Hairstyles and adornment of Arab women in the Islamic Middle East

Regrettably, the issue of iconographic paucity documenting the grooming manners and fashions of pre-Islamic Arabs has been extended to the eras after the emergence of Islam. Suppose you’ve read my series on the history of medieval Arab clothing. In that case, you’ll know that medieval Arab women have rarely been the subject of depiction in Arabic artwork, especially in intimate scenes and unveiled.

In contrast to the profusion of surviving hyperrealistic sculptures and busts from historical Greco-Roman eras and the rich iconographic tradition of the eastern Mediterranean, the bulk of visual depictions and textual accounts pertaining to the coiffures of Arab women in the Islamicate world, stretching from the 7th century until the 15th century, are notably sparse. Consequently, any endeavor to reconstruct the precise forms of these hairstyles, as well as to discern the intricate interplay of reciprocal influences between Arab women’s grooming practices and those of foreign cultural elements, poses a formidable challenge for researchers in this field.

The scarcity of artwork depicting Medieval Arab women in their indoor attire, unveiled, leaves us with a lot of guesswork and speculation on how they fashioned their hair, gowns, and headdresses when they were in the confines of their homes or with other females. This dearth of visual representations is mirrored in the limited scope of available literary sources.

According to various textual sources, pre-Islamic Arabs took care of their hair by regularly washing it and keeping it clean from dirt. They treated their hair with cleansing solutions made from jujube (sidr), Myrtle (Ass), marshmallow plant (khatmi), and a little bit of gum (samgh). This mixture was put in the roots of the hair to protect it from lice, sweat, and dirt. This treatment process was used by pre-Islamic Arab men during the pilgrimage instead of shaving their hair.¹

Establishing with certainty whether a composite style of hairdressing emerged from the established ancient techniques and tools used by the native populations, combined with that of the conquering Arabs, or whether one style waned in favor of another over time, remains an elusive undertaking.

It’s highly unlikely that female adornment and haircuts in the Islamized Middle East stayed consistent for a period spanning more than 700 years. Regrettably, the scarcity of documentation prevents us from examining the evolution and shifts of feminine hairdressing styles and techniques throughout the Islamic Middle Ages.

The “Arabo-islamic” world we know today didn’t become fully Arabized or Islamized until a few centuries after these regions’ successive waves of conquest in the late 8th century. Some historians approximate that the Arabization process of some regions didn’t completely materialize until around the 11th or 13th century.

The geographic contours of the Arabized Islamic world encompassed a diverse array of populations characterized by distinct cultural, ethnolinguistic, and religious identities. Within this extensive region, female hairstyles likely exhibited considerable variation, influenced by regional customs, religious affiliations, socioeconomic factors, and individual preferences.

Research on female hairdressing in the Islamic Middle East is hindered, as most historical writings on women’s hair and hairdressing practices in the Arabo-Islamic Middle Ages are scarce due to the prevailing socio-cultural and religious mores. Even if accounts of women’s appearances reached us, they were also deficient, as women tended to be veiled for most of their lives, and it was impossible to pry into how they wore their hair under their veils and wraps.

The available information is chiefly derived from sporadic commentary on the beautification routines of female slaves and entertainers, or a trend that broke societal or religious norms, which were often criticized by scholars in their writings for their perceived moral laxity.

Also, given the consistent generational knowledge of matters of beauty and health in the Arab world, we can trace how women in the medieval period took care of their hair by examining contemporary conventional beauty traditions still practiced by Arab women.

We are also faced with a conundrum since the medieval Muslim world was patriarchal and hierarchical; thus, social, ethnic, and religious identities were distinguished. Consequently, a free and respectable woman would refrain from partaking in the adornment ways associated with the lower castes of society.

However, we have read that concubines of caliphs and princes sometimes reached a highly influential status and became trendsetters. So, this poses a challenge to distinguish which adornment practice was reserved for the free, the slave, or the prostitute.

The influx of foreign female slaves from the conquered regions to the courts of caliphs, governors, and provincial princes would’ve brought local trends from their homelands, thus influencing costume, jewelry, hairstyling, and makeup traditions. Slave women were brought from all across the frontiers and inners of the empire as far as China, the Indian subcontinent, Great Khorasan, Transoxania, the Caucasus, Armenia, Anatolia, in addition to Berber, Coptic, Yemeni, Assyrian, Kurdish slaves, and also black African women were brought from Nubia, Abyssinia (Ethiopia and Eritrea) and the Zanj (Somalia and the Swahili coast).

Iranian influence on the courts of Muslim rulers could be discerned. Some of the Arab caliphs took wives and concubines who were of Persian origin, and these women would’ve brought many Sassanid adornment styles to their courts, especially to the Abbasid Baghdadi court. Arab ladies would’ve emulated their Persian peers in their flowing scarves, fillets, and ornamented robes. Abbasid women also wore wrap-over dresses and open coats (qaba’) imported from Transoxania.

Also, the booming Turkic influence that swept the Middle East with the rise of the Seljuk Turks as a sociopolitical force was another longstanding byproduct. The emergence of the military Turkic kingdoms in the 11th–13th century was far too significant, especially with the dissemination of the costumes and styles of adornment of the Eurasian steppe nomads into the vestments of the Islamic East.

Turkic slave soldiers and concubines flooded the caliphal courts, which had sociopolitical implications similar to the booming Persian cultural influence on the Abbasid court. Turkic women brought to the Abbasid harems many Central Asian influences to the vestment of the Arab East, like bejeweled and long headdresses, diagonally-fastened and fitted garments, and short jackets.

Before the arrival of the Arabs, the Mediterranean was entrenched within the political and cultural spheres of the Roman Empire. After the Arab conquest, pre-existing traditions and customs didn’t abruptly change but were gradually assimilated into the sphere of the new conquerors.

Elite Syrian and Egyptian women were likely to have continued following Eastern Roman fashions and styles of hairdressing for a considerable amount of time. Women were sporting elaborately combed coiffures, relying extensively on hair extensions, curls, braids, hairpins, hairnets, caps, diadems, and hair ornaments. Iconography found in excavations from necropolises and late antiquity Coptic art depicts women wearing hairstyles and clothes inspired by Eastern Roman/Byzantine models, and this trend may have lasted right until the 8th century.

