Under the Abbasids, expressions of high culture and etiquette became a prominent feature of the Abbasid court. Adherence to strict bureaucracy and order of protocol became the model emulated by court officials, military orders, and ministers. The finest manifestation of the hierarchical demarcation of power was materialized in dress. Each segment of society had a designated costume and even color that they must not deviate from. Sumptuary laws and cultural mores demanded that clergy, officialdom, the military, civilians, elite or common, and non-Muslims follow a certain dress code.

Abbasid urbanites in Baghdad became very fashion-oriented, paying special attention to their garments and being heavily concerned with their appearances. They layered multiple garments, each made from luxurious and fine fabrics. It’s noteworthy that the type of clothes and fabrics people wore relied heavily on their social and occupational status. Needless to say, upper-class Baghdadians wore more layers on top of each other, gaining access to the most sumptuous fabrics imported from expert textile stronghold countries at the time like India, China, Egypt, and Iran, while the lower working-class wore fewer layers and less expensive fabrics that were more practical to suit their labor-intensive professions.

Children wore the same attire as adults, but the key difference was that young boys and girls primarily wore small caps or hoods as head coverings. Pre-pubescent boys wore small turbans, whereas girls wore small veils or kerchiefs. Prepubescent girls didn’t veil their faces like older, married women. Kuffiyyah and Taqiyyah were small caps worn by young children as headwear.

The Abbasid Caliphate began in 750 CE and lasted until the Mongol sacking of Baghdad in 1258 CE (although it continued to enjoy a nominal status under the Mamluks until 1517 CE). It is not feasible to have a vestimentary system left without influence or change for a period lasting 500 years. We don’t have chronological iconographic evidence of the sartorial development of Abbasid fashion through each decade and century, beginning from the second half of the 8th century until the second half of the 13th century.

Also, despite a respectable amount of written primary sources on Abbasid attire sporadically mentioned by different authors from various literary disciplines (literature, poetry, travelogues, biographies, inspection manuals), there are no corresponding contemporary artistic sources.

The earliest Islamic art containing human depictions of Arabs during the Abbasid era began as early as the 12th–13th century, at a point of time when the Abbasid Caliphate had suffered great de-centralization and lost a significant amount of territories to other autonomous local dynasties, mostly of Turkic (Seljuk, Zengid, Ghazanvid, Mamluk) and Persian origin (Samanid, Buyid) and European Crusaders.

The Seljuk Turks began to dominate the political scene in the Middle East in the 11th century as Arab Abbasid control and influence began to wane significantly. The impact of the military Turkic dynasties on the region in the 12th–13th century was far too significant, especially with the dissemination of the costumes of the nomadic steppes into Abbasid dress, a far cry from the Arab-Persian styles of dress at the height of haute Abbasid fashion in the 9th–10th century described in literary sources.

Most Arabic illuminated manuscripts depicting Arab attire (Maqamat Al-Hariri, Kalila-wa-dimna, Discores de Medica, Kitab al-Haywan, Kitab na’t al-Haywan, and Risalat Da’wat Al-Atibba) were produced during the peak of Turkic rule and hegemony in the region in the 13th century.

The clothing seen in illustrations from books such as Kitab al-aghani and Kitab al-diryaq depicts clothing of the Turkic Seljuk court and may not accurately represent the attire worn by their Abbasid suzerains in Baghdad. There was also a separation between the dress of the Turkic ruling class and that of the common civilian class. The latter contained more “Arab-looking” garments, whereas the former was more ceremonial and had a lot of influences from Central Asia and the Steppes.

Yet, we do have imagery of Arab vestments from other local dynasties (Fatimid (973-1171) in Egypt, Caliphate of Cordoba (929–1031) in Spain) that split from Abbasid territorial control and established autonomous rule.

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The Arid climate of most of the Near East dictated certain styles and materials appropriate to wear. Loose-fitting clothing and body wraps were thus preferred. Linen, silk, and cotton were the ideal choice of materials for the climate of the eastern Mediterranean, as they were durable and cooling, especially during the summer.

Goitein mentions that Wool was infrequently used in garment making in 11th-century Egypt, especially in summer, since the heat is prone to cause vermin and other damage. Yet, garments were usually lined with fur or wool in winter for extra warmth. Islamic biographical compendia reference a plethora of garments made from woolen blends with other fibers. Elite urban dwellers and townspeople who had cultivated a taste for finer and more delicate fabrics developed an aversion to wool. The moneyed classes and caliphs were rarely seen wearing garments made out of pure wool, except for the austerely pious.

