in use for undergarments (Hanway, I, p. 228).

But there were innovations in style. By the late 18th century a triangular flap extended the entire length of the robe or jacket; the waistcoat had clearly defined front slits edged with patterned fabric. At home the silk robe or short jacket patterned with small flowers was the rule, worn over the traditional muslin shirt (for examples in bright red or blue, see Falk, pls. 5, 7). A change in production is indicated by the increasingly high value placed on Kermān and Kashmir (terma) brocaded-wool šāls, which came to replace patterned silks as the luxury materials for costume as well (see above). As for accessories, pencases and daggers were tucked into the sash at the waist; the pencase might also be worn in a pocket under the arm (Hanway, I, p. 228). Armlets, the finest made of jeweled and enameled gold, were commonly worn with plain or patterned robes.

Although the sumptuous court regalia of the Safavids had been destroyed during the Afghan invasion, Nāder Shah’s conquest of India in 1151/1738-39 provided an unprecedented supply of pearls and precious stones for his courtly adornment and that of his successors. Two aigrettes of jade, diamonds, and enamel, made in India and sent by the shah as gifts to the Russian empress Anna Yannova in 1154/1741, survive (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, nos. V3-443-44; Ivanov et al., 1984, p. 212 nos. 90, 92). In portraits Nāder Shah is shown heavily bedecked with jewels, and his successor, ʿĀdel Shah, who reigned for only a year (1160-61/1747-48), was depicted in the same way (Godard, pp. 239-40 no. 45, 241 fig. 94; Bier, p. 91 fig. 4). According to Hanway, the stones decorating court robes were often uncut or in settings that he considered not in the best of taste (I, p. 173). The decorative possibilities of jewels were to be refined under the Qajars in the following century (see below).

Women’s costume in the 18th century also continued the basic late Safavid styles with some variations in the essentials. The English physician John Cook (I, p. 444) provided a particularly useful account of women’s silk shifts: “[F]rom a point immediately below the navel, they are embroidered down to the bottom with gold or silver figures forming a large triangle whose upper angle is acute.” These details seem to correspond to the decoration of a group of surviving garments usually dated to the 17th century: loose waist-length or full-length silk and taffeta shifts with inwoven or embroidered floral designs (Victoria & Albert Museum, nos. T333-1920, T332-1920, unpublished; cf. examples in the Art Institute of Chicago and Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Survey of Persian Art, pl. 1086 and color pl. 1086 respectively).

The narrow-waisted jacket flared over the hips, popular in the previous century, was decorated with even more elaborate frogging and ribbons; the underarm slits were sometimes edged with gold lace or contrasting piping for decorative effect (plate cxv). By mid-century, the traditional long robe or three-quarter-length jacket worn over tapered trousers had been replaced by a more casual dress of wide trousers cut from stiff fabric embroidered or woven in diagonal floral designs worn over the transparent shirt (pīrāhan) open to the navel. It was accompanied by a short, loose, long-sleeved jacket in a complimentary striped or floral pattern (for illustrations from the early Qajar period see Falk, pls. 5, 7). Elegant ladies (as well as men) turned back their jacket cuffs to reveal linings chosen with great flair. Šāls of striped or plain fabric were draped across one shoulder or down the back. Complex headdresses or saucy caps with jeweled ornaments were worn, revealing to advantage hair styled in short lovelocks and bangs. Hanway (I, p. 230) provided details on the use of nose rings and gold amulets attached to the headdress with pearl and gold chains.

The Qatar period (1193-1342/1779-1924). The Qajar dynasty was established by Āqā Moḥammad Khan (1193-1212/1779-97), but it was during the reign of his successor, Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah (1212-50/1797-1834), that the grandeur and formality of Safavid court dress prevailed once again. A revival of the silk industry provided sumptuous fabrics for the court, supplementing the delicate wools of Kermān that had been so popular in the previous century; Kermān wools were promoted in place of imports from Kashmir (Morier, 1812, p. 246). Foreign observers were particularly struck by the magnificence of men’s court costume and provided detailed descriptions (Ker Porter, I, pp. 324-26; Morier, 1812, pp. 192, 214), which are richly corroborated by the murals and oil paintings commissioned by the ruler for his new palaces (e.g., “Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah with His Entourage,” A. Soudavar collection; Bier, pp. 253-55; plate cxvi).

James Morier described Persian men’s dress in 1222/1807, introducing some current terminology, for example, zīr-jāma (undergarments), tekmeh (tokma, button), oymeh (perhaps < Turk. oyma, a kind of embroidery), and baroonee (bārānī). He also explained variations in the way that the mandatory Qajar kolāh, a tall black astrakhan cap angled at the top and covered along the angle with striped fabric, was worn (1812, pp. 245-46). A decade or so later Robert Ker Porter described the luxurious layered effects of Qajar court dress, similar to that of the Safavid period. His report that the Qajars generally wore darker colors (p. 439; cf. Morier, 1812, p. 243) is, however, contradicted by the evidence of paintings and surviving garments. Aside from the kolāh, the most noteworthy features of men’s clothing were the longer, ankle-length robe, worn over a short-sleeved waistcoat and under a three-quarter-length jacket, the continuing use of Kashmir brocades and locally woven imitations for waistbands and to wrap around the kolāh, and the jeweled armband (bāzū-band; Morier, 1812, p. 214). The shah and his grandees now cultivated luxuriant beards and moustaches painstakingly dyed black (Morier, 1812, p. 247).

Garments were cut from a variety of floral silks in large būta patterns or floral and trellis designs. Surviving examples are rare, but a dark-blue and gold silk-brocade robe with a large būta design is evidence for the evolution of this style, with a triangular flap from neck to hem (Victoria & Albert Museum, no. 962-1889, unpublished; cf. Textile Museum, 1972.24.3, Bier, p. 266 no. 69). Plain robes continued to be ornamented as before, with edging and frogging or lace. Complex piping in colorfully striped Kermān wool could be seen on every edge of the costume, especially cuffs, underarm vents, pockets, and side vents. A number of surviving men’s shirts with painted talismanic inscription, though not so far documented in literary or visual sources, have been dated generally to the 17th-19th centuries (see above) and warrant further research (Victoria & Albert Museum, nos. 943-1889, T59-1935, 281-1884, all unpublished; cf. Islamic Textile Design, p. 18 no. 39; Calligraphy, p. 29). Among men’s accessories were delicate silk or wool stockings woven in floral or calligraphic patterns, which were tucked into the traditional slippers with high heels, of which a number survive (The Brooklyn Museum, no. 34.1030AB; Hanway, p. 228; plate cxvii).

Women’s clothing was equally sumptuous in this period. When Lady Ouseley, wife of the British ambassador, visited Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah’s consort she found the latter wearing a headdress and turban so heavily bejeweled that she had difficulty in moving (cf. Morier, 1818, p. 175). The women’s ensemble consisted of the transparent pīrāhan bordered with pearls and jewels, now often with two slits in the front. It was usually visible to the navel, appearing seductive and sometimes scandalous to foreign visitors, but, as already noted, its primary function was to facilitate nursing. It was worn with full trousers (šalvār; e.g., National Museum of Scotland, no. 1890.407, described in Scarce, 1987a, p. 52; cf. idem, 1987b, p. 166 pl. 115) or a bouffant skirt, gathered at the dropped waist (plate cxviii). These garments were usually made of cloth with large floral and trellis patterns or embroidered cotton or velvet, but they could also be worn plain with a wide sash, sometimes knotted at the front to show the būta design on the ends, or with a jeweled belt. Straight trousers were worn under the skirts as well (see xxvii, below, s.v. dāman). The jacket was generally tight-fitting, with straight elbow-length or long sleeves ending in plain or pointed cuffs. The cuffs were still turned back to show the ruffled shirt cuffs and embroidered and jeweled cuffs of undergarments (plate cxix); the shorter-sleeved variety was particularly suited to this purpose. A varied range of such jackets has been preserved in Western collections (e.g., Victoria & Albert Museum, nos. 730-1-884, 286-7-1884, unpublished; Textile Museum, nos. 1964.26., 1975.3.2, 1983.68.5, Bier, pp. 260-61 nos. 64-65, 264 no. 67; The Brooklyn Museum, nos. x653.4,18.11; plate cxx). One major innovation in women’s clothing of this period was the embroidered brassiere (National Museum of Scotland, no. 1890.409; Scarce, 1975b), which could be worn either under or over the pīrāhan. For outdoor wear women continued to wear the white čādor with face veil, with or without wide trousers (čāqšūr); by mid-century, however, a darker čādor in black or dark blue, often with gold embroidery, had appeared (Falk, pl. 17; Treasures, p. 196 no. 185).

The wealth of Persia in the time of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah was represented, both literally and symbolically, in the elaborate pearled and jeweled decoration of men’s and women’s garments: ropes and tassels of pearls and armbands, collars, and hems encrusted with gems. Even cushions and carpets were decorated in this fashion, as illustrated in paintings of the period. Women’s jewelry included necklaces (ʿaqd-e rū) worn just under the chin (Negārestān Museum, Tehran, no. 75.4.1; plate cxxi); gold, bejeweled, and enameled pendant earrings (pīāla-zang); hair ornaments; and rings (e.g., State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, nos. V3-976, V3-406, V3-731, V3-836, V3-422, V3-839, Ivanov et al., pp. 211-12 nos. 60, 80-82, 84, 86). A large collection of 18th-19th century imperial crown jewels survives almost intact in the central bank in Tehran. It includes the royal crown, armbands, aigrettes (jeqqa), and belts (q.v.; Meen and Tushingham, nos. 72-73, 78-83, 117, 126-27,130). Also in the collection are large numbers of pearls, both mounted and unmounted. Gold or gilt-metal plaques set with pearls in rosettes and pear shapes or along the curved edges are provided with loops through which they could be sewn onto fabric backing, a technique used in the so-called “jewel- and pearl-embroidered costumes” (Meen and Tushingham, pp. 76-77; plate cxxii). Amulet and Koran cases of jeweled enamel or steel inlaid with gold and precious stones are to be found in other collections (e.g., The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin; Regemorter, pl. 40).

A more sober approach to dress, particularly for men, marked the second half of the 19th century, owing in part to a decline in economic conditions and in part to the influence of Western taste in the period of Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah and his successors. The tradition of distributing ḵaḷʿats for wear at court continued, as did the custom of treating as currency textiles and robes, primarily of Kermān and Kashmir brocaded wool, which had already increased in value in the preceding century (Polak, I, p. 153). Some court officials continued to wear the long-sleeved jobba in brocaded wool, with wide rolled-up sleeves, the functioning of which was described by C. J. Wills (pp. 318-19). In court dress generally, however, the brilliant and colorful garments of Fatḥ-ʿAlī Shah’s reign gave way to shirts, sometimes with cravats (Polak, I, p. 143); dark-colored coats of European civilian or military cut (kolīja; see xi, below); and wide, straight trousers, occasionally even with military stripes on the seams. By 1311/1893 the frock coat had become common, but the tight-fitting European style was deemed indecorous (Sykes, p. 65), and the Persian version was therefore based on Turkish models with pleats at the waist and wider sleeves (Wills, p. 318). J. E. Polak reported the role of European tailors in cutting European clothing for a Persian clientele (I, p. 155). An overcoat of wool brocade, cut like a frock coat, could be worn with or without a fur lining (see, e.g., Anon., p. 16; Victoria & Albert Museum, no. TN1955-2, unpublished; plate cxxiii). Notables wore an astrakhan cap in the shape of a pillbox and cut their hair short in the European style, though the lower and religious classes continued to wear traditional robes and turbans. The shahs continued to wear expensive jewelry; a complete set, including a diamond-and-enamel jeqqa, a gilded metal belt with enameled plaques, and a diamond rosette is in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore (nos. 57.882-84; plate cxxiv).

European visitors in the late 19th century showed greater understanding than their predecessors of the Persian life-style and a generally sympathetic recognition of the rationale for traditional Persian cut and fabrics. Polak, for example, devoted a long chapter to men’s costume, including, beside the accessories already mentioned, jewel-studded leather belts, watches, rings, amulets, handkerchiefs, and tasbīḥs (prayer beads).