However, around the tenth century, fashions in both dress and hair seem to have changed to a greater degree, which appears to have gone hand in hand with the increasing Arabisation and Islamisation of Egypt.² The general craze for Roman attire and ridiculously laborious hairstyles was probably out of fashion by the 10th to 11th century in Egypt.

It seems that within the Middle East, the hegemonic centers were re-oriented from the Western cultural and political hemisphere towards the Eastern.

Iconographical representations from Fatimid Egypt (10th-12th) show an increased prominence of Arab manners of dress like patterned wide-sleeved robes, tiraz-inscribed tunics, shalwars, and turbans, different from the typical Romano-Coptic costume of clavi-banded tunics and draped mantles. Depictions of unveiled and veiled women illustrate that attitudes towards hairstyling generally pivoted towards wearing their hair down in low buns and plaits.

Muslim women in the newly conquered territories must’ve emulated the aesthetic ideals of the Arab conquerors promulgated in their poetry. Black, long, wavy hair with fair skin and dark, wide eyes was the paragon of Arab feminine beauty. Arab poets praised the pitch-black color of the beloved’s hair, which contrasted with the whiteness of her face, and its length emphasized her long and slender neck. This explains the reason behind the prominence of henna and darkly pigmented hair dyes in Medieval cosmetic recipes.

By this time, the major schools of Islamic jurisprudence had time to crystallize and become codified in law. Stricter enforcement of veiling was set in place even for Jewish and Christian women.

The Islamic position towards female hair adornment was not as rigid and intolerant as that of Christianity. Adornment in itself was not equated to immorality, nor was beautification condemned. Oiling, perfuming, dyeing, and plaiting of hair were not considered reprehensible for either men or women and even seem to have been encouraged. ³ Nevertheless, Islamic mores stipulated gender separation and limited the expression of women’s sexuality and beautification to the private domain. Arab women covered themselves from head to toe with all kinds of jewelry. Each bodily part was adorned with a piece of jewelry, including the hair, forehead, ears, nose, fingers, wrists, arms, chest, neck, waist, ankles, and jewelry for headdresses and clothing. These, of course, varied in terminology and style across the Medieval Islamicate world.

It seems that throughout the Islamic Middle Ages, the dominant female headdresses consisted of various veils, head shawls, headbands, caps with compound turbans, hairpins, diadems, and combs, accompanied by low hairdos.

Hairstylists/hairdressers

Hairdressing in the Islamic Middle Ages followed certain socioreligious conventions and provided essential functions for women. Hairdressing, along with a few other professions, was one of the few feminine employments that were socially acceptable for women since their social interactions were confined to the same gender.

The skills of a hairdresser weren’t solely reserved for making their clients’ hair beautiful; they could also act as a matchmaker. By virtue of their professions, hairdressers had privy to the innermost, intimate female quarters, whether elite or common. They knew the virtues, vices, and physical attributes of every eligible bride in town. They could be commissioned by male suitors looking for a wife to find a woman matching their desired description.

The role of a coiffeuse (mashita in Arabic) was vital during wedding ceremonies—sometimes she combined the dual role of a hairdresser and a makeup artist on different occasions. They were usually called upon to private residences and homes to beautify women on their wedding days or on special celebrations where being dolled up was needed.

In his diary, Ibn Tawq records the gifts his wife regularly sent to her midwife, and the hefty sums she paid to her hairdresser before going to a wedding. The women attending her during visits to the bathhouse received smaller fees.⁴ In preparation for the wedding ceremony of Atabeg Mintash to Khawand, daughter of Sultan Al-ashraf Shaaban, Mintash prepared many things, such as sheep, cows, horses, sugar, and honey. He also provided her with the money for singers, hairdressers, and the like.⁵

Most of these activities took place within female-exclusive groups, which inherently created a competitive environment. One notable aspect was the unspoken rivalry to showcase the most extravagant hairstyles. The more intricate and labor-intensive the hairstyle, the higher one’s social status became among peers. A woman might aim to set herself apart from others by boasting about the renowned hairstylist responsible for her look.

The socioeconomic status of a woman determined which kind of hairdresser did her hair. Wealthy and noble ladies had personal professional hairdressers among their retinue of maidservants, ready at all times. Jafar ibn Yahya, an Abbasid vizier, had a dedicated hairdresser coiffing his slave girls every night.⁶ During a banquet held by the Mamluk Emir Qarasunqur in honor of provincial bailiffs, he had prepared for them a large feast with all kinds of sumptuous foods and drinks prepared by the royal cooks. Likewise, he arranged for the ladies all kinds of lovely things – sweets, drinks, and fruits. He summoned hairdressers for them to improve their appearance. [⁷] [⁸]

Whereas common women had to call professional hairdressers to come to their house, pre-conditioned, she was compensated for her services. The more qualified and reputable the hairdresser, the more money she is paid. Women who couldn’t afford to call the hairdresser to the house went to have their hair done by public hairdressers employed in the public bath, which was less costly than calling a private hairdresser.

When a hairstylist secures a prestigious position serving elite households during high-profile events such as weddings, Eid celebrations, or circumcision ceremonies, she is rewarded handsomely with money, along with expensive garments. These gifts are offered as compensation for her services or sometimes as Zakat (obligatory almsgiving) during the month of Ramadan. It appears that certain hairdressers have achieved considerable financial success within their profession, enabling them to amass significant wealth. A woman by the name “ibnat al-‘aris” was a hairdresser who owned property and residences. She died at the end of Muharram in the year ninety-three.⁹

A hairdresser was a woman who was knowledgeable in the art of styling and adorning hair, always updated on the newest trends in hairstyles so as not to lose clients, and was able to style the hair properly according to the hair texture and length. She also dressed women’s hair according to their age, social status, and material standing.

The hairdresser came to the client’s house prepared with her kit containing all sorts of oils, aromatic unguents, and pomades, as well as hair styling tools such as combs, pins, bodkins, ties, and clips. Hair styling products were made from herbal and plant substances that perfumed the hair, moisturized it, and prepared it for styling. These varied in their cost and quality based on the socioeconomic status of the client.

