Introduction

When we examine how modesty is manifested across Islamic cultures, we see different expressions of modesty in outward dress. The niqab, hijab, burka, and chador are all terms for veils that dominate Western media and discourse, but what do they actually mean?

Khimār

The Arabic term used to denote veil in the Quran is Khimār which comes from the verb root kha-ma-ra (خَ-مَ-رَ) which etymologically means “to cover”. Takhmīr Al-ʾīnāʾ means covering the vessel and Takhmīr Al-wajh means covering the face. Interestingly, wine in Arabic comes from the same three root letters Kha-m-r (خَ-مْ-ر) meaning an intoxicating substance or in turn anything that “covers” your brain from properly functioning. A man’s turban (ʿimāmah) is also called a Khimār because it covers the man’s head and neck.

A canonical hadith tells that the prophet would perform ablution by wiping over his “khuff (shoe) and Khimār (turban)”. Arab men, after wrapping the turban around the head, take the loose tail and pass it under the chin, thus covering their necks, and tuck it on the other side. This style is called taḥnīk or tallaḥy which means “making a beard” or “running under the chin.” (Check out my series on historical headwear across several Islamic dynasties)

Niqāb

A niqāb is a face veil with eyeholes. The word niqāb comes from the Arabic verb root na-qa-ba (نَ-قَ-ب) which is “to bore a hole”. The niqāb according to the encyclopedic Arabic dictionary Tāj Al-ʿ aroos is a: “qināʿ (veil) that is upon (or covers) the pliable part of the nose’ or which ‘extends as high as the socket of the eye”.

The Arabs had specific terms to refer to a face veil based on its placement on the face. If it starts on the eye socket (Al-Miḥjar), it’s called a niqāb and If the niqāb is drawn closer to the lower lash close to the eyes, the woman is called Al-Waṣuṣa (whose very name is derived from the verb meaning “to peep through a hole or crack”). And if the niqāb starts on the tip of the nose, it’s a lithām and if it begins on the mouth, it’s a lifām (while other linguists argue it was the reverse).

Arab Bedouins traditionally wore the lithām to protect themselves from the sand and sun by drawing over the loose tail of their turbans over their mouths or noses. The Tuareg and other North African nomads, particularly men, still practice wearing this headwear style.

Arab linguists say that what is now called a niqāb (the two eyeholes face veil) is actually what the Arabs call the burquʿ. The niqāb that was known to the Arabs was a veil covering the lower portion of the face, leaving the eyes exposed.

Burquʿ

It is a mask-like face veil worn mainly by bedouin women (nisāʾ Al-ʾAʿrāb) but not by urban women (nisāʾ Al-Ḥaḍar). The Arabs used the burquʿ as a face covering for mounts or riding animals as well. The burquʿ has two styles; one is a square piece of fabric with two eyeholes, and the other is constructed from two pieces, an upper headband and a lower long rectangular piece suspended from the headband, covering the face and exposing the eyes.

This is achieved by attaching the lower corners of the headband to the upper corners of the long rectangular piece with the center attached to the headband itself, or the rectangular piece is attached by a string connected to the headband to create the two eyeholes effect. The headband has two strings attached on each side to tie the veil around the head. In the times of early Islam, the niqāb was more common with urban and city women, whereas Bedouin women more commonly wore the burquʿ.

The burquʿ has many regional variations in style and decoration across the Arab world. A Bedouin woman’s burquʿ in Saudi Arabia differed from an urban woman’s burquʿ in 19th-century Cairo or from a Palestinian peasant’s burquʿ. Albeit the burquʿ has faded away from mainstream fashion, it’s still worn by elderly women in some Gulf countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and Bedouin Sinai women in Egypt and Palestine. The burquʿ remains an integral part of the material culture and heritage of a lot of Arab Muslim nations.

Ḥijāb

The word ḥijāb that we use nowadays to refer to the headscarf or veil worn by Muslim women actually has a more encompassing meaning. It comes from the root verb ḥa-ja-ba (حَ-جَ-بَ) which means to conceal, block, or screen. Ḥijāb refers to the concept of modesty as a whole in conduct and dress. The word ḥijāb is used in several instances in the Quran in various contexts.

One instance where the word ḥijāb is mentioned in the Quran is describing the physical barrier between the people of hellfire and paradise: “There will be a barrier (ḥijāb) between Paradise and Hell. And on the heights ˹of that barrier˺ will be people who will recognize ˹the residents of˺ both by their appearance. They will call out to the residents of Paradise, “Peace be upon you!” They will have not yet entered Paradise, but eagerly hope to.” [Sūrat al-Aʿrāf, 44-46].

Another instance is describing the metaphysical barrier that distinguishes between the hearts of the believers and the disbelievers: “They say, “Our hearts are veiled against what you are calling us to, there is deafness in our ears, and there is a barrier between us and you. So do ˹whatever you want˺ and so shall we!” [Sūrat Fuṣṣilat, verse 5].

Perhaps the most significant usage of the word where the argument for veiling is often invoked is in the verses of the Qur’an, in which the term ḥijāb refers to a curtain or a physical barrier separating visitors to Muhammad‘s main house from his wives’ residential lodgings: “When you ask the Prophet’s wives for something, do so from behind a (ḥijāb) screen: this makes for greater purity for your hearts and theirs.” [Sūrat al-Aḥzāb, verse 53].

Muslim exegetes have extrapolated the meaning of the word ḥijāb present in several contexts in the Quran to mean that a woman fully conceals herself with either a clothing item (like an over-enveloping cloak or veil) or from behind a partition/wall inside the home that screens a woman from the view of strangers (mostly men) from outside.

Naṣif

Nasif derives from the Arabic word Nisf (half) and lexicologically refers to anything that parts; and separates something from another. It is anything that covers the head, whether a Khimār (veil) or ʿimāmah (turban).

Qināʿ

In a purely linguistic sense, this term can mean both a face covering such as a face mask and a head covering like a veil. When we say Taqanaat Al-mar’ah it means a woman is covering her head with a veil (Khimār) but when she draws her veil over her face and hides her face, it becomes a face mask. The qināʿ as a face mask usually refers to any type of face covering such as a theater mask (qināʿ Al-masraḥ), oxygen mask (qināʿ oxygen), or medical mask (qināʿ ṭibbi), or even a robbers mask (qināʿ lusoos). A smaller version of this veil would be called a miqnaʿa.

The Arabic language has superlative nouns for words that fall within the same lexical definitions but denote different sizes from each other. For example, they say that the similarity between Qina’ (large head-shawl) and miqna (small headscarf) is akin to the relationship between lihaf (bed sheet/cover) and milhafa (body wrap/mantle).

Sitr

It means to conceal or cover. The word for curtains in Arabic “Sitara” derives from it.