Women’s costume of the late 19th century was described by Polak and Wills, both physicians with access to the andarūn. At home women continued to wear the transparent pīrāhan with a drop-waisted skirt (jāma), leaving even more of the torso visible. Tight jackets (kolīja; Polak, p. 160) were worn with or without underdrawers (zīr-jāma), or “pantalettes,” as the Victorians quaintly referred to them. In mid-century there was a dramatic innovation: layered “miniskirts” (šalīta) with multiple petticoats worn with bare legs or white stockings. Skirts had become progressively shorter in the course of the 19th century, but this extreme version was apparently inspired by the tutus of ballerinas, which had attracted Nāṣer-al-Dīn Shah’s attention during his European travels. This revealing costume was worn with a plain white headdress that covered the chest (for descriptions, see Wills, p. 324; Scarce, 1987a, pp. 55-56; idem, 1987b, pls. 119-20; Bishop, I, p. 215; Ḏokāʾ, p. 22; plate cxxv). The wonderful embroidered trousers that had gone out of fashion were cut up and sold to collectors (Benjamin, p. 332). English styles also were imitated in the andarūn. S. G. W. Benjamin, who was in Persia in the 1880s, described a čādor with a waistline (pp. 198-99), in contrast to the normal, flowing version worn with full trousers (čāqšūr). The čādor was little appreciated, even by otherwise sympathetic foreign observers; Wills compared the Persian woman clad in a čādor to a “living bolster” (p. 42; plate cxxv).

Aside from the European garments fashionable at court, traditional Persian dress continued to be worn into the 20th century; women might wear European garments at home but had to cover them with the čādor when going out (Bogdanov, p. 292). Detailed descriptions of the clothing worn by different social classes at the end of the Qajar period can be found in contemporary Persian sources. Kalāntar Żarrābī (pp. 248-50) described the clothing worn by clerics, nobles, and members of the lower classes in Kāšān; his work is an important source of information on clothing and textile terminology in the late 19th century but gives few details of cut. In a text sprinkled with proverbs, humorous and historical anecdotes, and gems of popular wisdom, profusely illustrated with contemporary photographs, Jaʿfar Šahrī described the principal items of men’s and women’s clothing current in the capital in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (pp. 16-18, 455-603). This rich source provides information on the manufacture, prices, and styles of a variety of headgear (felt caps, hats, turbans); robes both made to measure and ready-made; frock coats and suits for men; the čādor, čāqšūr, pīča (face veil), and wedding dress worn by women; and shoes and gīva. A statistical report of 1301 Š./1922 provides details on eight types of headgear and the limited use of the kepi hat, frock coat, and Western-style trousers (Baladīya, p. 88).

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(Layla S. Diba)

In the Pahlavi and Post-Pahlavi Periods

Pahlavi period. The clothing of Persians during the early years of the Pahlavi dynasty was generally similar to that of the Qajar period, reflecting differences among tribes, villages, and regions, as well as among classes. In the late 19th century there had been some effort to reform the dress, most notably of government officials (Eʿtemād-al-Salṭana, p. 154; Ādamīyat, pp. 451-52; see x, above). Particularly after the Constitutional Revolution (q.v.; 1324-27/1906-09) many Persian men who had traveled abroad had begun to adopt European dress, wearing suits, neckties, and bow ties. Most of these men lived in the capital and a few large cities in the north and northwest; they did not constitute a large group (see Frontispiece to Volume V). On 29 Bahman (Dalw) 1301 Š./18 February 1923 parliament ratified a bill requiring all civil servants, cabinet members, and parliamentary deputies to wear Persian-made clothing during business hours (see Frontispiece to Volume V). This dress requirement was extended on 1 Mīzān 1302 Š./23 September 1923 by the order of the minister of war Sardār-e Sepah (later Reżā Shah), to include military personnel as well (Yaḡmāʾī, pp. 326-27, 557; Masʿūdī, p. 44; Šafā, I, pp. 23, 26-27).

Office workers and other urban residents who favored modernity gradually adopted the sardārī (a frock coat reaching below the knees), trousers, and even on occasion Western suits. Among Europeans photographed at the ceremonies inaugurating telegraph service (bīsīm-e Pahlavī) in Tehran on 5 Ordībehešt 1305 Š./26 April 1926 were women wearing jackets, skirts, and hats and engineers wearing brimmed hats (Maḥbūbī, Moʾassasāt II, p. 231; Yaḡmāʾī, p. 216). The Persians attending the ceremony wore the sardārī, European trousers, and brimless hats of ovoid profile (kolāh-e toḵm-e morḡī “egg-shaped hat”); no one appeared wearing a traditional ʿabāʾ (q.v.).

On 4 Mehr 1307 Š./26 September 1928 the cabinet resolved that all male Persians dress uniformly in Western style. Traditional outer garments like shawls (šāl), cloaks (qabā), sardārīs, labbādas/lobbādas (quilted or felt coats), and ʿabāʾs were to be replaced by coats; trousers (tonbān) traditionally made from black twill (dabīt) or similar fabric and tied at the waist with a cord (band-e tonbān, nīfa) by Western trousers and belts; footwear like gīva, malakī (kinds of cloth slippers), and čāroq (hide sandals) by leather shoes with heels. All government workers, as well as schoolboys, were to wear cylindrical hats with bills (known as kolāh-e pahlavī, “Pahlavi cap”; plate cxxvi) instead of the customary fur hats, turbans, or ovoid hats. Only the clergy, including instructors at religious seminaries, and leaders of other officially recognized religions were exempt from this decree, which went into effect on 1 Farvardīn 1308 Š./21 March 1929 in the towns and a year later in villages and rural areas (Adīb Heravī, p. 262; Yaḡmāʾī, p. 558).

The imposition of the Pahlavi cap and the prohibition of traditional headgear aroused strong opposition, especially among two groups. The first included traditionalists, who considered turbans a sign of distinction, and tribesmen, who identified themselves by the styles and colors of their headgear. The second comprised the proprietors of textile factories, who were brought to the brink of bankruptcy by the new regulations. Furthermore, trained jurists and similarly educated men objected to the new regulations on the ground that punishments stipulated by the cabinet for noncompliance, including cash fines and detention for up to a week, were unconstitutional. As a result, on 6 Day 1307 Š./27 December 1928 the seventh parliament passed a law ratifying the cabinet decree and making the clothing regulations both legal and compulsory (Masʿūdī, pp. 43, 44; Šafā, I, p. 73).

Gradually men became accustomed to the Pahlavi cap, though opposition continued to be voiced, mainly by the Muslim clergy, particularly among the lower and less educated ranks, whose members, as local religious leaders, often wielded substantial influence in local affairs. Eventually, however, the state managed to win the consent of the high-ranking clerics in Qom, arguing that the honor and pride associated with the turban should not be endangered by permitting illiterate or unworthy individuals to wear it (Hedāyat, p. 382).

In Ḵordāḏ-Tīr 1313 Š./June-July 1934 Reżā Shah visited Turkey, where he was much impressed by Kemal Atatürk’s programs for modernization. He became determined that Persians, too, should dress as Europeans did (Hedāyat, p. 407; Kāẓemī, p. 343), and, while still in Turkey, he issued an order to the prime minister that all Persian workers were thenceforth to wear European-style brimmed hats. His express justification was that the full brim of the hat would protect outdoor laborers from sunburn. On 16 Tīr 1314 Š/8 July 1935 a cabinet decree made wearing of this hat obligatory for all men, thus replacing the Pahlavi cap. The change, which was rigorously enforced, aroused considerable resistance, particularly in the provinces. In a famous incident a group of Muslims, led by an outspoken mullah named Shaikh Taqī Bohlūl, took refuge (bast, q.v.) in the Gowharšād mosque in Mašhad, where they were attacked by security forces and a number of people were killed (Adīb Heravī, pp. 261ff. Dawlatābādī, Ḥayāt-e Yaḥyā IV, p. 431; Ṣadīq, pp. 307-08; Wilber, pp. 160, 166-67; Šafā, I, pp. 127-28). Such resistance only increased the shah’s resolve (Masʿūdī, p. 139). Although the brimmed hat continued to be worn until the last years of Reżā Shah’s reign, Persian men gradually gave up wearing headgear altogether, despite the traditional Persian view that it is unseemly to appear in public uncovered (for the Qajar period, see, e.g., Šahrī, pp. 228-29). Among urban men only military personnel and clerics, who consider that covering the head is encouraged by Islam, continued to wear headgear.

Before the Gowharšād incident Reżā Shah had not personally stressed the necessity for change in women’s dress. Some educated women had already begun to appear at private functions wearing hats, rather than the veil (čādor; q.v.; Dawlatābādī, Ḥayāt-e Yaḥyā IV, pp. 432-34; Masʿūdī, pp. 145-46). Some members of the court who had been educated abroad favored abolishing the veil entirely and endorsed the participation of women in social gatherings. One proponent of such views was the powerful court minister ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Teymūrtāš, who, in a cabinet meeting in 1312 Š./1933, proposed that importation of ladies’ hats from abroad be legalized (Hedāyat, pp. 379, 407).

Eventually, in 1314 Š./1936, Reżā Shah did abolish the veil, the first ruler in the region to do so (Atatürk had not banned the veil; see Keddie, pp. 108-09). Once confident of his power after the crushing of Shaikh Bohlūl’s rebellion, the shah appeared with his wife and daughters unveiled at a graduation ceremony at the government normal school (Dāneš-sarā-ye moqaddamātī) on 17 Day 1314 Š./8 January 1936. In a speech addressed to the predominantly female audience, which had been ordered to attend unveiled, he ordered all women to dress thenceforth in the European manner (Hedāyat, p. 408; Ṣadīq, pp. 310-14; Wilber, pp. 173-74; Šafā, I, pp. 131-32; Savory, pp. 97-98). The occasion was celebrated in every city but particularly in Tehran, and all military and civilian government personnel were ordered to appear with their wives, unveiled, at the celebrations.

These measures also met with resistance and the use of force. The great majority of Persian women had been brought up to consider the veil indispensable and to believe that exposing the head and neck was a sin. Furthermore, Persian men considered abandonment of the veil outright evidence of unchastity. Among men literacy was limited to the privileged elite and the clergy, whereas among women illiteracy was almost universal; even the few who had attended traditional schools (maktabs) knew only how to recite prayers and the Koran and could hardly write at all. Such a traditional and highly patriarchal society was ill prepared for a sudden ban on the time-honored čādor, and coercion by the police was the inevitable result. Women were beaten, their čādors and headscarves torn off, and even their homes forcibly searched (Fāṭemī, p. 178). Often, on the pretext of enforcing this law, officials harassed and extorted money from the public. Gradually, however, popular resistance was overcome, and by the last three or four years of Reżā Shah’s reign women appeared in public wearing plain long dresses (or jackets and skirts in Tehran), thick stockings, and full-brimmed straw hats. In some villages and small towns, however, women simply did not leave their houses until Reżā Shah was forced to abdicate in Šahrīvar 1320 Š./September 1941.

After the abdication many women resumed the veil, but most of the educated did not; in fact, encouraged by the extensive presence of foreigners in Persia and closer ties with the outside world, they actively followed the Western fashions of the day, particularly during the last two decades of the reign of Moḥammad-Reżā Shah Pahlavi (1320-58 Š./1941-79). Furthermore, as prosperity increased with the oil boom, men also began to adopt Western styles more eagerly, and a large proportion of family income was thus spent on fashionable clothing.

Post-Pahlavi period. The situation was abruptly transformed by the Revolution of 1357 Š./1978-79. At first the revolutionary forces considered smart—or even clean—clothing a sign of estekbār (ostentation) and neckties an indication of religious laxity. Unshaven members of Ḥezb-Allāh (party of God) wearing soiled shirts with open collars and rubber slippers harassed men dressed in Western style in the street. Some even adopted the headband (ʿeqāl) in imitation of leftist Arabs, but it was unpopular, and they soon abandoned it.