Pre-treating the hair before styling was the first step. The hair was washed with soapy-like detergents called Ghislah, which were made from a variety of substances like marshmallow plants, Christ’s thorn jujube, and clay.

Then, the hair is moisturized with different kinds of aromatic oil infusions, rose water, and powdered aromatics that contain beneficial substances to hair’s longevity and health, and finally give it shine and luster. The hair is sectioned with a comb or needle into different tresses and styled.

Then, flower bundles or roses are inserted into the hair for extra beauty and smell. Wealthy brides adorn their hair with gold and silver ornaments, and jeweled fillets are placed on the forehead with a drop pendant extending from the center.¹⁰ Those of the moneyed classes could afford to adorn their plaits and tresses with various trinkets and ornaments.

Wealthy women possessed the means to acquire high-quality ingredients, whether produced locally or imported from distant regions. Affluent ladies utilized red clay sourced from Iran and anointed their hair with coconut oil or jasmine oil imported from India. Additionally, costly aromatic substances such as musk, ambergris, and thatch screwpine—an aromatic tree native to Oman, India, and Southeast Asia—were dissolved in oil and applied to the hair for moisturizing and fragrance purposes.

Women residing in rural and Bedouin communities, distant from the luxurious amenities of urban centers, traditionally employed animal fats and clarified butter (ghee) as hair moisturizers. The beauty practices of these desert inhabitants were shaped by the limited availability of natural resources within their environment.

Bedouin women washed their hair with camel urine, as the acidic pH can remove residues and parasites from the hair shaft.¹¹ The hair was brushed with an aromatic mixture made from dried Gazelle stool that looks like the green, round fruit of the caper flower, and when crushed, it gives a scent of chamomile and thyme.¹² Aromatic herbal powders called rashush or mishat were used to scent the hair and were made from dried rose petals, lavender, myrtle, mahlep, and others. Variations on this herbal powder would include the leaves of nifl (sometimes called hangresse) (Trigonella stelatta) and were used in place of rashush.¹³

Upon completion of hairstyling, women would fragrance their hair using costly preparations known as Khamriyya (or Makhmariyya) and Mahlep. The term Khamriyya is derived from the Arabic word “Khamr,” meaning wine or fermentation. This preparation is a fermented perfume composed of crushed saffron and dried Indian musk, blended with a fragrance made from aloeswood, musk, basil, or other herbs. The mixture undergoes a fermentation process lasting forty days.

The Mahlep is an aromatic preparation made from the principal ingredient, Mahlep (Mahlep seeds), and aromatic herbs like lavender, roses, cloves, and myrtle. They could be powdered or mixed with aromatic oils to become liquid. Sometimes they would be fermented or smoked with incense. The Mahlep powder is mixed with water and applied to the hair for nourishment and scent.

Myrtle was especially praised for its medicinal benefits for the hair in various medical encyclopedias and is therefore present in all traditional Arab beauty recipes for hair.

The hairdresser’s role didn’t end after finalizing the bride’s grooming session; instead, the hairdresser was a spiritual mentor and an aid to the newlywed bride. She went with the bride to her new home, helped position her on the bed, and lifted the veil once the husband arrived. She helped the bride adjust to her new environment, giving useful tips (sometimes sexual) on how to deal with her husband and guidance on how to handle difficult in-laws.

Hairstyles:

1) Plaits

In Semitic societies, it was customary to plait their male children’s hair into several plaits as a sign of reaching puberty. The coming-of-age ceremony included shaving these plaits and sacrificing them in front of their idols. This tradition was carried over to pre-Islamic Arabia. Parents plaited their young children’s hair in seven braids, and Bedouins and semi-sedentary communities still uphold this practice. ¹⁴

In Arab culture, a woman’s hair is her pride and glory. Arab women preferred long, wavy black hair.

As far as textual references and iconographic representations have shown, the predominant hairstyle in the Islamic Middle Ages was plaiting and braiding. The Arabic language has many terms for plaits like qūrūn, ġadāʾir, and ḏawāʾib, all of them meaning the same thing.

The hair was usually parted in the middle and braided either in one large plait or into several plaits. Unfortunately, there aren’t any references on how these plaits were arranged, but based on some textual and pictorial sources, these plaits were normally left to drape on the back or in front.

Medieval Muslim exegetes (mufassir) like Al-qutubi, commenting on proscribed hairdressing forms in the hadith, said that contemporary women augmented their heads like a “camel’s humps” by raising their plaits onto the center part or crown of the head. The specific manner or placements in which these plaits were set on the head are still unknown.

The easiest and most convenient braid style was a uni-braid, which can be styled in many ways: chucked on the back, rolled up in a bun, or arranged around the head.

Wearing the hair in a single braid was a matter deserving of criticism by some jurists since it resembled how young boys wear their hair. Several Medieval chroniclers report widespread transvestism among women, whether free, slave, or harlot. Ibn Taymiyya rebuked free women wearing their hair in a single braid, letting down a strand of hair on their cheeks resembling sideburns, and winding it around a turban, as it was seen as emulating prostitutes who were cross-dressing as Mirdan (prepubescent boys), hence reprehensible. It seems that wearing the hair in a singular braid wasn’t sinful in itself, but rather the act of wearing it in imitation of the other gender.

If a woman wished to part her hair into multiple plaits, these were more laborious and required the assistance of another person, usually a sister or a mother, but if the lady was wealthy, she could afford an experienced maidservant in the art of hairdressing. These braids would’ve been intricately arranged in multiple ways and decorated with ornaments. The number of plaits depends on the hair’s thickness and length, but according to a story in One Thousand and One Nights, it’s said to have ranged from 11 plaits to 25, with odd numbers seemingly being preferred.¹⁵

If the hair was short or thin, hair extensions were sometimes used to compensate for the lack of volume and length, despite their use being against religious commandments.

The Islamic Hadith tradition is unequivocal in its condemnation of female practices that alter their appearance, specifically in a permanent manner. A woman using deceitful methods such as hair extensions, wearing wigs, plucking the eyebrows, tattooing, or the ancient Arab practice of teeth spacing to enhance her beauty was reprehensible for a woman of true faith. “The Prophet (ﷺ) cursed the woman who joins false hair to her real hair [extensions] and the one who asks for it to be done to her; and the woman who tattoos (others) and the one who has it done (for her).”