The only garments mentioned as being made from wool were the durrā’a (slit robe), ‘Aba’ (square cloak), and Jubba (robe), famously worn by the Bedouin Arabs. Also, people in destitute conditions (mystics, beggars, and hermits), the pious and devout believers, sported simple garments constructed from woolen rags.

Wool was the primary fiber source for the nomadic Bedouins dwelling in the desert, who relied on their livestock (sheep, camels, goats) for sustenance, shelter, and clothing. In early Islam, where the political Islamic state was still confined to the arid climate and scarce fiber sources of Arabia, a large portion of the clothing worn by the Prophet and his companions was made out of wool or woolen blends. High-quality woolen textiles were mainly used for domestic furnishings, tent-making, and curtains.

Cotton, unlike in Europe, was grown in abundance in the Middle East and was considered a common commodity. According to Goitein’s investigation of the Geniza, he found that Egyptian and Middle Eastern urbanites at large considered cotton to be of inferior quality. It was undesirable for its weak durability and was mostly used for other garments, such as working clothes, lining garments like cloaks and wraps made from other fibers, bedding, and outer garments for the poor and orphaned.

People of good means used silks and varieties of fine Egyptian linens for outer garments and undergarments like dabiqi, dimyati, Tinnisi, qasab, and shurub. Most of these linens were named after famous Egyptian cities where they were manufactured. Naturally, silk was afforded to the wealthy and the ruling elite and imported from expert countries in sericulture like Spain, Sicily, Iran, Syria, and even Tunisia.

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Certain garments became associated with certain professions or social statuses. Caliphs, ministers, qadis (judges), khutaba (Islamic sermon orators), soldiers, mystics, and low-level laborers each had a designated dress code differentiating them from the others. Outer garments in the Abbasid Caliphate had many Turco-Persian influences.

Thousands of garments were listed among the annual treasury receipts for Harun al-Rashid (ruled 786-809/170-193 A.H.). Upon the latter’s death, his son Al-Amin had an inventory taken of clothing, furnishings, vessels, and equipment in the caliphal storehouses. The clothing in these inventory lists is a good gauge of what the dress of an upper-class Abbasid urbanite consisted of. The clothes included: 4,000 embroidered qabāʾs, 4,000 ridāʾ of silk with golden embroidery, 4,000 ridāʾ of silk lined with sable, mink, and other furs, 10,000 qāmis, and ghilalas, 10,000 kaftans, 2,000 pairs of sirwal of different kinds, 4,000 ʿImāma, 1,000 cloaks, 1,000 hooded cloaks of different kinds, 5,000 kerchiefs of different kinds, 4,000 pairs of khuff, most of which were lined with sable, er furs, 4,000 pair of Jawārib.

The second Abbasid caliph and founder of Baghdad, Al-Mansur (r. 754–775), is supposed to have instituted the custom of wearing black robes and black clothes in general during court sessions, and on special occasions like royal processions and Islamic holidays. Also, Turco-Persian cultural influences became more pronounced, mainly through the adoption of more elements of Persian and Turkish court dress, which the entire caliphal court wore. Persian garments such as the Sirwāl, Jawārib, Qalansuwa ṭawīla, and Qabāʾ became the court dress standard, in addition to the Turkic Kaftān. 

The introduction of garments from Transoxania and the Eurasian Steppes, such as the kaftan, was the impetus for streamlining many Turkic/Central Asian influences into the Abbasid court. This was a byproduct of the influx of mercenary Turkic slave soldiers and concubines to the caliph’s harem, which had sociopolitical implications similar to the booming Persian cultural influence on the Abbasid court.

The costumes of the Arab conquerors living in Arabia, who had assimilated into the same Perso-Romanic cultural sphere, were not dissimilar from the manner of draped body garments and tunics worn by the preceding Roman conquerors. However, close-fitting and tailored garments like pants, jackets, and coats were an influence brought later from the Perso-Turkic boom in the Abbasid court.