For women the situation was far more difficult. In the mid-1970s many rural families had migrated to the major cities, particularly Tehran, in search of employment. Most were unskilled, uneducated, and traditional in their outlook and convictions. After the Revolution, encouraged by religious leaders who had become government officials, women from this group harassed women who were not wearing the veil in public. Many educated women, particularly university students, had adopted traditional dress associated with Islam as a symbol of opposition to the Pahlavi regime, and the mass demonstrations during the Revolution had included large numbers of such women wearing black čādors (plate cxxvii). But they had not expected to be forced to wear them after the Revolution; they staged a few brief protests, which, however, were met with insults and physical threats. As the state gradually consolidated its power, all women were forced to adopt the “Islamic” mode of dress in public. It consists of a loose gown covering the entire body in such a way that all curves, including the breasts, waist, and calves, are hidden. Only the hands, from fingertips to wrists, and the face are not covered by this garment. The head and neck are to be entirely covered either by a black čādor or a thick scarf (meqnaʿa). If the distance between the ground and the hem of the dress is greater than ten inches the calves of the legs, already swathed in thick black stockings, must be further hidden under full trousers. These requirements have been met with the same reluctance and resistance that greeted Reżā Shah’s enforced ban on the same kind of clothing.

Many men still wear jackets and trousers, though most omit neckties.

Bibliography : F. Ādamīyat, Andīša-ye tarraqī wa ḥokūmat-e qānūn. ʿAṣr-e Sepahsālār, Tehran, 1351 Š./1973. ʿA. Āḏarī, ed., Tārīḵ-e moṣawwar-e Reżā Šāh-e kabīr, Tehran, 1345 Š./1976 (useful for illustrations). M.-Ḥ. Adīb Heravī, Ḥadīqat al-rażawīya, Mašhad, 1327 Š./1948. Moḥammad-Ḥasan Khan Eʿtemād-al-Salṭana, Čehel sāl tārīḵ-e Īrān dar dawra-ye pādšāhī-e Nāṣer-al-Dīn Šāh I. al-Maʾāṯer wa’l-āṯār, ed. Ī. Afšār, Tehran, 1363 Š./1984. M. Farroḵ (Moʿtaṣem-al-Salṭana), Ḵāṭerāt-e sīāsī-e Farroḵ, ed. P. Lavāšānī, Tehran, 1347 Š./1968, pp. 388, 391, 395. N. Sayfpūr Fāṭemī, “Reżā Šāh wa kūdetā-ye 1299,” Rahāvard 7/23, 1368 Š./1989, pp. 160-80. M. Moḵber-al-Salṭana Hedāyat, Ḵāṭerāt o ḵaṭarāt, 2nd ed., Tehran, 1344 Š./1965, p. 407. M. Kāẓemī, Rūzgār o andīšahā, Tehran, 1350 Š./1971. N. Keddie, Roots of Revolution. An Interpretive History of Modern Iran, New Haven, Conn., 1981. ʿA. Masʿūdī, Eṭṭelāʿāt dar yak robʿ-e qarn, Tehran, 1950 Š./1971. ʿĪ. Ṣadīq, Yādgār-e ʿomr II, Tehran, 1345 Š./1966. Š. Šafā, Gāh-nāma-ye panjāh sāl šāhanšāhī-e Pahlavī I, n.p., n.d. J. Šahrī, Gūša-ī az tārīḵ-e ejtemāʿī-e Tehrān-e qadīm I, Tehran, 1357 Š./1978. R. M. Savory, “Social Development in Iran during the Pahlavi Era,” in G. Lenczowski, ed., Iran under the Pahlavis, Stanford, Calif., 1978, pp. 85-127. F. Stark, The Valley of the Assassins, London, 1934, tr. ʿA.-M. Sākī as Safar-nāma-ye Alamūt, Lorestān wa Īlām, Tehran, 1364 Š./1985. D. Wilber, Riza Shah Pahlavi, The Resurrection and Reconstruction of Iran, Hicksville, N.Y., 1975. E. Yaḡmāʾī, Kār-nāma-ye Reżā Šāh-e kabīr, Tehran, 2535 = 1355 Š./1976, pp. 170, 178, 216, 499. E. Žozef, “Rokn-al-Dīn Moḵtāṛ . . . ,” Rahāvard 7/23, 1368 Š./1989, pp. 274-75.

(ʿAlī-Akbar Saʿīdī Sīrjānī)

Qajar and Pahlavi Military Clothing. See MILITARY

Clothing in Afghanistan

The medley of tribal and ethnic populations in the diverse landscape of Afghanistan live mainly in rural towns and villages and nomadic camps. Hardly 5 percent lead urban lives. Traditional clothing reflects these geographic and residential variations and also serves to express individual and group identity, social and economic status, stages of the life-cycle, and changing sociopolitical trends, which ultimately lead to new styles, as well as to exchanges of clothing types (L. Dupree, pp. 238-47). Although terminology for all items of Afghan clothing varies widely, the central role of dress in Afghan culture is clear from the fact that new garments are essential for family, religious, and seasonal celebrations.

Headgear. The most diagnostic item of clothing is headgear; and even the ubiquitous turban (Pers. langōtā, dastār, Pashto paṭkay, pagṛi), which can vary in length from 3 to 6 m, takes on distinguishing characteristics, depending on the arrangement of folds (L. Dupree, pp. 71, 162). White cotton is the most common turban cloth, though certain Pashtun groups prefer black and prestigious silk turbans tend to be woven in muted grays, browns, and pinks (plates cxxviii, cxxix). Whatever the material, the longer the turban, the more fashionable the man. A young boy signals the coming of manhood by ceremoniously donning a turban. The easily recognizable shapes and decorative designs of the caps (Pers. kolāh, Pashto ḵōlay) worn under turbans are also distinctive indicators. Cylindrical silk-embroidered caps distinguish the Uzbek and Tajik (see xv, below), fitted skullcaps of quilted chintz and felt (barrak) the Hazāra (see xiv, below), and the famous cylindrical caps embroidered with gold and silver thread (golābatūnī) the Pashtun of Qandahār; foldable caps encrusted with shiny colored-glass beads (marīdārā) are also made in Qandahār (N. H. Dupree, 1977, p. 286). The Baluch set round mirror fragments (šīša) into their designs (see xviii, xix, below). Conical caps of wheat straw (druzaw ḵōlay) are unique among the Šīnwārī eastern Pashtun, as are the small, round felt caps found in the high mountains of the northeast. Other male headgear includes busby-like shapes (tīlpak) made from sheepskin, worn by the Turkmen (L. Dupree, p. 182; see xxvi, below), round fur-trimmed hats and quilted hats with earflaps worn by the Kirghiz (Dot and Naumann), and flat-topped woolen caps with rolled rims worn in Nūrestān (pakōl generally; śukokuṛ in Kāmvīrī; Michaud, 1980, ill. 91). The modified cylindrical hat made from Persian lamb (qarakolī), which had distinguished all educated urban men since the beginning of the 20th century (Charpentier, 1977), is currently out of fashion.

Head coverings for all women are prescribed in Islam. Most women in traditional Afghan communities, therefore, wear variations of large or small rectangular headscarves, commonly called čādar (see Âčādor), with or without small hats similar to the men’s kolāh. The čādar is made of soft cotton, often but by no means always in a solid color. Among certain Pashtun tribeswomen the čādar is an ankle-length mantle resembling a cape, bordered with heavy gold embroidery (Michaud, 1980, ill. 67). In contrast to the čādar, the čādarī is composed of a close-fitting cap from which finely pleated colored silk or rayon falls, completely enveloping the figure, with only an openwork embroidered or crocheted grid over the eyes (Nicod, ills. 57, 59). Another style, with a separate see-through face veil, is called bōqrā (< Ar. borqoʿ; Herat) and paranjī (Kondūz). All čādarīs are primarily urban garments (N. H. Dupree, 1978). The most spectacular headgear is worn by Turkmen women. Although the shapes of these tall (up to 45 cm) headdresses (Turkic bojmāq, Pers. qaṣabā) differ from group to group, as do the silk wrappings, silver studs, and festooned ornaments that decorate them, all mark major stages in the lives of their owners. The exuberant creations worn by brides are replaced by more modest versions once they become mothers, and after menopause the silver ornaments are set aside entirely (Stucki, 1978). Uzbek bridal headdresses, though similar, are not as elaborate (P. Centlivres). Individual creativity is also expressed in the decoration of baby bonnets with a profusion of pompoms, feathers, baubles, and beads.

Garments. The basic costume for men, women, and children is made from lightweight cotton and consists of loose-fitting, long-sleeved shirts worn outside wide trousers (Pers. tanbān, ezār, Pashto partōg) gathered on a drawstring (ezārband). The length of the men’s shirt (perān, korta), which is typically collarless and buttoned at one shoulder (N. H. Dupree, 1977, p. 388), varies from region to region, from knee to mid-calf or even lower. The finely embroidered Qandahāri shirt fronts (gaṛa, ganḍa) are renowned.

Waistcoats (waskat) are universally popular and may be made of black and red velvet decorated with gold braid or embroidery, as found in Qandahār (called sadrī) and among some Pashtun nomads, or fashioned from local materials, like barrak (see barak) in the Hazārajāt. Many men, however, prefer Western vests purchased, along with Western coats and jackets, from second-hand clothing bāzārs. Indigenous types of outer garment are also worn. They include dressed-sheepskin coats worn with the fleece inside, with sleeves (pōstīn) or without (pōstīṇča), and often embroidered, a specialty in the Pashtun area around Ḡaznī. Throughout the north full-length, quilted or single-weight collarless robes, striped in multiple colors and with long sleeves covering the hands (jīlak and čapan respectively); worn with a cloth sash (kamarband), are made of silk and handwoven cotton (karbās; N. H. Dupree, 1977, p. 341). A typical Uzbek type of padded coat, of brown or dark-red cotton, slips over the head and fastens at one side of the neck (gopīča). Elaborately embroidered short-sleeved felt coats (kūsay) are worn by the Pashtun in Paktīā. Woolen shawls (čādar, Pashtu patū) are also popular with men in winter.

Nūrestāni dress is the most distinctive in Afghanistan. Men wear white woolen trousers, reaching just below the knee (viṭ in Kāmvīrī, spoken in Kāmdeš), over long black leggings like puttees (pātaw), which, aside from the knitted wool stockings decorated with traditional designs of the Hazāra, are the only leg coverings made in Afghanistan. Prized silver-studded belts (mālāa niśte) for daggers (kātra) are also unique to Nūrestān (L. Dupree, p. 143). Nūrestāni women sometimes wear leggings under long, full skirts or robes (bāźü) gathered at the waist with woven belts (niśte) and embellished across the back of the shoulders and down the sleeves with a combination of red and black embroidered appliqués found nowhere else in Afghanistan (L. Dupree, p. 234).

Elsewhere, although women’s dress styles conform to an overall pattern similar to that of men, differences in the length of the dress; the cut, drape, and fullness (up to 20 m) of the voluminous trousers; the width of the sleeves at the wrists and the trousers at the ankles; and fabrics—prints, textures, and decoration—are matters of great consequence to all women (plates cxxx, cxxxi). In contrast to men’s clothing, which is generally tailored in bāzārs, most women’s clothing is hand- or machine-stitched at home. Especially among the eastern Pashtun the high-waisted bodices of the dresses, the flaring elbow-length cuffs, and deep borders on the hems of skirts containing as much as 12 m of flowered cotton or velvet are covered with exquisite embroidery. Red, green, and royal-purple velvet are favored by the wealthier nomads, the māldār.

In the cities, especially among the educated middle and upper classes, Western styles have predominated since they were introduced early in the 20th century as part of government efforts to modernize (N. H. Dupree, 1988). Fashions have closely followed European models through the years, and, for women, Western dress came to symbolize emancipation (Rahimi, 1977). After the leftist revolution of 1357 Š./1978 and during the subsequent years of Soviet occupation Western dress continued in vogue in Kabul. On the other hand, Afghan refugees in Pakistan, both men and women, wear traditional garments as symbols of their adherence to Afghan culture and Islam.