Islamic Biographical Dictionaries (Tarajim) contain numerous writings by indignant religious scholars who strongly criticized women’s usage of hair extensions. These writings underscore the fact that the presence of these commands didn’t necessarily mean that women complied with them and were often disregarded. For instance, the 11th-century Abbasid physician, Ibn butlan, mentioned in his book On The Purchase Of Slaves that slave brokers used false hair to elongate the slaves’ hair as a means of making them more appealing to buyers and hence, more profitable.

Some Islamic jurists permit women to employ artificial hair additions if such implements were to improve their appearance for their husbands. They claim that women may use hair additions made of a young camel’s hair and adorn them with colorful silk threads, as this was not human hair, but solely an artificial decoration. Some sources made this permission conditional on receiving the husband’s consent, demonstrating that this custom was permitted for married women, and also female slaves. ¹⁶ However, the proscriptions on using hair extensions didn’t include using strands of cloth or ribbons to elongate or decorate the hair.

Plaits were decorated with silken or woolen ribbons called (Qaramil) or (ʿaqīṣa), which were inserted or braided into the plaits. To avoid religious censure, women would’ve used black fabric ribbons or strings to create the illusion of thicker, longer hair without relying on false hair. False braids called (Bunud) made from colorful woolen threads, cotton, or wicker are sometimes added to braids as decorations. ¹⁷ These fake braids or fabric strips would’ve been an anchor for a variety of hair ornaments.

2) Curls:

Exposed sections of hair showing from underneath tightly wound veils, in addition to depictions of female court entertainers in medieval Islamic art, reveal that women styled their hair into snake-like curls, as one poetry line explains. These were thin sections of loose, wavy curls.

There were other descriptions in Arabic poetry of these curly hairdos, like Al-ʾasāwid (snakes or scorpions), ʾānābīsh al-ʿanṣal (pulled-out squills). Curls were made by twisting and knotting the hair strands onto the crown of the head for some time and then loosening them. This style was called ʿaqīṣa.

Ancient Egyptian, Assyrian, and Roman women used curling tongs to curl and crimp their hair. The Romans called a curling iron made of a hollow tube a calamistrum. Since there are no surviving examples of curling tongs from the Islamic Middle Ages, we are uncertain if local women continued using such tools in the conquered lands after the Islamization and Arabization process or if their role dwindled in favor of other techniques or tools.

Examples of crimped/crinkly hair tresses

The hair of these female figures is slightly wavy and divided into several sections. One of the hair strands is tied in a loop at the end, similar to an onion bulb or a squill.

3) Temporal tresses:

The hair at the front was styled in many ways. The “temporal tresses” are one style extrapolated from the few written sources alongside artistic ones.

Dispersed brief lines of Medieval poetry convey that women styled their hair locks at the temples, just below the ears, to look like Arabic letters (noon, qaf, waw). The basic outline of these letters is more or less identical in shape. They are semicircles with a loop at the end, similar to a hook. It seems that this coiffure was a dominant female hairstyle throughout the centuries.

These curled tresses were achieved using various cosmetic treatments by rolling and stiffening the hair. Arabic medical treatises contain many cosmetic recipes for hair curling and straightening. Albucasis mentions gels extracted from several plants, like flaxseed, marshmallow roots, and psyllium, that can straighten the hair. For curling the hair, he writes:” Remedies which crinkle hair include carob leaves, olives, Christ’s thorn, pomegranate peels, and Myrtle leaves.” Starches and gums were also used to stiffen the hair.

A famous 10th-century Abbasid physician created a recipe in his medical encyclopedia Kamil Al-Sin’ah At-tibbiyah (The comprehensive industry of medicine) for crimping/curling straight hair. He says to apply a mixture of one part Nura (quicklime) and two parts litharge, amla, and oak galls, and pound together and knead with myrtle juice. Then the hair strands are tied tightly with woolen threads, and the curls are left to dry and stiffen for three days and nights. The threads are untied, and the hair is washed with sidr (Christ thorn jujube) and oiled with violet oil or rose oil.

a) Al-‘asdagh Al-qafiyyah /Anooniyyah (noon or qaf temples).

This popular hairstyle worn by women in the Umayyad era was often described as locks of hair at the temples, curled and shaped like noon (the Arabic letter for N). A Umayyad contemporary poet described a certain slave woman to the Umayyad ruler Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik:

“Her hair touches down to her waist, and it runs down like they are date fruit clumps on her shoulders, and a fringe lies on her forehead and her temple locks; they look like a noon is on her cheeks.”

In contemporary 8th-century poetry, the half-circle-shaped Umayyad “noon” temple tresses appeared to have changed shape and were described as a “scorpion’s tail” during the Abbasid period.

b) Al-‘asdagh Al-‘anqudiya (temple clumps)

This hairstyle was achieved by bringing a section of the hair to the side of the face and curling it to achieve a “clumped” look at the temples.

4) Fringes

Fringes (called turra or ghurrah in Arabic) were styled in many ways based on artistic representations. Women’s hair, if rarely visible, especially their foreheads, was always hidden under caps, crowns, or veils, which made it difficult to discern how they styled their fringes.

Ringlets are an early styling of their forelock hair that can be identified. This hairstyle is found in abundance in the stucco statues of female singers and entertainers in the Umayyad desert palaces. The hairstyles found on these sculptures seem to retain a clear Greco-Roman influence. These ringlets were styled in different ways. The most common type inferred from these statues is curls rolled up and gathered at the front.

Some artworks show that small sections of the forelock hair at the front were made into curls in a hook shape or a roll shape. These were shaped and stiffened with starches and gums. A sticky liquid (e.g., quince seed soaked in hot water) kept both kasmas (ringlets) and ṭorras in their proper shape.¹⁹

Other pictorial representations show that women styled their fringes to look like festoons. They were neatly and meticulously arranged in a row and usually combined with noon-styled temple tresses.

Women also parted their fringes in the middle and laid them flat on each side. Sometimes, they took a lock of hair on each temple and twisted it, arranged it on their temples, and tucked the ends behind their ears.

