The Chronicle of Islamic Dress

Historically, dress in the Islamic culture denoted rank, prestige, occupation, and religious allegiance. Wearing one’s social group’s attire expressed happiness, whilst wearing a higher class’s islamic clothing expressed discontent with the established order. Refusing to wear the imperial or fraternal authority’s colour or headdress formally proved disloyalty. Until the late 19th century, presents of dress textiles and garments (in Arabic, khilca; Turkish, hilat; Persian, khalat) were considered official acknowledgment.

Theologian/jurist repeatedly warned authorities to observe clothing rules to avoid major societal ramifications. Disrespect for the ruling household’s “excellent taste” might be used to justify revolt to restore “order.” The various legislative edicts controlling clothes were difficult to execute, but market restrictions (hisba) regarding weaving, tailoring, and dyeing methods were easy.

Textile and clothing ownership was mentioned in eleventh and twelfth century Cairo Geniza trousseau listings. Some Muslim holidays were connected with new clothes, while others (like Muharram in Shc tribes) were associated with mourning attire, the colour of which varied by area. Court attire was cut and tailored on fortunate days selected by the royal astronomer. The defensive phrase bismillah (“in the name of God…”) was pronounced when dressing to avert any harm. Many donned talismanic artifacts embellished with Qur’anic words and symbols for extra protection. The master’s cloak (khirqa, burda) was publicly put over the shoulders of the neophyte in Sufi and guild rites.

Clothing of the Umayyads and Abbasi

It reached the borders of Imperial China and India approximately 750 after Muhammad’s death in 632 C.E. They wrote much about conquests but nothing about clothing sets. For example, the ninth-century disdain of the flowing robes of fragrant yellow silk worn by the Umayyad caliph Walid II (r. 743-744) shows a dissolute lifestyle and the lavish wardrobe of Hisham (r. (r. 724-743).

The Islamic state did not immediately modify clothes because non-Muslims, who were then the majority, were not forced to dress like Arab Muslims, and Egypt paid its yearly tribute in Coptic robes. Pre-Islamic Arabian wraps (izar, thawb) and sleeveless, collarless qamis (shirts) undoubtedly were accepted as “Muslim” attire for both genders. A mantle (caba) made of broadcloth was worn on top, folded twice toward the center along the weft, and sewed along one selvage (creating the shoulder) (armholes). Other words for mantles were in use at the period, suggesting they varied. By the ninth century, there were at least sixty-six distinct ways to spin a turban (cimama).

Mamluk Sultanate Dress

On losing Baghdad in 1258, the Abbasid caliph fled to Cairo’s Mamluk court, where he was respected but not powerful. Western historians usually divide the sultanate into Bahri military control (1250-1293) and Burji reign (c. 1293-1516). The Bahri army included at least five major ethnic groups, three divisions, each with its own distinctive attire and a special uniform for accompanying the sultan and royal processions. In late-13th-century illustrations, at least six different types of military qaba are identified. The kalawta, or little fabric hat, worn with or without a turban cloth, superseded the sharbush and sarajuq, popular military headgear until the late thirteenth century. Army and court officials were allowed to exhibit their blazon (rank) on shoes, pen cases, and servants’ attire; some have survived in appliqué felt (for instance, those in the Textile Museum, Washington, D.C.).

Ottoman Empire Dress

The Ottomans ruled over much of Anatolia and the Balkans in less than a century. As the court expanded across central Europe, Egypt and North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and western Iran, it moved to Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453.

Less than two thousand clothing pieces related to the Ottoman sultans and their families are held in the Topkapi Saray Museum (Istanbul). Many manuscripts and album paintings, among other objects, adorn this source.

Iran’s Safavid era

With the help of eleven tribal tribes (qizilbash), Ismail of the Safavid line conquered Iran, eastern Turkey, the Caucasus, and modern-day Afghanistan. In spite of the majority of Iranian Muslims being Sunni, Ismail decreed Shc Islam of the Ithna Ashari branch to be the national religion. As a result, early Safavid shahs compelled followers, notably qizilbash (Turkish for “redhead”), to wear a bloodred hat (taj) with twelve vertical cushioned folds terminating in a baton-like finial, generally tied with a white turban cloth.

Early Ottoman and Iranian Dress

So did the Ottoman sultanate in the nineteenth century and the Qajar government of Iran from 1775 to 1924. In addition to substantial military reequipment reforms, both regimes instituted massive changes in criminal and civic legislation, education, and religious endowment administration. A peaked army cap inhibited appropriate prostration necessary in Muslim prayer routine, whereas decorative frogging on Austrian-styled military coats expressed belief in the crucified Christ.