In general, it may be said that the dress of Bedouins and town dwellers, except among the poorest, has as a rule differed. in contrast, fashions have altered not infrequently amongst townspeople, the dress of the dweller in the desert has remained over long periods without much alteration.¹ In a similar manner to other cultures in the Middle Ages, in the Islamic vestimentary, there was a distinction to be made between the different strata of society reflected in dress. 

B) Outer Garments

Abbasid Men:

The fashionable Abbasid man, according to Al-Waššāʾ, an Abbasid contemporary, outfitted himself in several layers of clothing, beginning with a fine ghilala (undershirt), over which was worn the heavier, lined qamiṣ. Both of these ought to be of fine linen, such as Dabīqī or jannābī (produced in Egypt and Fars, respectively). Over these tunics was worn a Barajirdi or Alexandrian lined robe (durrāʿa) or a Nishapur Jubba of linen, silk, or mulḥam (a fabric with a silk warp and wool of some other stuff). Finally, when going out, the fashion plate would drape over these, his Adeni ridāʾ or another cloak known as miṭraf from Sus, which had decorative borders at each end.

Headcoverings consisted of a turban (ʿImāma) with a Nishapur Ṭaylasan of mulḥam, which at this time was probably a cowl. Cotton miṭrafs and ones made of Armenian textiles decorated with figures were also considered fashionable outerwear.

1- Outer wraps الملاحف والأغطية

Izār إزار

The izār was a multi-purpose, ubiquitous garment worn by men and women alike. It served the dual function of an outdoor cloak and an undergarment like a sarong or loincloth for modesty. During the time of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid, the izār underwent a certain modification when he introduced a special wide-bordered and profusely decorated izār, known after him as izār Rašidiyya. The izār was the most common outdoor wrap for women. 

Ridāʾ رِداء

The ridāʾ was an outer cloak worn over the shoulder, covering the qamiṣ, draped and styled in different ways. Like the Umayyads, the Abbasid caliphs were fond of the ridāʾ and used it most of the year. Like the izār, the ridāʾ was also a common article of wear amongst men and women. A popular ridāʾ known as ridāʾ Rashidi (perhaps after the fashion of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid) was often embroidered with tiraz inscriptions and had contrasting bands as edgings, either gilded, embroidered, or woven.

2- Thawb/dir’ دِرع/ثوب

The thawb, an outer tunic or a robe, was an essential garment of every fashionable man. It came in a variety of patterns and colors. Men’s tunics seen in Arabic manuscript art mainly had a close-fitting, round neck opening and had either wide or tight sleeves with golden-colored tiraz armbands. The garment sleeves, necklines, and hems had edge decorations made from trims, embroidery, or bands made from silk or brocade. Some were even gilded and had tassels. Men’s tunics in manuscript art suggest that these thawbs have linings that give them some weight and heft.

There were essentially two methods of constructing a tunic. One was woven-to-shape construction based on the simple seaming of Coptic Egypt and the Arab lands, where they were woven in a large cross or T-shaped style with the sleeves shaped while the fabric was on the loom, and the selvages were joined to form horizontal or vertical seams. Starting from the 6th-7th century AD in Egypt, the other method was a more tailored construction where supplementary pieces of the material were sewn onto the basic panel width, a certain influence probably coming from Sassanid Persia.

Garments had little to no tailoring, according to Goitein. He adds that tailoring began with the weaver. “In Egypt, where garments were often woven in a single piece, requiring minimal sewing, the finished look of the outfit was left to a great extent in the hands of the weaver.” The tidbits extrapolated from the Geniza documents confirm this statement.

However, if we look at the hisba (market supervision) literature, it portrays that the Medieval Arabo-islamic world had a very sophisticated and organized textile industry and sartorial tradition. Each garment-making process has a specialized professional. Most manuals contain several chapters dedicated to identifying and eradicating fraudulent methods employed by textile workers and craftsmen, including clothiers. Garment-making had many specialists and sub-specialists such as the Spinner (ghazzal), weaver (ha’ik), dyer (sabbagh), tailor (khayyat), hemming and mending professional (rafaa’), embroiderer (tarraz), pattern professional (raqqam), launderer and fuller (qassar), batting professional (daqqaq)–the word daq meaning to beat or pound, washer (ghassal), starcher (nashab).