• Ringlets

• Festoons

• Rolls and hook-shaped curls

• Parted fringe

5) Hair buns

Several surviving Fatimid bowls depicting court scenes (musicians, dancers, courtiers) tell us that court entertainers (some women) styled their hair at the back in a low-rise bun with curled temple tresses. References to a certain hairstyle called a Rummana (pomegranate) mention that women gathered their hair at the nape of the neck to look like a pomegranate.

6) Al-mayyala’s hairstyle 

There are no detailed iconographical or textual references to the construction and arrangement of this hairstyle. Still, based on the available information, we can infer that this hairstyle encompassed a wide array of large updos. These hairstyles were mainly associated with prostitutes and women of questionable character. It was called mashtat al-mayyala (the hairdo of the deviant), a reference to a hadith about deviant seductive women, imitating Roman women donning large towering coiffeurs that look like a “two-humped camel tilted to the side”.

Such large and tempting hairdos were specifically designated for women in the profession of soliciting male attention. Likewise, women whose heads resembled a camel’s hump were described as temptresses inclined to evil and destined to Hell, suggesting that voluminous, stuffed headdresses similar to those worn by Egyptian women were also known in the Hijāz.²¹

There were several testimonies from religious exegetes and commentators expressing dismay about the voluminous hairstyles and headdresses visible from the silhouette of women’s cloaks. The 15th-century Egyptian scholar Al-Suyuti commented on the prevalence of this manner of large hairdos while studying in Fez.²²

Ibn Tumert, an 11th-century Almohad jurist and puritanical reformer, expressed profound disapproval upon observing the unconventional hairstyles worn by the veiled women (mulathamun) of the Sanhaja Berber tribe, identified as the Almoravids and political adversaries of the Almohads. His condemnation extended to the point of declaring their excommunication. Their women, according to Ibn Tūmart, embellished their heads with an extravagant coiffure, making them look like camels’ humps (ruʾūsuhunna ka-asnimat al-bukht).²³

Depictions of several women in Maqamat al-Hariri showing fully veiled but bulky heads visible from their cloaks illustrate that some free women sport these imposing hairstyles. In a similar fashion to the towering Roman hairstyles, Muslim women achieved this hairstyle by taking their tresses and plaits and adding volume through false hair, strips of cloth, caps, and turbans, gathering their hair at the top so that if a woman walks, it looks like she has two heads.

Jurists explain that the prohibition on such hairstyles referenced in that hadith is only applied when they are worn outside the home and could be visible from their veils or cloaks, fearing it might garner unwanted male attention, something a free and respectable woman should preclude herself from doing. Yet, wearing such hairstyles inside her home in the company of family or female friends was fine, and wearing the hair down like the mothers of the believers was preferable.

Despite the presence of such regulations, women often disregarded strict rules on dress enforced by patriarchal values. Women were always trying to follow the latest fashions, no matter how scandalous in the eyes of the religious scholars and moralists. This clearly illustrates a dissonance between the practiced reality and the didactic culture preached in sermons and religious texts.

Hair Ornaments:

Ornamented hairstyles have an extensive history in the Near East. Ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, and Persians sported elaborately coiffed hairdos and were decorated with all manner of gold trinkets, which were intricately braided along with their tresses.

In pre-Islamic Arabia, children were spoiled and adorned by hanging decorative ornaments onto their braids.²⁴ Hair ornaments made of small pearls or gold, called “shathar” and “shakal”, were mentioned in Arabic poetry as early as the 7th century.

It appears that after the Arab conquest, popular fashion and dominant tastes shifted, leading to the adoption of wearing hair down in simple braids instead of the elaborate, towering updos influenced by Roman culture. So, a woman might add emphasis to an otherwise plain hairstyle by adorning plaits and tresses with gleaming ornaments, colorful beads, and jingling trinkets.

The wearing of these hair ornaments often exemplified spiritual and protective beliefs, in addition to highlighting material and social demarcations or aesthetic preferences. Women would often wear amulets and talismanic jewelry on their heads, hair, or veils to ward off the evil eye or spirit away the djinns and bad luck. These would take shape in different human (khamsa hand and Nazar blue eye), geometric (Zar amulet and coins), astrological (Helal crescent and stars), or animalistic (samaka fish) morphosis that have deep-rooted religious and cultural significance.

The protective properties of these objects weren’t given importance solely on their shapes, but also on their color, base material, and sound. Ancient and Islamic cultures in the Near East valued carnelian and amber stones for their color and therapeutic associations and inlaid them in their jewelry. Talismans (hejab), usually a hollow metal case in the shape of a box, tube, or capsule, would be stuffed with certain scented items or magical scrolls with written spells, and contain drop-pendants and dangling chains that rattle when the woman moves to protect the wearer.

1) Hair tubes/trinkets/chains

Hair plaits and tresses were adorned with various embellishments, such as small ornate tubes, pearls, beads, coins, or decorative metal trinkets, which produced a charming jingling sound as the woman walked. Less moneyed women could’ve used more affordable materials to decorate their plaits, like small bells, amber or coral beads, silver and copper coins, or other accessories. These ornaments were hung on the top, middle, or end of the plaits.

The earliest artistic representation of such hair decorations goes back to the Umayyad period. A plethora of 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.²⁵ Mural depictions of female dancers in Qusayr ‘Amra portray female figures semi-clad and bedecked with various necklaces, bracelets, and hair pendants placed at the center of the hair. One bare-chested dancer, who is donning only a checkered skirt, was wearing her hair in a perm with a pearl chain or pins in her hair. These ornaments were inserted between the headdresses or arranged on the hair.

S. D. Goitein observed through his investigation into the Cairo Geniza trousseau lists that women used tubes as hair ornaments. A small tube (masura) was attached to the end of each braid. It measured some three-eighths of an inch long and seemed related to the word for bracelet (siwar), implying encircling or enclosing.²⁶ Finials of jewels or small gold coins were sometimes hung on tiny rings below the masura.