Footgear. Plastic shoes of every hue and style are popular throughout Afghanistan, but a variety of stout leather sandal (čaplī, Pashto čaplay), often soled with rubber cut from old tires, is also worn in many areas. Straw sandals (mazarī čaplay) are found in Paktīā. Also distinctive are the ankle-high moccasins of Nūrestān (vācó) and the knee-high leather boots, high-heeled (čamūs; Nicod, ill. 29) or soft-soled (māsī), worn by northern Turkic speakers. The stout rubber overshoes (kalawš) worn to cover the magi outside the home are also commonly worn alone (plate cxxviii).

Jewelry. Jewelry, mostly of silver, is an important item in every woman’s wardrobe, and generous sprinklings of silver beads, disks, coins, fastenings, and amulets (taʿwīḏ) are sewn onto clothing. Among some nomads, the eastern Pashtun in particular, these silver ornaments are typically combined with mirror work, gold and silver filament and braid, and elaborate beading, in addition to the fine embroidery described above.

Bibliography : M. and P. Centlivres, “Calottes, mitres et toques,” Bulletin annuel du Musée et Institut d’Ethnographie de la Ville de Genève 11, 1968, pp. 11-46. P. Centlivres, “Les Uzbeks du Qattaghan,” Afghanistan Journal 2/1, 1975, pp. 28-36. C.-J. Charpentier, “The Making of Karakul-Caps,” Afghanistan Journal 4/2, 1977, pp. 76-78. R. Dor and C. Naumann, Die Kirghisen des afghanischen Pamir, Graz, 1978. L. Dupree, Afghanistan, Princeton, N.J., 1980, pp. 238-47. N. H. Dupree, An Historical Guide to Afghanistan, Kabul, 1977. Idem, “Behind the Veil in Afghanistan,” Asia 1/2, 1978, pp. 10-15. Idem, “Victoriana Comes to the Haremsarai in Afghanistan,” in P. Bucherer-Dietschi, ed., Bauen und Wohnen am Hindukush, Liestal, Switz., 1988, pp. 111-49. J. Graham and H. Sandys, The Decorative Arts of Central Asia, London, 1988. A. Janata, “Ikat in Afghanistan,” Afghanistan Journal 5/4, 1978, pp. 130-39. C. M. Kieffer and G. Redard, “La fabrication des chaussures à Bamyan,” Acta Orientalia 31, 1968, pp. 47-53. A. Legat, “Changes and Continuities in Women’s Status and Clothing in Urban Afghanistan,” in D. G. Hatt, ed., Ethnicity. The Role of Group Identification in Social Change, Calgary, Can., 1978. A. Leix, “Trachten der Nomaden Turkestans,” CIBA-Rundschau 54, Basel, 1942, pp. 1986-2001. R. and S. Michaud, Caravans to Tartary, London, 1978. Idem, Afghanistan, London, 1980. M.-L. Nabholz and P. Bucherer-Dietschi, eds., Textilhandwerk in Afghanistan, Liestal, Switz., 1983. M. R. Nicod, Afghanistan, Innsbruck, n.d. F. Rahimi, Women in Afghanistan, Liestal, Switz., 1986. K. E. Seraj and N. H. Dupree, The KES Collection of Vintage Photographs, New York, 1979. A Stucki, “Horses and Women,” Afghanistan Journal 5/4, 1978, pp. 140-49.

(Nancy Hatch Dupree)

Clothing of the Hazāra Tribes

Hazāra clothing has not been studied systematically; only sporadic evidence can be found in literature, photographs, and major museum collections. Much of the information given here is based on the author’s ethnographic work among the Hazāra in 1953-55 and in the Danish National Museum collection in 1948 and 1953-54.

The 19th century. Mountstuart Elphinstone, the father of Afghan ethnography, is apparently the earliest source on Hazāra clothing. He published one illustration (Elphinstone, pl. XII, facing p. 483; plate cxxxii) with the brief comment “the dress of the meṇ . . . is distinguished by the rolls of cloth which they twist round their legs like the Uzbeks. The women wear long frocks of woollen stuff, and boots of soft deerskin, which reach to their knees” (p. 483 ). In the 1830s Alexander Burnes reported that Hazāra women of rank “go unveiled, and wear two or three loongees [lungies] on the head, like a tiara” (p. 175). He added that the Hazāras manufactured a fabric called “burruk” (see barak) from the wool of sheep.

The American general Josiah Harlan, who was also in Afghanistan in the 1830s, gave more detail. According to him, the manufacture of “berrick” was common throughout the Paropamisus mountains and among the pastoral tribes of Central Asia, but the best was made in Dāy Zangī in the southern part of Hazārajāt (p. 116). Of the Hazāra in particular he reported (pp. 128-30) that “the clothing of the poor or laboring class consists of a long frock made of the berrick i burrie and pantaloons of the same material fitting tight near the ankles. They wrap their legs with strips of the same material, about two and a half inches wide . . . commencing at the ankle . . . . This arrangement is commonly adopted by couriers and other foot men who have occasion to perform long journeys . . . . Their feet are usually protected by sandals of straw. The higher orders use shoes of Cabul or Bulkḥ . . . . During winteṛ . . . those of Tatar proclivity use boots, or mashee [mašī] as they are called in "Toorkie." But for all pedestrian purposes at this season they use a most serviceable contrivance for the protection of the feet called sooklies [soḵlī “lambskin”], which effectually and economically secure the wearer immunity from the influence of cold, frost, and snow! This sooklie is prepared from the fresh skin of a horse, bullock or cameḷ . . . . These sooklies should be laced tightly . . . . The sooklie, however, is generally made and fitted from the recent skin and mostly at the moment when it is desirable . . . on the line of a march and in the midst of a snowstorm. The people live under bare polls, except the gentry, who use either a closely fitting chintz padded cap or one of sheepskin and the turban of Khorasan; the head-dress is modified with the season. The women are habited like the men, except that they wear their hair in long braids and pendant locks.” With reference to “the leading chiefs and their confidential followers,” Harlan mentioned that “their dress assimilates either to the Uzbek or Persian” (p. 131). A detailed description follows, including mention of the Persian qabā and long lungies both wrapped round the loins and folded round the head. The Hazāra chiefs generally wore no shirt, an Uzbek custom; those who did wear shirts preferred the Persian qamīṣ of silk or cotton. The outermost wrap was the čūḵā, a long cloak with sleeves, a version of the Turkestan caftan.

The 20th century. Hazāra clothing has changed very little since Harlan’s time. The Hazārajāt is receptive to cultural influences from outside but retains distinctive features. Two excellent photographs taken in 1916-17 were published by Oskar von Niedermayer and Ernst Diez. In one (pl. 185) four Hazāra men from the “central mountain area” appear, all wearing conical cloth caps edged with sheepskin. One has no shirt but wears two barrak caftans, one over the other; two wear cotton shirts, one with a barrak waistcoat and short barrak caftan, the other with a long barrak caftan the front corners of which are caught up in his cloth waistband. One or two wear cotton trousers, the others possibly woolen trousers. Two or three have the special Hazāra shoes, kāpī, with a heavy sole and a vamp of a single piece or two pieces stitched together along the instep, and one wears “moccasins” of raw-hide (čarāḵ soḵlī; see below) with tapes wrapped around the ankle and foot to hold them on. Two have bound their trousers below the knees (where puttees would start), a feature not encountered elsewhere. These mountain Hazāras evince many of the features described by Harlan and observed by the author in the 1950s. The second photograph (pl. 186) depicts two Hazāra porters from Kabul. They are somewhat more citified, with their turbans and traditional shoes with toes turned up. Both wear cotton trousers, one with puttees, and cotton shins with narrow neckbands, which Bruno Markowski designated “Parsiwān and Hazāra” (table XXV, fig. 21a; cf. the same type in Ferdinand, p. 31, fig. 12).

In the 1950s Hazāra women made all the family clothing, and they also wove barrak on a horizontal loom of a type common in Afghanistan. Cotton is cultivated in the warmer southern part of Hazārajāt, for example, in Šahrestān (formerly Sepāy) in Dāy Zangī and farther south in Orūzgān and Jāḡūrī; professional male weavers make the traditional cotton cloth called karbās on a loom of a type found extensively in southern and western Asia (Wulff, Crafts, p. 201 fig. 280).

In 1954 the author met in the central Hazārajāt only two men wearing the traditional dress of Šahrestān. It consisted of skin caps (as in Niedermayer and Diez), trousers, waistcoats (waskat), and coats (mačew) similar to British military frock coats, all of barrak; cotton shirts; and the solid Hazāra kāpī. Although the land is 2,600 feet above sea level, it was summer, and these men were clad much more warmly than necessary. The typical summer dress of a farmer consisted of a shirt (perān, perō) and trousers (pāyjāma, tambān, Hazāra tambō, ezār) of locally made karbās or imported cotton cloth, a barrak waistcoat, imported rubber sandals (čaplī-e robbar), and a very specific kind of cylindrical cap (kollā) with a crown of four or eight quilted pieces (čār or hašt-tark), the lower part (gerd-e kollā) edged with scallops (palta). It can thus be concluded that the south-central Hazāra typically wore the cap and waistcoat and, when weather and circumstances demanded, the short barrak caftan (čakman) and frock coat. A belt (Hazāra kamarī or memand) or cloth sash was often wrapped around the waist. Puttees (pāypēč) were no longer much worn in Šahrestān, as stockings had been introduced from Jāḡūrī about thirty years earlier. Wealthier people were more influenced by styles from Kabul, preferring imported cloth; they invariably wore the turban (Hazāra lungota, Pers. destār) over the cap and a shoulder blanket or shawl of cotton (šāl) or a soft fulled woolen material (šāl-e hazāragī), depending on the season. The shawl was also commonly worn while traveling.

Among the northern Hazāra, the Šayḵ ʿAlī and others in the upper Ḡōrband valley and near the Šebar pass, male dress was still quite traditional in the 1950s. Both short and long barrak caftans were common, and woolen trousers, puttees, and kāpī were generally worn. In winter men wore turbans and wrapped woolen scarves round their necks and faces as protection against the cold.

Among women hardly any element of the traditional dress described by Harlan remained. The author saw no women’s caftans at all; in cold weather the only wraps worn for outdoor work (e.g., weaving, in Ḡōrband) were large headcloths or short shawls (čādor), made exclusively of imported cloth. Dresses were plain and unadorned, usually long red or dark-blue gowns (Hazāra perō, Pers. perān < pērāhan) with neckbands and front openings with buttons, worn over trousers (Hazāra tambō) in the same colors and sometimes supplemented by small waistcoats. Ordinarily a cap (kollā) was worn with a dark-colored headcloth over it. Shoes, though rarely worn, were either kāpī or imports from Kabul.

Bright-red gowns were considered “modern”; in contrast to traditional gowns with long, full sleeves very wide at the wrists (Ferdinand, p. 27 fig 10; Figure 64), they had narrow cuffs and were embroidered along the edges of the front openings. The headcloth was folded in a thick, flat pad on top of the head, with the ends forming a sort of veil at the back of the neck; this headdress may be the “tiara” mentioned by Burnes (p. 175; see above; for a dark gown with narrow cuffs, see Ferdinand, p. 29, fig. 11).

Children’s clothes followed the same pattern as those of adults. Boys wore caps, cotton shirts, trousers, barrak waistcoats, and rubber sandals. Girls wore more colorful clothing, often long red gowns and red trousers, as well as caps and sandals. Very small children of either sex wore no trousers under long shirts or gowns. In summer children usually went barefoot. At puberty girls began to wear the headcloth. In southern Dāy Zangī the cap was worn on top of the headcloth to secure it.