Similar to the modern-day version of the profession, the medieval tailor was to cut and sew the garment. We can infer, on a rudimentary basis, the tailoring methods of Near Eastern medieval people according to the precautionary instructions given by the inspectors on how to avoid fraudulent techniques employed by tailors.

In these manuals, the inspector (muhtasib) enjoins the tailors to “cut the garments as best as you can, close-fitting on the body, cut the necklines in the appropriate fit, and sew the sleeves and its hems evenly, make the gussets wide, sew with a sharp needle, and the stitches must be small and narrow so that the thread will not unravel if the thread is too long in each stitch, make the hems even and in an appropriate length.”

Another chapter addresses the cotton specializer (qattan), he instructs the cotton workers to clean and fluff the cotton vigorously to get rid of any debris, so it will not affect its weight, and if it’s used as padding for a Li’haf (blanket), Jubba (robe) or qaba (coat), rodents will not eat it.”

It seems that male and female tunics were identical in construction and style but varied in length, with women’s tunics tending to be longer, falling below the knee or at floor length. Men’s thawbs can be any length, below knee length, or shorter. The working class tended to wear shorter tunics, so that way, the clothing didn’t interfere with their work and saved up on the hassle of laundry. Long tunics could be worn but are pulled up and shortened by a girdle or belt at the waist.

Examples of the multiple decorations and colors of male overgowns (thawbs)

3- Burnous برنوس

Several contemporary Abbasid historical accounts state that the burnous (hooded cloak) became a common clothing item worn by men and women in the Abbasid period. Unfortunately, there are no contemporary illustrations depicting women wearing a burnous. However, according to an account, Jamila, the Umayyad court minstrel, wore a long burnous.

Some accounts by historians provide us with an unprecedented and unusual description of how the Burnous was worn. Several historians mention that people captured from the Kharijite sect were paraded in the city streets and forced to wear the Burnous as punishment. According to Al-Qurṭubi, a Kharijite was captured by the Abbasid caliph Al-Muktafi in 903 C.E. and was paraded with the rest of the prisoners tied on camels wearing durrāʿas and Burnouses made from silk. Although an existing garment in the Abbasid period, the burnous was more widely donned in the Arab West and Al-Andalus.

4- Jubba جُبَّة

The Jubba, a wide-sleeved outer robe, had been a long-used common outwear worn by all social classes and both men and women at this time. What differentiated them was the materials it was made from and the decoration. Upper-class people wore jubbas with long and wide sleeves made from the finest fabrics, heavily embroidered and embellished, whereas poor and lower-class people wore short jubbas, made from coarse and widely available fibers, with few to no patterns.

5- kaftān/Qufṭān قَفطان

The kaftān was a new article of clothing introduced to the Abbasid court through the booming Persian-Turkic influence in the Abbasid period (the original Persian word designates a cuirass). According to Dozy, it’s an elbow-length coat that’s open in the front with buttons, reaching knee-length or longer. One might note that Dozy’s 19th-century definition and observations on the garment came much later than when it was first introduced. So, the design and cut of the caftan could’ve differed significantly from its first introduction into the Arab world in the 9th or 10th century.

We don’t have any contemporary historical references to the cut or design of the garment in this period. The only extant Kaftan dating to the period is a child’s caftan found in 2009 in northwestern Tajikistan. It dates to the 7th–8th-century citadel site of Sanjar-Shah, at the edge of the village of Sudzhina, overlooking the Zerafshan River. It was made for a six- or seven-year-old child, the tailored bodice would have fit snuggly around the child’s upper body, with its sleeves reaching to the wrists. The attached, flared skirting would have fallen to the child’s knees. The front panels—with its frogging closures still intact—overlap, one over the other. The rectangular shape of the front panels allows the kaftan to be worn in a number of ways: buttoned to the neck, one lapel pulled open, or two lapels pulled open to form a V-shaped neckline. ³

Stiff, close-fitting decorated kaftans (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.

The “Afrasiab Murals,” which depict Turkish officials and courtiers in the 7th century, show these Turkish delegates (from the Western Turkic Khaganate) wearing lapel-collared open caftans or coats.

Iconographic representations from Nishapur, Iran (9th-10th), show figures clad in long-sleeved, open-collared coats with wide triangular skirts. Multiple 13th-century Maqamat manuscripts have several assemblies depicting Turkic rulers wearing similar open lapel-collar caftans with button-loop fasteners.