A “qawādīs” (Ar. pl. of qādos) mentioned in the jewelry section of an upper-class bride was a hair ornament translated as gold tubes by Goitein. In Arabic, qādos refer to a pipe or a conduit for water drainage, which is what Goitein based his translation of the word on, since its presence in the jewelry section of the dowry can only mean a tubular hair ornament in this context. They were made of gold and pearls and cost 8 dinars. In another list, they cost 3 dirhams and are possibly made from copper.

A “barbakh” (culvert) pipe is repeatedly mentioned in the Geniza trousseau lists written around 1200 CE, but always in the singular. Yedida Stillman has discovered a similar hair ornament called barabekh in modern-day Palestinian headdresses. Stillman describes them as pairs of pipes made of silver or gold attached to the coif near the temple and ending in a hollow ball from which hang four braided chains, a fact which makes Goitein believe that the Geniza hair ornament barbakh had a form and function different from those of the modern barabekh. However, Stillman mentioned in her book “Palestinian Costume and Jewelry” that there was a hair ornament called barabekh worn by Palestinian women.²⁷

I’ve found some tubular hair ornaments from Iran dating to the 12th–13th century in the Met Museum. Since Iran was a popular medieval commercial destination for trade and import in the Fatimid era, I believe they could bear a strong resemblance to the Geniza hair ornaments.

European travelogues describing the Middle East indicate that this particular hairstyle persisted into the 19th century. Although there are no surviving contemporary medieval representations of ornamented braids in Arab art, such styles are documented in 19th-century European travel narratives and photographic records.

Sources mention that women in Mecca tied their plaits with an ornament called al-ʿuṯkōl. It was a decorative tassel or a pompom used to decorate the house or hung on the camel caravans and resembled a panicle of the date palm tree or a grapevine. Affordable versions were made from colorful wool or as leather with cowrie shells or entirely beaded forms, while a more expensive version would’ve been made from precious metal.²⁸ (see example ‘athqul below).

Decorative hair accessories made from beads or pearls strung on a string (nūẓūm, from Ar. manẓūm) were another hair decoration. These were braided with the plaits, hung on the hair, or even worn as headbands.²⁹ We see this type of decoration in depictions of women on Fatimid lustre bowls, which show them wearing beaded or pearled necklaces arranged on long ribbons knotted at the back with a knot or bow, and draped over their shoulders. Meccan women decorated their hair with a chain called Al-mukarrasa, consisting of two rows of beads or pearls joined at each side.³⁰

High-born women would embellish their plaits with ornaments made from coral, pearl, ruby, or small trinkets. A companion of the Caliph al-Hadi, named Ali ibn Yaqtin, narrates the story of the Caliph being informed of the news of catching two slave girls in the act. They were promptly beheaded, and their heads were presented to the caliph. The companion was bewitched by the beauty of the two slave girls and their finer appearance:

“Then he said, ‘Lift the cover!’ and there on the tray were the heads of two slave girls. And, by God, I have never seen more beautiful faces or lovelier hair in the whole of my life. Jewels were entwined in their hair, and the air was fragrant with their perfumes. We were amazed.”³¹

Decorating plaits and hair tresses with all kinds of hair accessories is a continuing tradition lasting into the modern age. A plethora of plait ornaments, pendants, tassels, and chains are found in the traditional jewelry of Arab women across the Arab world in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Syria, Palestine, and Algeria.

Two stucco sculptures from Umayyad desert castles, 7th-8th century, show two female figures with a rosette ornament in their headdress.

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Some modern-day versions

A pair of Palestinian plait ornaments is called “quarmal.” Worn hanging over the shoulders on cords and mixed with the hair. With 19th-century Ottoman coins. From Ethnic Jewels Forum.

2) Headbands/diadems/bandeaux:

The most ubiquitous head ornament mentioned in historical literature and artistic representations is headbands (ʿiṣāba in Arabic). These headbands came in different materials, enclosures, and decorations.

The fashion of the headband was pioneered by the daughter of the Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi, who wore the band to conceal a scar on her forehead; it was also called shadd al-jabin, or forehead band.³²

Headbands made from cloth or textile were the most common. Female (and sometimes male figures) depicted in various mediums of Islamic art (manuscripts, lusterware and ceramics, brass vessels, and woodwork) wear textile headbands wrapped around the forehead and tied on the back of the head with a knot or a ribbon bow cascading down the back. These were profusely embroidered or studded.

The Abbasid contemporary, Al-Waššāʾ, wrote of cord-like bands (Zunnar) that women tied on their fringes. “The singer, Khadi’, wrote on her zunnar cord, which she has tied around her fringe.”³³ These cords were made from leather and were either gilded or studded with gemstones.³⁴ A zunnar is typically a girdle tied on the waist; however, it is simultaneously worn as a headband.

Headbands varied in width from slim ribbons, bands, ropes, and scarves with flowing ends, to large folded kerchiefs that covered the entire forehead. The degree of ornamentation varied from as simple as having no decoration to luxurious, such as silk or gold embroidery, beadwork, coins decorating the edges, pearls or gemstones studded with tassels, and decorated ribbons flowing down the back.

Several figures in Fatimid ceramic luster bowls wear headbands with seemingly pearl-sequenced designs. The geniza trousseau lists show that women of good circumstances wore fabric headbands made from costly fabrics like silk or high-quality linen, whereas poorer women wore ones made from lower-cost fabrics.

Al-Waššāʾ writes that the elegant women of his time: “studded their headdresses (karzan) with beads (habb) and precious gemstones (sunuf al-jawhar), they inscribed their headbands with gold and silk.”³⁵

In One Thousand and One Nights, the Merchant was struck by the beauty of his beloved hubub and her fineries: “Whilst she herself donned one of the richest dresses and crowned her head with a net of pearls of the freshest water. About this she bound a fillet of brocade, purfled with pearls, jacinths, and other jewels, from beneath which she let down two tresses each looped with a pendant of ruby, charactered with glittering gold.”³⁶

Bedouin women wore padded head-rolls similar to the western bourrelet or Escoffion to keep their veils and headcloths in place, called noufilliyah. These were made from twisted felt or leather, and decorated with beads, corals, seashells, cowries, or pearls, and had ornamented chains and pendants dangling from them. These were similar to the male headdress known as ‘igal, a type of twisted woolen head-cord used by Arab men to secure their head-shawls or Koufiyya on their heads.