In the collection of the Danish National Museum in Copenhagen there are the following items of Hazāra clothing: E. 1432 a-b: heavy-soled shoes (čarāḵ Hazārajāt); Punjab, Hazārajāt, 1948. E. 1433 a-b, 1434, 1435: cowhide moccasins (čarāḵ soklī), hair side outward, with tapes along the edges for tying onto the feet (cf. Harlan, above); Kabul and Hazārajāt, 1948. E. 1647: fulled woolen blanket; Hazārajāt, 1948. E. 1795: man’s cap (kollā); Šahrestān, 1953. E. 1796 a-b: girl’s cap (kollā) with silver pendant; Šahrestān, 1953. E. 1797 a-b: woman’s cap (kollā) with pendant; Šahrestān, 1953. E. 1800: woman’s gown of locally made cotton cloth, cut in “modern” style with narrow cuffs and embroidery; Šahrestān, 1953. E. 1837: man’s short barrak caftan (čakman); Ḡōrband-Šebar area, 1954. E. 1838: man’s long caftan (čakman); Ḡōrband-Šebar area, 1954. E. 1839 a-b: leather-soled men’s shoes (kāpī); Ḡōrband-Šebar area, 1954. E. 1840: woman’s gown, worn; Ḡōrband-Šebar area, 1954. E. 1841: woman’s cap; Ḡōrband-Šebar area, 1954. E. 1842: girl’s cap; Ḡōrband-Šebar area, 1954. E. 1843 a-b: leather-soled women’s (?) shoes (kāpī); Ḡōrband-Šebar area, 1954. E. 1847: white woolen men’s trousers; Ḡōrband-Šebar area, 1954. E. 1848: man’s cap; Ḡōrband-Šebar area, 1954. E. 1849 a-b: knitted woolen stockings; Ḡōrband-Šebar area, 1954. E. 1850 a-b: puttees (pāypēč); Ḡōrband-Šebar area, 1954. E. 1851: child’s cap; Ḡōrband-Šebar area, 1954.

Because Hazāra clothing is poorly documented, it has been possible to provide only a glimpse of its historical development and present character. It is noteworthy that the greatest changes seem to have taken place among women, in contrast to much ethnographic evidence from other groups. Paradoxically change has been least among the northern Hazāras, who live in a more easily accessible area. The complex developments in Hazārajāt are perhaps to be explained by the exploitative trading activities of the Pashtun nomads.

Bibliography : A. Burnes, Cabool. A Personal Narrative of a Journey to, and Residence in That City in the Years 1836, 7, and 8, 2nd ed., London, 1842; repr. Lahore, 1961. M. Elphinstone, An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul and Its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India, 2 vols., London, 1815; repr. Graz, 1969. K. Ferdinand, Preliminary Notes on Hazāra Culture (The Danish Scientific Mission to Afghanistan, 1953-55), Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Historisk Filosofiske Meddelelser 37/5, Copenhagen, 1959. J. Harlan, Central Asia. Personal Narrative of General Josiah Harlan 1823-1841, ed. F. E. Ross, London, 1939. B. Markowski, Die materielle Kultur des Kabulgebietes, Leipzig, 1932. O. von Niedermayer and E. Diez, eds., Afganistan, Leipzig, 1924.

(Klaus Ferdinand)

Clothing of Tajikistan

Female dress. The most common traditional garment is a straight dress, widening at the bottom, worn over trousers. The long, full sleeves generally cover the hands, though in some mountain regions sleeves are closely fitted to the wrists. Another type of dress is cut straight, with a yoke and inset sleeves. Older women wear either dress full length with a high collar, whereas younger women wear a shorter, narrower version with a narrow collar. Although normally women wear only one dress at a time, in cold weather they may wear more, one on top of the other, and on festive occasions as many as seven, with sleeves of graduated lengths to permit the embroidered ends of all to show (plates cxxxiii, cxxxiv). The common undergarment is a short white shirt with a high collar and buttoned cuffs (Ershov and Shirokova, pp. 11-12). The trousers of mountain women are long and straight, falling loosely around the ankles. Until this century women from mountain regions did not consider outer garments necessary, preferring instead to wear several woolen dresses, but now quilted coats are worn outdoors (Narody Sredneĭ Azii i Kazakhstana, p. 599). In fact, at the beginning of this century quilted caftans became common throughout the Tajik highlands (Shirokova, 1976, p. 46). Plainswomen wear short, tapering trousers. Outerwear consists of various types of caftan, a lighter one often worn under a heavier type; a long coat fitting the body to the waist, then flaring into a full skirt, with inset sleeves tapering to the wrists; and a version with a tight-fitting bodice attached to a skirt gathered at both sides, also with long sleeves tapering at the wrists. At the end of the 19th century clothing in the southern and central regions—Darvāz, Qarategin, Kolāb, Karatag, and Bukhara—was usually trimmed with embroidery, whereas in the upper Zarafšān valley and the northern plains it was untrimmed (Shirokova, 1976, p. 145).

The traditional headdress was a large kerchief. That worn in the plains (Samarkand, Bukhara, Ḵojand) is a large square or rectangle (plate cxxxiii), whereas in the mountains (Kolāb, Darvāz) it more closely resembles a stole, with embroidered ends (plate cxxxiv). For festive occasions the young and middle-aged women of Qarategin and Darvāz have recently taken to wearing the kerchief over a skullcap (Tadzhiki, p. 170). On the plains elderly women also occasionally wear skullcaps (tuppī) with tubes attached to hold their plaited hair; they wear the kerchief or sometimes a turban over this arrangement (Ershov and Shirokova, p. 8). In addition, young women in each region wear distinctive head coverings, especially during the first days after a wedding. In Darvāz and the Pamirs they tie embroidered fillets over the kerchiefs. In Kolāb and Qarategin a silver diadem constructed of alternating stars and pendants is preferred (plate cxxxiii). In Bukhara fillets embroidered with gold thread are worn over the forehead. The diadem worn by women in Ura-Tyube, Ḵojand, and Samarkand is crenellated and encircled with turquoise fillets from which are suspended numerous pendants encrusted with semiprecious stones (plate cxxxiv; Ershov and Shirokova, pp. 8-9).

Female footgear is diverse. Historically the most common type was a wooden overshoe, often turned up at the toe and painted in stripes or sometimes blackened with soot (Tadzhiki, p. 170). Nowadays, plainswomen, when outdoors, wear high boots of soft leather, into which they tuck their trousers, and leather overshoes. At home they wear shoes with small heels. The finest shoes of this kind are embroidered with silk and gold or made entirely of dyed morocco leather. Mountain women wear leather shoes or wooden clogs on three pegs. In the winter they, too, wear soft high boots, made of rawhide.

The traditional features of cut and choice of cloth are most fully preserved in ceremonial dress, which reflects a broad range of folk belief. Bridal dress, for example, consists of three separate complexes corresponding to the three phases of the transition from unmarried girl to married woman. For the wedding ceremony itself a simple white dress is worn without jewelry. For the removal to the groom’s house the bride wears numerous kerchiefs and mantles, so that her entire person is protected from the eyes of strangers. Finally, for several days she receives guests in her new home, wearing her finest clothing and elaborate jewelry. These phases are also signaled by more subtle changes, as in the shape of the collar, the hair style, the covering of the head, the type of cosmetics worn, and the jewelry.

Except for Darvāz, Qarategin, Kolāb, and some valleys in the Zarafšān region, mourning dress is worn everywhere. It is usually of light- or dark-blue or black cotton, cut in more traditional fashion than is now common in daily wear. It is worn without jewelry. Even in those regions where specific mourning wear is not known, grief is expressed through the setting aside of jewelry and cosmetics (Shirokova, 1976, p. 148).

Male dress. The traditional clothing of Tajik males is less diverse than that of women. The undergarments consist of loose trousers and a shirt worn over them; it is belted when worn without an overgarment. Details of the neck opening and collar decoration vary regionally. For example, the neck opening can be horizontal (along the shoulder), vertical, or wrapped. In the Pamirs the shirt has a high collar and is fastened at the side, a type known in Central Asia since antiquity (see v, vi, above).

Over the shirt men wear a wrapped caftan, sometimes several at once. Again each region is characterized by specific details of this garment. The version worn by Tajiks in Farḡāna is narrow and fitted, with narrow sleeves, usually of black, blue, or green cloth. At Heṣār and in the Zarafšān valley it is full and has wide sleeves (plate cxxxv), and the men of Samarkand, Heṣār, and Kolāb prefer brightly colored textiles. Bukharans are distinguished by their pink and black striped robes. High-ranking officials in the service of the former amirs of Bukhara wore caftans embroidered with gold (Goncharova). In the plains these textiles are of silk and cotton or sometimes blends of the two. Brocades, velvets, and textured silks are particularly popular. Mountain men prefer easily obtainable woolens and very seldom wear cotton (plate cxxxvi). Linen is not used for Tajik clothing.

The cap worn by men is also regionally distinctive in both shape and ornament. Among northern Tajiks the crown can be flat, boxed, or conical, whereas mountain dwellers and plainsmen in the southeast wear a skullcap. In the winter men wind small turbans around the caps or put on fur hats (Ershov and Shirokova, p. 11).

Shirts and overgarments are girdled with long, narrow sashes or twisted kerchiefs with embroidered corners. Sometimes two such sashes are worn, one used as a repository for personal belongings. Formerly princes and wealthy men wore wide embroidered or assembled belts with massive buckles. Footgear is similar to that worn by women: high leather boots with soft soles and leather overshoes or similar boots with heels. Peasants wear welted boots or a type of soft shoe made from a single piece of leather, folded in half and held together by a cord laced through holes in the edges and tied around the ankle. In the mountain and the foothills men also wear clogs on three pegs. In the lowlands shoes and boots are worn with inner cloth wrappings or stockings. In the mountains colorful woolen stockings are the rule. Men in the Pamirs bind the calves of their legs with long strips of cloth before undertaking long journeys.

Minority clothing in Tajikistan. The dress of other Tajik-speaking groups differs little from that described here. Central Asian gypsies (lūlī) now wear mainly European dress, but until recently those in the Kaška-Daryā region were distinguished by an extremely large turban (dorra). The women were commonly tattooed and preferred bright-colored clothing and abundant jewelry.

The Persians of Bukhara and Samarkand are not an ethnic but a Shiʿite religious minority. The women do not wear the caftan or the Tajik shawl (lačak) or turban (salla) but only a kerchief (pīšānaband) and an outer headcloth (sarband). The most distinctive feature of male dress is a black turban (salla). Probably because so many forms of traditional dress were lacking in this group, its members have been more receptive to new styles like the jacket with sleeves and the sleeveless vest (Lushkevich, 1989).

The clothing of Bukharan Jews generally resembled that of the Tajiks, with some exceptions. Before 1911 Jews were required by the government of the amir to wear caftans of black or dark-brown cotton tied with a simple cord. In the summer they wore a distinctive type of cylindrical velvet cap, in the winter a conical hat of astrakhan fur or velvet. The Bukharan Jew wore a turban, wrapped around a skullcap, only once in his life, at his wedding. Jewish girls also wore a distinctive type of headdress, a gold-embroidered cap (tūpī, tos). Women wore shawls appliquéd with metal plaques (Lushkevich, 1989; Kalantarov).