Since the later Middle Ages, the form qafṭān (variant qufṭān) has been used exclusively throughout the Arabic-speaking world, due to the Turkic influence, and it is from the latter that the word entered European languages as “kaftan/caftan”. It was usually worn under the qabāʾ or Jubba. The Qaftan was worn by the Abbasids, as mentioned by Al-Qurṭubi, who states that the caliph Al-Muqtadir (ruled 908-932/295-320 A.H.) wore a qaftan of Tustari silk brocaded with silver when he set out on his fatal march against the rebel Mu’nis in 932/320. 

6- Durrāʿa دُرَّاعة

A durrāʿa is a wide-sleeved, buttoned robe slit from the neck opening to below the chest or entirely open in the front. It greatly resembles the qaftan imported from Persia during the reign of Caliph Al-Muqtadir (908-932). Both garments evolved into the Turkish kaftan during the Ottoman Empire. However, during the Abbasid Caliphate, the durrāʿa had wide sleeves, and the kaftan had narrow sleeves. The durrāʿa, alongside the qabāʾ, Jubba, ʿImāma, Jawārib, and Khuffs, preferably in black color, was the Abbasid court dress standard. It was made out of several fabrics, mainly wool, but could be silk, Brocade, and ẖazz for wealthy people, whereas poor people wore durrāʿas made from hair. 

There seem to be conflicting reports on the construction of the durrāʿa, but it certainly had a neck-to-chest opening fastened with buttons and loops. To Levy, it was a tailored, tight-fitting tunic, but to Stillman and Ahsan, who follow Dozy‘s definition, it was a long, ample, lined robe with long, wide sleeves. Wool is mentioned frequently as the fabric used for the durrāʿa, but for court ceremonies, more luxurious textiles were employed. Al-Masudi (896-956) recounts a report during Al-Mu’tasim‘s reign where an Abbasid general named Al-Afshīn was gifted a red-colored brocade durrāʿa, embroidered with gold and decorated with jewels and sapphire around the chest area.

Illustration of a durrāʿa from Maqamat of al-Hariri, Bibliothèque nationale de France, manuscript Arabe 5847, 1237AD

7- Qabāʾ قَباء

The qabāʾ gained peak significance during the Abbasid period. It became the standard court dress for caliphs and high-ranking officials during court proceedings. The qabāʾ was turned into an ordinary article of wear amongst all social classes, made from different colors and materials. However, the black-colored qabāʾ was reserved solely for Abbasid court officials. Luxurious fabrics such as ẖazz or Mulḥam were favored as materials for the qabāʾ amongst Abbasid officials. The qabāʾ was described as tight-sleeved like “the clothing of the Armenians” and was cinched with a metal girdle or belt.

 Based on the illuminated manuscripts from the 13th century or earlier, we can discern that there were two styles of the qabāʾ, the vertical-closure qabāʾ and the wrap-over qabāʾ. The fastenings were either a button and loop or a tie-one strap.

A wide-sleeved qaba with front-closure buttons, from Maqamat Al-Hariri.

8- Minṭāq/ḥizām مِنطاق/حِزام

The Minṭāq/Niṭāq is a metal girdle made either from gold or silver. A custom practiced by the Arabs (and still practiced until modern times) was to don the ḥizām, meaning “belt” in Arabic, usually a cummerbund or a leather belt, tie it around, and insert their swords and daggers to hold it in place. One anecdotal expression sums up this custom perfectly: 

“As long as the Arabs wrap their turbans (ʿImāma) and don their daggers (ẖinjar), they are still Arabs.”

Al-Ahnaf ibn Qays

There were multiple ways to tie the ḥizām. One way is to tie it around the waist. Another way is in a crisscross motion. A third way is to tie it at an angle from one arm’s shoulder and fasten it under the armpit of the other. This is corroborated by the account of the Chinese traveler Du Huan, in his travel records, when he described the everyday life of Baghdadi people in the late 8th to early 9th century, commenting on the attire of men:

“… Men wear silver girdles with silver knives suspended.”

Du Huan

Abbasid Women:

Baghdadi women, like men, outfitted themselves in multiple layers of garments, sparing no expense in putting on the finest and most luxurious fabrics. Zubaidah bint Ja’far, the wife of the renowned “One Thousand and One Night” Muslim ruler, Harun Al-Rashid, and his half-sister, ‘Ulayya bint al-Mahdi, were influential female figures of their time and were said to have set many fashion trends and clothing styles that both noble and common women zealously imitated.