There were many ways a woman could wear her headband. When stepping outside the house, a woman wears the ʿiṣāba wound turban-like around that part of the overwrap (izar) or veil which covered the hair, similar in fashion perhaps to that of Bedouin women today or Egyptian rural women with their rabtah, except the medieval version was sometimes richly embroidered and adorned with precious stones.³⁷ Bedouin and rural village women in Jordan, Syria, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, up until recently, could be seen wearing their ʿiṣāba in this manner. 

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Metal headbands, such as diadems or fillets, were another elaborate type afforded by the well-off. These were made from precious metals such as silver or gold, encrusted with precious gemstones inlaid with pearls, and richly decorated with filigree. Affluent women, especially those belonging to the elite stratum in the caliphal household, wore metal headbands, crowns, diadems, and tiaras on their wedding days.

Harun Al-Rashid is said to have prepared an obscene amount of jewelry, ornaments, and crowns for his wife’s dowry. Al-Maqrizi mentions in his book on the history of the Fatimids, “Itti‘āz al-Ḥunafā’ bi-Akhbār al-A’immah al-Fāṭimīyīn al-Khulafā,” that Sitt Al-Mulk, a Fatimid princess during her brother’s reign, Al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh (r. 996-1021), gifted him a tāj (crown) on his wedding day.

Trousseaux lists belonging to affluent brides in the geniza documents contain mentions of golden diadems and metal headbands (ʿiṣāba) inlaid with pearls and richly decorated with filigree that reach the price of 80 dinars. Ibn Jubayr, an Andalusian traveler who visited Mosul in 1217 AD/614 AH, wrote in his travel records that he saw the daughter of the king of Mosul on her wedding day stepping out of her palanquin fully veiled and wearing a headband made of gold, as well as her handmaidens.

Indoors, moneyed women usually wore metal headbands as a diadem on their bare hair or forehead as a head ornament. It was also worn as an adorning element to the turban-cap ensemble. Lane’s account of the modern Egyptians writes that 19th-century middle to upper-class Cairene women usually wore a variety of head ornaments consisting of preciously studded metal headbands wrapped around their rabtah, a headdress consisting of a kerchief called a faroudiyya wrapped around a base cap called a taqqiyah or tarboosh. These headbands are worn on the front or the side of the rabtah, attached by little hooks at the back.

Due to a lack of proper literary descriptions or existing examples to examine, it is difficult to determine the shape and construction of these metal headbands. However, based on some pictorial representations, such as in (The Book of Fixed Stars) and other mediums of art, we can see that they were usually circular or semi-circular metal bands or a string of beads or pearls with a large centerpiece element in the middle. Some headbands were placed on the forehead with two hooks or holes on each side, for a cord or ribbon to pass through to be tied on the back, similar to the manner in which Greco-Roman diadems were worn.

Metal headbands or forehead ornaments are still a part of the traditional costumes of modern Arab countries such as Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. These headbands are made from silver or sometimes gold and are encrusted with precious gemstones or beadwork; some are edged with tiers of coins or dangling tassels and very ornamented with various techniques of enamel-work, wirework, granulation, chainwork, and filigree.

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Some modern-day versions

3) Temple ornament

Headbands can anchor a variety of temple tassels, chains, and pendants that hang on the sides or sometimes are fixed on the sides of the hair or veils. These temple ornaments can still be witnessed extensively in North African Berber jewelry (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt) and Arab Bedouin Jewelry (Jordan, Sinai, Arabian Peninsula). Unfortunately, I haven’t come across a Medieval depiction of these temple ornaments yet.

Women could hang their earrings on a chain, place them on their head, and let them dangle over their ears.

4) Hair strings/bands/ribbons:

Women decorated their hair with different kinds of ribbons and hair bands to complement the beauty of their costumes, jewelry, and headdresses. These ribbons were made from silk, wool, linen, cotton, strings, silver, or gold, and were woven with their braids and hair tresses.³⁸

Several Khuyut (strings) were mentioned as head ornaments in the geniza trousseaux. They were gilded strings for the head. Goitein proposes the notion that the wearing of these threads by brides on their henna night (kind of like a bachelorette party) served as a ceremonial festivity, leaving her hair down one last time before binding it up forever, a sort of symbolic gesture of leaving girlhood and entering the state of matrimony.

No wonder we read in a marriage contract of April 1243 that at the wedding, the groom provided the expenses for the henna and the strings “as customary.” In one case, they cost only 1 dinar; in another, 20. In still another, they are described as silk strings with gold-plated silver threads worth 3 dinars, and in the earliest instance noted by Goitein, the clerk simply wrote “strings made of silk and other materials-6 di­nars,” a sum that points to the use of silver and gold. In all these cases, “the materials for the khuyut” were included in the trousseau lists. ³⁹

Other designations were used for hair ribbons, like the word Qitan (cords made from wool, silk, or cotton), or Zarrouf, which were strings made from silk or wool to decorate or tie their hair.⁴⁰

A ribbon called a Fisadiyya (pl. fisadiyyat), according to a nineteenth-century Lebanese dictionary, was used by women to gather the tresses of their hair. The word appears only in two Geniza trousseaux, one of which dates from the late Fatimid period. ⁴¹ The fisadiyyat ribbons were made from silk, often embroidered with colorful threads in green, red, and blue.⁴²

The rarity of it in that source can be ascribed to it being too basic and inexpensive an item to be worth mentioning among the diverse and often ornate and valuable garments listed. Some of the women on the Capella Palatina ceiling can be seen wearing fisadiyyat in their other use as a hair-band.⁴³

5) Hairdressing needles or bodkins

Parting the hair for the different elaborate coiffures required a pointed tool to section the hair precisely. Textual reference pointing to dressing needles being in use is found in Al-‘Asqalani’s commentary on costumes mentioned in the hadith. In the chapter on hairdressing, he explained that women used a tool like a bodkin called midra المِدرى to gather their hair or a prong to fix the hair. 

Al-Jawhari defines the midra (Ar. syn. qarn قرن, midrat مِدراة) as a stick or a metal needle with a sharp edge, or a wooden comb with a handle, and it is used to comb the hair if no comb is at hand or as a back scratcher by the elderly.