Bibliography : N. N. Ershov and Z. A. Shirokova, Al’bom odezhdy tadzhikov (Album of Tajik clothing), Dushanbe, 1969. P. A. Goncharova, Zolotoe shit’ye Bukhary (The gold embroidery of Bokhara), Tashkent, 1986. F. D. Lushkevich, Ètnograficheskaya gruppa ironi. Zanyatiya i byt narodov Sredneĭ Azii (The Ironi ethnic group. Occupations and way of life of the peoples of Central Asia), Trudy Instituta Ètnografii 97, Leningrad, 1971. Idem, “Odezhda tadzhikskogo naseleniya Bukharskogo oazisa v pervoĭ polovine XX v.” (The clothing of the Tajik inhabitants of the Bukhara oasis in the first half of the 20th century), Sbornik Muzeya Antropologii i Ètnografii 34, 1978, pp. 123-45. Idem, “Odezhda ètnicheskikh grupp naseleniya Bukharskogo oazisa i prilegayushchikh k nemu raĭonov. Pervaya polovina 20 v.” (Clothing of ethnic groups among the population of the Bukhara oasis and neighboring regions. First half of the 20th century), in Traditsionnaya odezhda narodov Sredneĭ Azii i Kazakhstana (Traditional clothing of the peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan), Moscow, 1989. G. Maĭtdinova, Kostyum rannesrednevekovogo Tokharistana po pamyatnikam iskusstva i arkheologii (The costume of early medieval Tokharistan, as shown in monuments of art and archeology), Ph.D. diss., Dushanbe, 1991. A. K. Pisarchik, “Materialy k istorii tadzhikov Nurata. Starinnye zhenskie plat’ya i golovnye ubory” (Material for the study of the Tajiks of Nur-ata. Traditional women’s dresses and headdresses), in Kostyum narodov Sredneĭ Azii (Costume of the peoples of Central Asia), Moscow, 1979, pp. 119-22. Z. A. Shirokova, “Traditsionnye zhenskie golovnye ubory Tadzhikov. Yug i sever Tadzhikistana” (Traditional women’s headdresses of the Tajiks. Southern and northern Tajikistan), in Traditsionnaya odezhda narodov Sredneĭ Azii i Kazakhstana (Traditional clothing of the peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan), Moscow, 1969, pp. 182-203. Idem, Traditsionnaya i sovremennaya odezhda zhenshchin gornogo Tadzhikistana (Traditional and contemporary dress of the women of mountain Tajikistan), Dushanbe, 1976. Idem, “Traditsionnyĭ kostyum zhenikha u gornykh Tadzhikov” (The traditional bridegroom’s costume among the mountain Tajiks), in Kostyum narodov Sredneĭ Azii. Samarkand (vtoraya polovina XIX v.—nachalo XX veka) (Costume of the peoples of Central Asia. Samarkand [first half of the 19th—beginning of the 20th century), Moscow, 1979, pp. 123-27. O. A. Sukhareva, “Opyt analiza pokroev "tunikoobraznoĭ" sredneaziatskoĭ odezhdy v plane ikh istorii i èvolyutsii” (Cuts of the "basic tunic" in Central Asian dress from a historical and developmental point of view) in Kostyum narodov Sredneĭ Azii, Moscow, 1979, pp. 77-103. Idem, Istoriya sredneaziatskogo kostyuma. Samarkand (vtoraya polovina XIX v—nachalo XX veka), Moscow, 1982. “Tadzhiki” in Narody Sredneĭ Asii i Kazakhstana (The peoples of Central Asia and Kazakhstan) I, Moscow, 1962, pp. 599-604. Tadzhiki Karategina i Darvaza (The Tajiks of Qarategin and Darvāz), 2nd ed., Dushanbe, 1970.

(Guzel’ Maĭtdinova)

Kurdish Clothing in Persia

Kurds can easily be recognized by their dress, which has quite distinctive features, though there are significant variations among regions and social classes (see xvii, below). The Kurdish population of Persia is concentrated in four main regions (Żīāʾpūr, p. 13): western Azerbaijan (see xxi, below), Kurdistan, Kermānšāh, and Khorasan (see xx, below).

Female dress. In western Azerbaijan Mahābād is the main urban center for the Kurds (plates cxxxvii, cxxxviii). Women wear balloon-shaped trousers (darpe), 4-6 m wide, fitted at the ankles, and a long pleated dress (kerās), 4-5 m wide, with a round neckline and long sleeves that terminate in triangular projections (sorānis) at least a meter long, which are wrapped around the wrists. Over the dress a short jacket (kavā) is worn. A cotton sash (peštand) 3-6 m long is wound loosely around the hips. Finally, there is a kind of cylindrical cardboard hat (tās-kelāw) covered with velvet and wrapped in a long triangular scarf (dasmāl). The dasmāl is often of printed cloth or ornamented on both sides with gold embroidery and sequins.

Farther south, in Kurdistan, the main city of which is Sanandaj, the basic female dress varies somewhat from that of Azerbaijan (plate cxxxix). The trousers are only about 3 m wide and worn under a long bell-shaped dress, 3-4 m wide, with a round neck; the sleeves terminate in sorānis. The jacket is similar, but it is supplemented by a long mantle (sāya) worn open in front. The traditional head covering in this region is the kalāḡī, a cap decorated with sequins and wrapped with one or two scarves. In recent years young city girls have ceased to wear this headdress or have eliminated the scarves and retained only the cap.

Still farther south, in Kermānšāh, women wear the trousers under a long, full dress, cut straight with an open neck and no sorānis on the sleeves. Over the dress are a waist-length bodice or vest and a long mantle (qabā), closed at the bodice but open from the waist to the ankles. A sequined cap is wrapped with one or several scarves.

In Qūčān, a city in Khorasan with a Kurdish population, the Kurdish costume is completely different from those of other regions. Its basic elements include a knee-length dress with a round neck and sleeves without sorānis, worn under a hip-length tunic and a skirt (šalīta); long thick stockings and a scarf about 1.5 m square complete the outfit (see xx, below).

Male dress. Kurdish male costume varies little from region to region, except for that of Khorasan around Qūčān. In Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and Kermānšāh Kurdish men generally wear a shirt (kerās) with a round neck and sleeves ending in sorānis at the wrists; a buttoned vest like those of military uniforms (kavā; plate cxl) or an unbuttoned version (čūka; plate cxli) with an open neck; and baggy trousers (pāntol) fitted at the ankles. The fullness at the bottom of these trousers decreases from Mahābād to Kermānšāh. A cotton sash (peštand) 60-70 cm wide and 3-4 m long is folded in half lengthwise and wrapped tightly around the torso from waist to chest. The normal headdress consists of a turban (pač) 2-3 m long, usually of fringed cloth, except for a kind of muslin called āḡābānū; it is wrapped around a cap (kelāw), which can also be worn without the turban.

The clothing of the men of Qūčān is entirely different: It consists of a red or white collarless shirt with sleeves that do not have sorānis, narrow trousers, a knee-length mantle, a kind of legging (patāva) 20 cm wide and 1 m long, a narrow leather belt, and a felt or fur hat.

Variations. There are many small variations in Kurdish clothing, reflecting differences in age, designed for special occasions, or adapted to the changing seasons. For example, young people tend to wear lighter and brighter colors. Their clothes are also generally less bulky than those of their elders; at Mahābād the length of the peštand is 3 m for girls and 6 m for older women. The tās-kelāw, which was the traditional headdress of Mahābād, is worn today only by older women; others wear a simple dasmāl on their heads or wrap it around their shoulders. Girls choose finer fabrics for the dasmāl, whereas the majority of elderly women wear thicker fabrics in white.

Everyone wears darker and less vivid colors for mourning, however. On the other hand, for celebrations the brightest and most festive colors are chosen, and the fabrics are finer and often quite expensive. For a wedding a virgin bride wears a very fine red veil (tārā), the symbol of purity; a widow wears white or yellow when remarrying. Upon returning from the pilgrimage to Mecca both men and women briefly don an orange scarf (kašida).

Clothing does not usually differ in type according to the seasons, but its weight does vary with the temperature. Men of the Harkī tribe in western Azerbaijan do wear a summer suit consisting of wide, straight trousers and a vest open at the neck. Children traditionally wear scaled-down versions of adult dress (plate cxlii).

Bibliography : Ī. Afšār Sīstānī, Moqaddama-ī bar šenāḵt-e īlhā, čādornešīnān wa ṭawāyef-e ʿašāyerī-e Īrān, 2 vols., Tehran, 1366 Š./1987. ʿĪ. Behnām, “Lebās-e kordhā,” Naqš o negār 3/7, Tehran, 1339 Š./1960, pp. 5-11. T. Bois and V. Minorsky, “Kurds, Kurdistan,” in EI² V, pp. 438-79. W. Eagleton, The Kurdish Republic of 1946, London, 1963. H. Hansen, The Kurdish Woman’s Life. Field Research in a Muslim Society, Iraq, Copenhagen, 1961. A. Ḥasanī Fard Sayyed, Lebās dar Kordestān, Tehran, 1356 Š./1977. V. Minorsky, “Sāwdj-Bulāḳ,” in EI¹ IV pp. 186-92. J. de Morgan, Mission scientifique en Perse II/2. Études géographiques, ed. E. Leroux, Paris, 1895. B. Nikitine, Les Kurdes. Étude sociologique et historique, Paris, 1956. M. Ṣamadī Sayyed, Ādāb o rosūm dar Mahābād, Mahābād, 1364 Š./1985 (dactylograph). A. Šarīfī, Kordestān-e Mokrī wa Mahābād, Mahābād, 1354 Š./1975. Z. Şewket, L’habillement des Kurdes, Paris, 1935. H. Tābānī, Barrasī-e awżāʿ-e ṭabīʿī, eqtēṣādī wa ensānī-e Kordestān, 2nd ed., Mahābād, 1358 Š./1979. K. Tawaḥḥodī, Ḥarakat-e tārīḵī-e Kord be Ḵorāsān dar defāʿ az esteqlāl-e Īrān, 2 vols., Mašhad, 1359-64 Š./1980-85. J. Żīāʾpūr, Pūšāk-e īlhā wa čādornešīnān, Tehran, 1346 Š./1967. All the information concerning western Azerbaijan is based on fieldwork.

(Shirin Mohseni)

In Kermānšāh province, toward the Iraqi frontier, the southern group of Kurds use a generally distinct vocabulary. Thus the women’s shift is known not only as kerās but also as korvās, šev, and šovī; the trousers, buttoned at the ankle, as šovāl jāfī and the shorter underdrawers as `er-šovāl, šovāl-kol, toneka, or tanka; and the plain velvet waistcoat, trimmed with braid, as jelezqa or soḵma. The velvet jacket, usually black, worn over the waistcoat in winter, with straight sleeves, small collar lapels, front pockets at the waist, and side vents, is salta or yal, and the long, lined, sleeved coat worn over it in winter, with braid or coins trimming the collar, is koter or qevā. An alternative form of topcoat, which may be worn over the first, is of black velvet, waisted, and buttoned at the chest below the collar lapels; this is called kavā, zebūn or zavūn, or kamaṛčīn. The women’s headdress is based on a hemispherical cap (kelāw, kolū, or kelū), which for younger women and girls is embroidered and for older women of plain velvet; both have a chain of silver coins sewn to one side, to be passed under the chin and hooked to the other. Unmarried women wear a white gauze headscarf (dasmāl) up to 2 m long. Married women wear their hair in plaits, which are either knotted on the cap, leaving the sides of the face free, or thrown back over the shoulders. A headband (sarvan, sarūvayn) is folded from a rectangle of dark silk, centered over the brow, with the two ends tied behind the head, then brought back and tied again over the brow. Over this a large colored kerchief (golvanī) with tassels is wrapped around the head from right to left so that the tassels hang down all round. In some areas a different kerchief is used instead of this; it is called dastmāl-sar, meškī, or boyama. When going outside women cast a rectangular black silk shawl (māšta) over their shoulders and knot it below the throat. In this region the sash is not an essential part of everyday dress. In the mid1960s stockings (jūro) were still used mainly by richer and more educated women, though shoes (koš) were already of an urban type. Women did not traditionally change their clothes or undress when going to bed, except to take off the turban and cover their heads with a cloth. Men’s costume in the same region, around Qaṣr-e Šīrīn and Šāhābād-e Ḡarb, has a very similar terminology; thus korvās, šev, or šovī is the man’s collarless shirt, with three buttons at the front opening and side vents; `er-korvāsī, `er-kerās, or `er-ševī is the undervest; and šalvār jāfī are the broad trousers caught close at the ankles. The upper garments are a plain, coarse waistcoat (soḵma), of urban cut; a coarse brownish jacket (salta); or a plain collarless jacket (zebūn) worn open in front without buttons. The sleeve pendants (faqyāna) are separate from the shirt, though in principle as before, 1 m long and of white linen or silk, wrapped between wrist and elbow. The sash (šāl-pešt) is wrapped with a series of knots in front. The headdress is a kelāw and turban cloth (sarvan) of black-and-white silk rolled diagonally and wound around the head several times from right to left, so that one end hangs to the side and the other is concealed in the folds, with the fringes hanging all round. As with the women, there was traditionally no distinction between daytime and nighttime clothes.