Persian influences on the male garments of Abbasid officialdom naturally seeped their way into Muslim women’s outerwear. The Abbasid woman included Persian styles in her wardrobe. Abbasid women began imitating the styles of Persian princesses with their ornamented coronets and headbands, flowing shawls, and vibrantly patterned robes.

Although Al-Asfahani informs us that the dress of women differed from that of men only in the omission of the turban. Al-Waššāʾ, however, states in his book that it differed both in kind and in color from that of men. Al-Waššāʾ does not provide as much detail in his chapter on female attire, which is devoted specifically to “those clothes which differ from those of fashionable men.” (As in earlier and later times, most items of clothing were worn by members of both sexes.) The distinctive feature of women’s gowns lay in their myriad colors and multiplicity of decoration.

Information about these gowns’ construction and sewing techniques is rarely documented in historical texts. But based on pictorial representation, we can discern they were made from basic square, rectangular, and triangular gusset shapes to avoid fabric waste with little tailoring methods. Ladies of the Caliphal court had their garments tailored explicitly for them either by a dedicated seamstress or in the court’s tiraz workshops, whereas poor women relied on hand sewing their garments from fabrics that were hand spun at home or store-bought if a little bit of cash was spared.

Fabric type, patterns, and embroidery depended on the woman’s socioeconomic standing. Bedouin and peasant women chose more abstract and simple motifs inspired by the surrounding environments for their embroidery. In contrast, women living in big metropolitan cities had more refined and sophisticated motifs and designs.

The color of a garment attaches all kinds of symbolism and meaning to the wearer. This symbolism changes across different eras and cultures. The wearing of white robes by Muslim women in the Abbasid period (typically the color for menswear and undergarments) symbolized that the wearer had been divorced or abandoned. Similarly, blue or black signified that the lady was suffering (muqarra’at) and was the color of mourning in the Muslim East, whereas white was in the Muslim West. Multi­-colored or striped fabrics were also considered unfavorable.

Clear distinctions were made between the garment colors of ladies of rank and elegance and of those who entertained. Slave merchants dressed their white female slaves in blue or roseate and their black girls in red and yellow ghilalas. Similar bright green, rose-pink, red, and yellow dyes were also used by singers, dancers, and other female entertainers. Al-Aghani tells us that a certain Abu Ishaq found the singing girls of Harun al-Rashid wearing bright rose-colored qamiṣ, sirwāl, and qina’, so it looked like a hyacinth had been placed upon a rose.

Du Huan, the first Chinese traveler to the Arab world, who recorded his visit during the Abbasid period, specifically in Kufa (in present-day Iraq), commented in his Jingxingji (Travel Records) on women’s attire:

“…The women [of the country] are tall and beautiful, with their clothes bright and clean. When a woman goes outdoors, she must veil her face.”

-Du Huan

1- Outer wraps الملاحف والأغطية

Cultural mores of modesty demanded that Muslim women envelop themselves with an overwrap or mantle over their garments when stepping outside. These mantles were made in a multitude of fabrics, colors, and patterns and were draped in various ways.

From antiquity, before the Arab conquests of the Mediterranean, body wraps were familiar garments to the average Mediterranean dweller. The Roman “Toga“, “himation“, “chlamys,” and “palla” were long, rectangular cloths that enwrapped the body, similar in function to the Arab “izār”, “Milḥafa”, and “ridāʾ”.

For her wraps, a 9–10th century Abbasid woman was to wear a Rashīdī or a Ṯabarī ridāʾ (from Rosetta and Tabaristan, respectively). She might then totally envelop herself in a Khurasānī izār of mulḥam. These outer mantles could be of striped or banded fine linen (shurūb muzannara) or of colored qaṣab (a fine line decorated with gold or silver) adorned with roundels of silk embroidery (ḥarīr mūʿayyan).

Women ought not to wear yellow, black, green, pink, or red except for fabrics that are naturally those colors, such as lādh (Chinese red silk), regular silk (ḥarīr), brocade (dibāj), and washy (embroidered silk). The proscribed colors were only worn by Nabatean (i.e., non-Muslim peasants) women, singing servant girls, or, in the case of white, by abandoned women of iron-black and blue, by women in mourning or distress. Women’s izār were more ornate and colorful than men’s. These wraps were made to the wearer’s measurements to ensure maximum coverage and modesty for women.