The midra came in two varieties. The first was a small bodkin that looked like a blade and had a round head, used only for parting the hair, and was made from ivory, metal, or ebony. The second is a large cone-shaped bodkin made from ebony and other materials, with a handle that has a decorative carving and prongs; the first prong is crooked like a thumb ring, used for combing the hair and scratching the back and the head. ⁴⁴

Hair Bodkins are mentioned in an 8th-century story in Al-Aghani about a bereaved woman called Buthaina after the death of her beloved, Jamil. The titular character says: “After him, I didn’t apply Khol on my eyes or parted my hair with a needle (mikhyat) or a comb, if it’s not the fear of a headache that affects my eyes I oiled my head, nor did I wear a colored veil (khimar) or waistwrap (izar), and I will still grieve for him until my death.”⁴⁵

The word (mikhyat مِخْيَط) in Arabic is any pointed tool used to sew clothing, such as a needle (ibrah) or a bodkin (masallah). The same term is used in a canonical hadith prohibiting men from touching women who aren’t related to them: “For one of you to be stabbed in the head with a metallic needle (mikhyat) is better for him than that he should touch a woman who is not permissible for him.”

I found a traditional Qatari tool used to section the hair called “Qarn Al-Ghazal,” meaning the ghazal’s antlers. This tool was widespread across Arabia and was called “mifrag” or divider. Such tools have largely disappeared from common use but could still be found in the possession of elderly Arab ladies. It was either hung on the wall or kept in a pouch, and sometimes hung on the woman’s cloak. This particular antler is mounted with a golden-gilt cap with a small circle hook, most likely belonging to someone wealthy.

It seems that the style and base material of these hairpins & bodkins varied significantly across the regions, depending on the environment and resources available at hand. Bedouins living in the desert would’ve utilized the scarce source materials like animal bones, horns, or hoofs, and trees from the surrounding environment, while elite urban dwellers would have had the luxury to attain elaborate materials such as imported wood, ivory, or precious metals.

6) Hairpins

Decorative hairpins as hair ornaments are also scarcely mentioned or seen in pictorial depictions. Illustrations of some female figures in various artworks show that women decorated their hair with ornamented hairpins or combs. Drawings from The Book of Fixed Stars show female celestial representations bedecked with all kinds of jewelry, including two or three hairpins or rosettes inserted between their headdresses.

Archaeological excavations have found various forms of hairpins and bodkins used by women from antiquity in the Ancient Near East, Ancient Egypt, Roman Egypt, Ancient Rome, Greece, and Europe, but rarely from the Islamic world, save for a couple of Fatimid pins and pins dating from the Coptic period.

At the Dallas Museum of Art, I found a gold Fatimid hairpin with a rock crystal bird dating to the 10th or 11th century. The British Museum has a silver hairpin dating to the 14th century from the Mamluk period. It has a decorative head and a blunt edge. This hairpin could’ve been used as a decorative piece for the hair or as a functional tool to part and style the hair.

In addition to these bodkins, ornamented wooden combs were used to comb the hair to fashion these coiffures.

7) Hair pendant/hairpiece

This hair ornament could be seen in some medieval artistic representations. It is a forehead ornament consisting of a long chain with a decorative pendant at the end and a hook at the top to be placed on the hair parting. They sometimes have two external chains that encircle the hairline and are hooked with the central chain on the back. It is very similar in shape to the Indian head ornament Shringar Patti, or the Maang Tikka.

Yet, depictions of such head ornaments could be witnessed on female Palmyrene funerary busts and sculptures from at least the 1st century CE and even further back on several female ivory Neo-Assyrian plaques from the 8th-9th century BC. These figures are usually crowned with a rectangular fringed diadem with pendant tassels or pomegranates. A diadem closely resembling the one depicted here, made of gold and inlaid with lapis lazuli and colored stones, was found in the grave of a royal woman at Nimrud.⁴⁶

A similar headpiece could still be witnessed in the traditional jewelry in several countries of Arabia (common to the UAE, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, and other Arab Gulf states). Hyar, Naql, or Majlah are synonyms for names (in the Emirati dialect) for a decorative golden chain that comes in different motifs, similar to a headband worn across connecting ear to ear and ending with small rings for earrings to dangle. At times, it has a medallion (shnaf/taba’ah/tfruqah) attached to the forehead or additional dangling chain layers covering the crown of the head.⁴⁷

We are unsure if this specific style of headgear was widespread in the rest of the Arabic-speaking regions or was considered more local to Arabia.

Book of Fixed Stars’ (Kitāb suwar al-kawākib al-ṯābita) by ‛Abd al-Rahman ibn ‛Umar al-Ṣūfī, 1266- 7AD, Syria? (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Arabe 2489)

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Modern-day versions

8) Hair combs

Women used hair combs to brush, detangle, and style their hair into different hairdos. Most surviving combs from the Islamic Middle Ages are made of wood or ivory, although historical references mention silver, turtle shells (carapace), and animal horns as other materials.

The majority of extant medieval combs come from Egypt. Due to the arid climate of most of the Middle East and in Egypt, where most surviving combs originate, combs were made out of imported wood such as Pine, Cedar, Boxwood, Ebony, and Oak, making them more valuable and expensive. Combs made out of wood from local Egyptian trees like sycamore fig and Ziziphus spina-christi or Sidr in Arabic, were less expensive.⁴⁸

The Geniza trousseau lists mentioned that wealthy Egyptian Jewish brides had combs made of silver, ivory, and good-quality European Boxwood among the items they brought with them.⁴⁹

Decoration techniques included engraving and carving different geometric, floral, and animal designs, and incising concentric circles and shapes. Text inscriptions were another decorative design feature.

Combs were used as hair ornaments as well. These ornamented combs were usually of precious materials, richly decorated with filigree and encrusted with gemstones.⁵⁰ They were placed on the sides of the hair or the back of the coiffure.

A wealthy bride had a comb in the jewelry section made of gold and worth the large sum of 16 dinars.⁵¹ The inclusion of the comb in the jewelry section and its hefty price suggest that it might’ve been used as a hair ornament rather than for brushing the hair. No surviving ornamented combs have been found from the Middle Ages, but a few have been found from the modern era.

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