Bibliography : B. Kelkī, “Dehkada-ye Čeqāzard,” Honar o mardom 51, 1345 Š./1966, pp. 12-13. M. Ṣadīq, “Pūšāk-e zanān o mardān-e Šāhābād-e Ḡarb o Qaṣr-e Šīrīn,” Honar o mardom 21, 1343 Š./1964, pp. 22-27.

(P. A. Andrews)

Clothing of the Kurdish Jews

The following description of the clothing worn since the beginning of this century by the Jews of Persian and Iraqi Kurdistan is based on field observations and interviews among the immigrant community in Israel and on a visit to northern Persia in 1974-79 (Shwartz-Beeri, pp. 71, 96, 147).

In general the Jews of Kurdistan wore the same clothes as the rest of the population (see xvi, above; xxi, below). The restrictions imposed on Jews in Islamic countries in earlier centuries continued to affect their dress in the present century. As the economic position of the Jews was often higher than that of most of their neighbors, they generally wore garments of better quality.

Fabrics. Everyday men’s clothes were made from handwoven sheep’s wool (amra). Suits for weddings and other festive occasions were of handwoven mohair (marʾaz). These suits were embellished with embroidery and worn for many years. According to informants, expensive fabrics for women’s and children’s clothes were also handmade of wild silk, from worms that feed on oak trees in the region (cf. Hyde). Everyday dresses were of cotton. After World War I factory-made textiles of natural fibers began to penetrate the region, mainly from Aleppo via Mosul, gradually replacing local handwoven fabrics. Since World War II synthetic fabrics have begun to replace natural ones in the markets.

Traditionally women made the clothing for themselves and their families. With the introduction of the sewing machine, however, male tailors took over this work.

Dress. The women’s costume in Iraqi Kurdistan (Figure 65) was composed of four principal parts, which were generally uniform throughout the region, whereas such accessories as handkerchiefs, belts, and jackets differed according to district. The principal garments included, first, a long, wide underdress (sudra) with long sleeves flaring to a large triangle at each wrist. These triangles were folded and tied together behind the neck. A similar dress was found in Syria. Because of its fullness, this dress is suited to a woman’s needs at every stage in her lifetime. Second was a short, close-fitting sleeveless waistcoat (helake). Over it a long, narrow coat (kurtak) with narrow sleeves was worn open in front. This outfit was completed by a pair of wide, long trousers worn under the dress. Similar components are known from a wide geographical area, ranging from Central Asia throughout Persia, Turkey, and the Middle East. Bright colors, especially violet and green, were preferred by young women, but older women wore black. On their heads women wore scarves tied in various ways, with pendant tassels.

In Persian Kurdistan the typical Jewish women’s dress was fitted at the waist, in contrast to the normal bell-shaped style worn by Kurdish women (see xvi, above). The skirt was gathered, the bodice open in front with lapels and buttons, and the sleeves long and narrow. The fabric was cotton or silk, and the most characteristic color violet. The very wide trousers (šarwāla) were visible below the skirt hem. Over the dress a short velvet jacket striped with many colors was worn, along with a wide girdle of cotton or silk. In the southern part of the region older Jewish women still wore the traditional costume: dresses in dark colors without embroidery and square black cloaks over their shoulders. They also wore two kerchiefs, one with the ends tied behind and the second knotted round the forehead. In the northern area, on the other hand, it was customary to wear a sort of crown embroidered in gold thread, over which a transparent kerchief was draped to the shoulders and fastened under the chin with a metal brooch.

In Iraqi Kurdistan men wore a type of suit (šalla šappikta) consisting of two parts: a short jacket and wide trousers in the natural white, black, and brown colors of the wool (Figure 66). The same clothes were worn summer and winter, but in cold regions woolen mantles (ʿabayye) were added. Like the women men kept their heads covered, wearing caps around which scarves were wrapped as turbans. In town leather shoes were worn, but in the villages, if shoes were worn at all, they were homemade, with soles constructed from several layers of cloth and knitted or fabric uppers.

In Persian Kurdistan most Jewish men wore wide trousers only at home. A common type of belt was made of material woven in several colors 6 m long, which was wrapped repeatedly around the waist and interlaced in front. Outside the home the accepted costume was a suit of modern Western cut.

Bibliography : N. Hyde, “Silk—The Queen of Textiles,” The National Geographic, January 1984, pp. 3-48. O. Shwartz-Beeri, Yehudei Kurdistan, orah hayim, masoret veomanut (The Jews of Kurdistan, daily life, customs, arts, and crafts), Jerusalem, 1982.

(Ora Shwartz-Beeri)

Clothing of the Baluch in Persia

1. Traditional Baluch embroidered dress

The area traditionally known as Baluchistan (q.v.) comprises the large southeastern portion of the Persian plateau and portions of southwestern Afghanistan and western Pakistan. The Persian province of Baluchistan is inhabited mainly by nomads and a settled rural population. This region is particularly noted for a distinctive type of richly embroidered women’s costume, which is still commonly worn in the villages. The embroidery, traditionally produced in cottage industries, is even now, despite inevitable changes, particularly in the color combinations of the needlework, one of the popular handicrafts for which an active market exists.

The basic garments are variations of the traditional and tribal costume characteristic of Persia as a whole: a long, loose robe with a round neckline, a slit down the center of the bodice, and long, wide sleeves tapering toward the wrists (plate cxliii), worn over a chemise and wide trousers narrowing at the ankles and with a drawstring at the waist. The fabric used today is synthetic. The material maybe plain or printed with an all-over design. Either black or solid bright colors, predominantly red, plum, and orange, provide fitting backgrounds to set off the very fine and colorful embroidery. As the available fabric comes in narrow widths, numerous seams cunningly fitted together are necessary for the wide chemise. Occasionally, the dress is made up of wide satin pieces in a variety of colors patched together in orderly stripes. The costume is completed with a long, rectangular headscarf of transparent fabric, usually black, colorfully embroidered all around.

Baluch embroidery is worked on a base fabric of loosely woven cotton in panels, which facilitates detailed needlework. The embroidered panels are sewn onto the dress, covering the wide, square bodice entirely (zī; plate cxliv); the long rectangular panel down the center front of the skirt (jīb) comes to a point at the top, where it touches the bodice. The cuffs of the trousers and sleeves in particular are also provided with wide bands of embroidery. Nowadays, however, the trouser cuffs are generally embroidered with a simple machine-made motif. The vertical seams of the robes can be ornamented with either narrow bands of machine-made motifs or gilt edging, and an unusual feature is a square patch of embroidery appliquéd on the back of the shoulders. The borders of the neckline, cuffs, and bodice closing are neatly finished in a distinctive fashion. In some areas of Baluchistan mirror work is also incorporated into the embroidery, anchored by buttonhole stitching; alternatively sequins are scattered over the embroidery, a type of ornamentation favored in Pakistani Baluchistan (see xix, below).

Embroidery is worked in strictly compartmentalized repeat geometric and angular designs; stylistic differences in the patterns and colors reflect different geographical areas within the province. The motifs may be stylized versions of flowers and plant forms.

The colorful and opulent ornamentation of Baluch dress may be a response to the harsh environment. Traditionally embroidery was worked in lustrous mercerized cotton thread, in a rich range of orange, red, and plum shades, crisply set off with touches of dark green, maroon, royal blue, and black and flecks of white; now it has generally been replaced by nylon thread. The embroidery itself is very fine, intricate and detailed. The stitches consist of large double back stitches (ṣarrāfī-dūzī), double braid stitches forming ridges, eyelet-hole stitches, running stitches, buttonhole stitches, ladder stitches, satin stitches sometimes forming a chevron design (ẓarīf-dūzī), fine interlacing stitches (perīvār-dūzī), and small blocks of satin stitches forming geometric shapes (balūčī-dūzī).

It is relevant to add a word about the traditional jewelry invariably worn by Baluch women with their embroidered costume. The wrists are ornamented with pairs of wide silver bracelets with raised designs. There may also be a choker of semiglobular gold roundels with granulations, topped with alternating red and turquoise stones and surrounded by a double border of plastic gold beads, the whole composition sewn on a band of black material. A profusion of different silver rings worn on the fingers and in the nostrils completes their adornment.

In contrast to the women, men traditionally wear sober white clothing consisting of long, very loose shirts over extremely full trousers (approximately 2.2 m wide), which fall between the legs in folds and taper only at the ankles. The headdress is a white turban with protruding ends.

Bibliography : This article is based on personal observations. See also I. A. Firouz, “Needlework,” in J. Gluck and S. Gluck, eds., A Survey of Persian Handicraft, Tehran, 1977, pp. 256-58. Idem, “Countering the Anonymity of Daily Routine. Embroidery in Iran,” Asian Culture 34, 1983, p. 22.

(Iran Ala Firouz)

2. Baluch clothing and embroidery today

Today the Baluch, while maintaining their traditional styles of clothing, work with an expanded palette of colorfully patterned commercial fabrics and threads. Local demand is increasingly satisfied by machine embroideries produced by men, who have introduced intricate stitches and new motifs. The increasing demand among urban and foreign connoisseurs for hand embroideries, which take months to produce, has led women to specialize in this work for the marketplace

Traditional men’s costume. The traditional costume worn by Baluch men is usually of white, cream, khaki, or light-gray cotton. The trousers are extremely wide, hanging in folds between the legs (plate cxlv). They are drawn in to a waistband and are tapered at the ankles. A loose shirt reaches to the knees or even lower and is worn over trousers. The older style has a round neckline with a buttoned opening on one shoulder. The more modern neckline has a collar and a buttoned opening down the front to the waist. Until the 1920s men in colder regions used to wear fully embroidered jackets over this basic costume. The material, woven by the men themselves, was of lamb’s wool or goat hair and was at most 40 cm wide. The women sewed these pieces into jackets, which they then embroidered with traditional motifs and colors. The headgear of men consists of a piece of cloth wrapped as a turban, which is gradually becoming less popular.

Traditional women’s dress. The women wear a straight, loose robe of cotton or light wool, extending to mid-calf. The simple round neckline is slit to the breastbone in front. Sleeves are long and loose and slightly tapered at the wrist. This robe is worn over loose-fitting trousers of a different color; the trousers are gathered at the waist with a drawstring and tapered at the ankles (plate cxlvi).

The most striking feature of the women’s costume is the hand embroidery covering the front of the dress and the cuffs of the sleeves and trousers. These embroidered pieces are prepared separately and later sewn onto the dresses. The piece for the front of the bodice (zī) is square and extends across the entire front from shoulders to waist. Another rectangular piece (koptān) extends from the waist to the hem of the dress and comes to a point at the top; the sides of this piece are left unstitched for approximately 30 cm, so that it can function as a large pocket. Two trapezoidal pieces 25 cm wide and 45 cm long are stitched onto the sleeves as cuffs, and two similar but slightly smaller pieces decorate the trouser hems.

A century ago silk thread was used for this fine needlework; the women raised the silkworms themselves; made the thread locally, then dyed it with vegetable dyes. Within the past century, however, cotton thread has been imported for this purpose, at first mostly from neighboring provinces of India and subsequently from Pakistan. The traditional colors used in the needlework were limited to six, the most important of which were two shades of red (a dark crimson and a lighter vermilion or orange); black and white were used to a lesser degree, with a few specks of green and blue. The material for these embroidered pieces was of a simple weave with clearly visible warp and weft threads, usually in a dark color.