Al-Tabari, describing the raids on private houses that took place on Mutamid’s return from Samara, says that women were forced to flee into the streets without an izār.

Voluminous and enveloping wraps remained a stable fashion for the average female urbanite in the Islamized Mediterranean throughout the Middle Ages and into the Modern Age. Women could still be seen wearing these enveloping wrappers as late as the 20th century throughout major urban cities in the Arab world, like Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. In a rather interesting turn of events, it is Muslim women in the Islamized Mediterranean who have upheld the vestimentary traditions of Roman women in antiquity for hundreds of years, rather than their Roman counterparts in Mainland Europe who have discarded such fashions in favor of silhouette-defining bustles, crinolines, and corsets.

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2- Dīrʿ or thawb دِرع أو ثوب

Abbasid women wore a thawb (tunic) over their undershirts (qamiṣ or ghilala). Most medieval female figures illustrated in illuminated manuscripts are depicted wearing long-sleeved, ample tunics and dresses under their wraps. Illustrated manuscript artwork shows that these dresses were usually floor-length, and the sleeves were either tapered or rectangular and could be wide-sleeved or fitted. The cuffs, hems, arms, and necklines were decorated with ornamented golden bands.

3- Qabāʾ قَباء

The qabāʾ was reportedly worn by some slaves and noblewomen alike. The reason for this unusual occurrence can be understood from a contemporary report that Zubayda, caliph Harun al-Rashid’s wife, wishing to draw the attention of her son, Amin, to her jawari (slave-girls), ordered the girls to don the qabāʾ, the minṭāq, and the ʿImāma—a report which throws a little light on the attire of boys. Al Tabari recounts that Al-Banuqa (Caliph Al-Mahdi’s Daughter) wore a black qabāʾ and a minṭāq (waist sash) of muslin.

Iconographic sources, especially manuscript artworks such as the Book of Fixed Stars, from the 12th century onwards, increasingly feature female figures clad in diagonally-fastened garments with flowing overskirts and puffy or loose drawers. This corroborates the prominence of the Turkic styles of fitted cross-over garments in the region, even for women.

4- Kaftān قَفطان

There is very little to no representation of Abbasid Arab women wearing kaftans in the Abbasid period, however, 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. Since we’ve pointed out the resemblance between the male and female dress, we can safely say that the Kaftan was also worn by women in the caliphal courts and wives of high viziers, probably those belonging to the ruling Turkic military dynasties that dominated the Middle East.

A frontispiece from Kitab al-aghani shows an all-female party dressed in open-lapel kaftan coats and adorned with all kinds of jewelry and headbands. The female constellations in the Book of fixed stars are depicted in open-lapel collar garments. Both the qabāʾ and Kaftan were more likely reserved for court ladies rather than common women. Trousseau’s list from the Middle Ages (11th-13th century) doesn’t contain mentions of qaftans within the clothing items brought by brides, even those of affluent status.

5- Durrāʿa دُرَّاعة

This wide-sleeved gown was referenced in literary sources as an outer garment for Abbasid women. Al-wassa’ mentioned that he saw a slavegirl wearing a durra’a mulham (a gown of a velvet-like fabric) with a silken taranin (a type of pattern) and libna sousan-gird (collar of a kind of fabric made in Khuzistan in Persia). He mentions another slavegirl named Banan, belonging to al-khaizaran, which she wrote on the taranin pattern of her durra’a with gold (bi-thahab).

7– wišāḥ وشاح

Rather than a hizam, women’s belts were called wishah. These belts were worn criss-cross from each other, and were profusely bejeweled with gems and pearls.

1. Levy, R. (1935). Notes on Costume from Arabic Sources. The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 2, 319–338.  ↩︎
2. Hoffman, Eva R. 2008. Between East and West: The Wall Paintings of Samarra and the Construction of Abbasid Princely Culture. In Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World XXV. 107-132. ↩︎
3. https://sogdians.si.edu/sanjar-shah-kaftan/ ↩︎
4. https://sogdians.si.edu/sanjar-shah-kaftan/ ↩︎