The traditional embroidery technique remains the same. Initially the outline of each motif is sewn onto the back side of the material, a process called sīahkār. The outlines are then filled in with the various colors, each of which has its specific place in the design. The whole piece is worked from the back side, an arduous and lengthy process. When it is completed, the embroidery completely covers the base material (plate cxlvii).

There are approximately fifty to seventy motifs in Baluch embroidery (čakan-e balūčī), each with its own name, though the names may differ slightly in different regions and simpler versions are identified by the names of the localities where they are made. In Persia this type of embroidery is practiced only by Baluch women and is still very much alive among the settled populations in Persian Baluchistan, especially in the villages of the central region and in the Āhorrān mountains. Within the last thirty years innovative techniques and about 390 new colors have been introduced.

Until recently women’s headgear consisted simply of a rectangular piece of thin material (sarūk), embroidered on the edges with a simple pattern, which fell to a point just above the knees in back. Since the Revolution of 1358 Š./1979 women have been forced by the government to wear the čādor (q.v.), which covers their beautiful embroidered clothing entirely. Although economic conditions in Baluchistan are harsh, jewelry is accumulated by a woman and her family as a form of displayable wealth. Most pieces are crudely fashioned of silver, though gold is worn by those who can afford it. They are usually decorated with semiprecious stones, glass, or even plastic imitations. The jewelry, which resembles that of the Turkmen and the women of Pakistan, includes headbands, chokers, necklaces, bracelets, earrings of various types, and nose ornaments.

[The author of this article first became interested in the textile arts of Baluchistan in 1960, and subsequently, in the course of numerous trips to that province, she acquainted herself with the traditional embroidery of Baluch women. She became a champion of this art, striving to make it better known outside Baluchistan. She also perceived areas in which the embroideries could be made more appealing, in terms of the variety of colors, designs, and materials. With her assistance, many Baluch women were able to find new outlets for their work in Tehran and abroad.]

(Mehremonīr Jahānbānī)

Clothing of the Baluch in Pakistan and Afghanistan

In contrast to the stark landscape of much of Pakistan and Afghanistan (q.v.), the clothing of the Baluch is distinguished by colorful embroidery patterns that serve as ethnic markers, helping to differentiate Baluch from Pashtuns (Pathans), Punjabis, Sindhis, and other ethnic groups in these highly pluralistic areas (see xviii, above). The garb of the Brahui (q.v.), another ethnic group of central Baluchistan, is almost indistinguishable from that of the Baluch, their close neighbors. Although linguistically quite distinct—Brahui is a Dravidian language and Baluchi (see baluchistan iii. baluchi language and literature) Iranian—in recent years the two groups have joined politically, economically, and in other ways, in order to compete more successfully with the numerically dominant Pashtuns of northern Pakistani Baluchistan and southern Afghanistan.

Baluch apparel, which is loose-fitting and made of many meters of lightweight material, is well suited to the harsh and dusty desert and mountain environments that the Baluch inhabit. The emphasis here is primarily on the garb of the Pakistani Baluch, who live in the province of Baluchistan (now officially Balochistan) in western Pakistan, and, to a lesser extent, of the Afghan Baluch, who are found in the extreme southwestern section of Afghanistan. Among the major tribal groupings in Pakistan are the Rend, Raḵšānī, Marri-Bugti (Marī-Bogṭī), Mangal (Mengal), Lashari (Lāšārī), and Ghitchki (Gīčkī); in Afghanistan such groups as Madatkhan (Madadḵān), Mashkel (Maškēl), Shorawak (Šōrāwak), Adraskhan (Adrasḵān), and Mushwari (Mūšwārī) are found. All these tribes have a nomadic history, and today a large proportion persist in a transhumant life-style; the majority of the Baluch are, however, agriculturalists or town dwellers.

There is some variation in apparel among tribes, especially in specific embroidery designs and in the terminology applied to garments and embroidery patterns. Geographic nuances are also apparent: The northern tribes in both Pakistan and Afghanistan wear heavier clothing as protection in the colder climate. Despite these differences, however, there is a basic style of clothing that can be identified as that of present-day Baluch (Figure 67). Only a few decades ago the shirts or dresses (pašk) were considerably fuller and reached to the ankles; the loose trousers, or pajamas (pādak), were also longer; and men’s hair was not cut (Janmahmad, p. 53). This version can still be seen in Afghanistan and in isolated rural regions of Pakistani Baluchistan, especially among the Marri-Bugti; nevertheless, owing to increasing contact with urban centers and subsequent sedentarization, these traditional styles are undergoing change. At the same time, however, both political and economic competition among various ethnic groups in the region is growing more intense, and identification with one’s tribal group can be most clearly expressed through traditional dress.

Embroidery designs and techniques. Most characteristic of Baluch costume is embroidery of a beauty and intricacy that contrast strongly with the simplicity of the remainder of Baluch material culture (Konieczny, p. 11). The designs, of which there are many, are composed primarily of geometric shapes suggestive of flowers and leaves arranged in symmetrical patterns. Women’s dresses and men’s hats provide the best examples of such careful handwork; the colors of both textiles and embroideries are vibrant, with shocking pink and parrot green among the most popular for both female and male. Certain specific embroidery patterns are very common in Pakistan: hapt-rang (seven colors; Figure 68a), kōṭrō (bungalow; Figure 68b), mīṛčūk (pepper; Figure 68c), and ḵām-kār/zūrattō (raw work; Figure 68d). Use of a single pattern is most common, though sometimes more than one are combined on a single garment. One of the most popular embroidery compositions is the “frame design” (Azadi and Besim, p. 63), in which medallions, or flowers (pūll), of complex shape—some complete (ṭīk) and others truncated (kapp)—fill an assigned rectangular space of field and borders (Figure 68a, d-e). Similar frame designs are also quite common on Baluch flat-weave and pile rugs (see baluchistan v. baluch carpets), as well as on classic Turkman rugs from farther north in Afghanistan.

In some pieces of embroidery only cotton thread in a multitude of colors is used, whereas in others small circular mirrors (šīša) are also incorporated into the designs (Figure 68a, f). Among the Baluch such work is part of an ancient tradition, in which small pieces of mica were used before thin mirror glass became available. Intricate mirror work is also common in neighboring Sind province in Pakistan and the adjacent region of Rajasthan. The designs of the Marri-Bugti tribes (Figure 68e), an isolated population in the eastern portion of the province (Yacopino, p. 32), are generally considered the most detailed of Baluch embroidery designs. The Afghan Baluch use bolder and heavier patterns than those of Pakistan (Figure 68f), reflecting in both colors and stitches the influence of their more numerous and powerful Pashtun neighbors; indeed, Baluch garb is often influenced by that of neighboring groups, especially in the south, where designs from nearby Sind are incorporated (Janmahmad, p. 54).

Most Baluch women know how to embroider, but some are more skilled than others or take more interest in such work. They do not use charts or diagrams but instead create extremely complex designs from memory, often with assistance and suggestions from family members or neighbors. Many women set aside a few hours after completing their daily household tasks for embroidery work in the afternoons, either alone or in groups. Straight needles and commercial thread produced in Pakistan are most commonly used, though hooked needles are required for some patterns. The ground cloth may be of a solid color or a print; some of the cloth is produced in Pakistan, but some is imported from Japan and other countries. Once the embroidery is finished, the garment is assembled by a local tailor or by the woman herself if she is fortunate enough to own a sewing machine. Making clothing fulfills important family needs, but it also provides much enjoyment and recreation for women, who take great pride in their handiwork and consider it the essence of being Baluch. Most women labor for years embroidering fine works of art for their daughters’ dowries (j[ah]āz, dāj). Little girls begin to learn basic stitches and patterns at about the age of six or seven years. Extremely skilled embroiderers, or those who are quite poor, may also sell their work to other community members. The prices for their work vary considerably (e.g., $1-$75), depending on the difficulty of the pattern and other factors. Money earned from such transactions usually remains part of a woman’s own budget and is used for household expenses or for her children (Hunte and Sultana).

Women’s clothing. An outfit covered with detailed embroidery is everyday attire for the Baluch woman (Figure 67). She usually possesses at least two sets of matching dress and pajamas, which are worn until they are threadbare. The back of the Afghan Baluch dress often consists of a large square of cheap unembroidered cotton, which can be replaced when worn out without sacrificing the embroidery on the front of the dress. The woman may make a special costume for weddings, which, with the passage of time, becomes her everyday work dress. The embroidered pieces of the dress usually include a fully embroidered bodice (jīg/jēg) containing a central patterned strip (tōī), embroidered sleeves (bānzārī), and a large pocket (las, paddō/pandōl), stitched to the skirt of the dress, extending from waist to hem in front. This pocket is the major ethnic marker of Baluch female garb, a handy receptacle for the nomadic woman and more recently for the sedentary town dweller as well. It usually holds embroidery thread, small change, snuff (nāswār), medicines, and the like. The skirt is gathered at the waist on each side.

In accordance with the basic tenets of Islam, women must keep their heads covered; a Baluch woman wears a large scarf (čādar, sarēg), usually of light flower-printed cotton. Probably as a result of their nomadic history, strict veiling (parda) is not as common among the Baluch as among the Pashtuns, but most Baluch women do draw the corners of their scarves across their faces when unknown adult males are near. Most Baluch women today wear bright plastic sandals imported from Persia and sold at any town or city bāzār in Pakistan. Only a few decades ago, however, females wore the same shoes of heavy leather and old car tires or, in the hotter southern areas, of date-palm leaves that men wear (see below).

The Baluch woman’s everyday garb is completed by jewelry, which serves as an indicator of economic standing. Most characteristic and most impressive are earrings, which typically consist of thirteen or fourteen small rings inserted along the rim of each ear from the top of the ear to the bottom of the lobe (kārī). The weight of these rings causes the upper flap of the ear to fall forward, which is considered a sign of beauty. The earrings are most often of silver, though base metal and gold are also used; they are produced by Baluch silversmiths (zargar). A female baby’s ears are usually pierced for such a series of small earrings shortly after birth. After marriage a woman may add huge earrings made of thick pieces of gold (tong), which are gifts from her husband. In addition, nose rings (būl) and nose pins (pūllī “flowers”) are very popular, as are heavy necklaces (tawk) and bracelets (dastē kangar). These pieces are usually made of metal, which is commonly believed to be a “strong” substance, helpful in counteracting evil spirits (jenn). In addition, all females braid their long hair and tie the bottom of each braid with a single multicolored tassel (sāgī) made of hundreds of small glass beads and yarn pompons.

Men’s clothing. Although less colorful than women’s attire, men’s clothing is also characterized by special features that immediately identify the wearer as Baluch. Most important is the cap (tōpī), which has a characteristic blocked shape with a scalloped cutout in the front for ventilation (Figure 67). Women embroider these caps for their husbands and sons, using bright pink, orange, or red thread and gold or silver filament; in addition, a number of small, glittering pieces of mirror are incorporated into the intricate designs. Boys and young men wear only these caps, whereas older men add huge white turbans (pāg), each of light cotton cloth many meters long. The specific method of wrapping these turbans further serves to distinguish one tribe from another.

In addition to the loose shirt and pajamas men wear a tight-fitting vest (giḍḍī, jēkaṭ) embroidered on the edges of the front and pockets, usually in the ḵām-kār/zūrattō pattern (Figure 68d). The work is normally done by hand, though the dark-blue, brown, or black Marri-Bugti vest is machine-embroidered all over in floral and vine patterns. Historically only a white shirt and pajamas were worn, but today these garments are indistinguishable in color and cut from those worn by the Pashtuns, usually of such muted solid colors as beige, white, or gray, with which the colorful embroidered vest makes a striking contrast. Young men may wear bright blue or green garments, however.

Perhaps the best-known type of Baluch footwear is the heavy sandals (čabbaw) produced by men in hundreds of small shops throughout Baluchistan; the tops are of heavy leather and the soles cut from old automobile tires, which are excellent for walking on rough desert or mountain terrain and are comfortable in town as well. There are a score of different arrangements of straps and braids associated with various regions. In the hot south traditional footwear made from palm fronds is still to be seen, though it is no longer common.