Find the perfect fit with Amazon Prime. Try Before You Buy.
An extract from Encyclopaedia Iranica with added links to illustrations & sources.
The decorated caftan retained its popularity as a male garment into the 5th/11th century and can be seen in the wall paintings from one of the Ghaznavid palaces at Laškarī Bāzār in central Afghanistan, probably built by Masʿūd I (421-32/1030-41). On the inner faces of the piers in the throne room were painted friezes of richly dressed nobles, probably originally sixty of them, in stiff coats, which close diagonally from right to left and have lapels only on the right of the openings. The single lapel appeared at Balalyk Tepe in Sogdiana perhaps as early as the 5-6th centuries and occurs side by side with double lapels at Qïzïl (T. T. Rice, pp. 101 fig. 83,97 fig. 112[p.112 fig. 96], fig. 112,180 fig. 190[p.190 fig 179]) It seems that this Central Asian fashion was continued at Laškarī Bāzār. The caftans are worn over elaborate undergarments and are embellished with inscribed ṭerāz borders on the upper arms (Schlumberger, 1952, pls. XXXI, XXXII/1). They are belted with thonged girdles, from which small objects are suspended. Full trousers and high boots complete the outfit. Schlumberger (1952, p. 264) suggested that such inscribed garments were robes of honor presented by Muslim rulers to members of their retinues or to important allies. As details of the caftans, belts, and boots were apparently imported from Chinese Turkestan, he concluded (1952, p. 267) that these figures represent the Ghaznavid sultan’s Turkish bodyguard. A soft headdress resembling a turban in a wall painting from room IV in the same palace (Schlumberger, 1952, pl. XXXII/2) is also paralleled in Central Asia, in a wall painting at Bäzäklik of the 8th or 9th century (Bussagli, p. 110).Few representations of either male or female dress seem to have survived from the period after the advent of the Saljuq dynasty (429/1038) in Persia through the early 6th/12th century. Illustrations in a manuscript of Ṣūfī’s treatise dated 525/1130-31 (Topkapı Sarayı, Istanbul, Ahmet III 3493) demonstrate some modernization of male dress in the century and a quarter since the Bodleian manuscript had been copied; although the basic forms of the turban and tunic remained the same, a belt with thongs for suspending weapons had been added (Wellesz, pl. 18/45). Silver belt ornaments from a Saljuq hoard said to have been found at Nehāvand (Gray, p. 75, pl. XXXII) attest that this type was still worn at the end of the 6th/12th century.
Continuity of dress styles between the two Ṣūfī manuscripts can, however, be assumed on the basis of representations on 11th-12th-century pottery, ivories, wall paintings, and woodwork from Fatimid Egypt, where Persian garments like the flat turban had a strong influence (Lane, pl. 26B; Atıl, p. 128 no. 57; Kühnel, 1971, p. 229 fig. 194; Ettinghausen, 1942, p. 123 fig. 23; Jenkins, fig. 6). It is shown, particularly on luster-painted pottery, along with the familiar embroidered caftan decorated with brassards and worn over boots. These garments differ from their Persian prototypes, however, in their wider sleeves and complex, polygonal necklines, a style peculiar to Fatimid Egypt (Lane, pl. 26B; Atıl, p. 128 no. 57; Ettinghausen, 1942, fig. 23). A taste for loose robes with wide sleeves seems to have had no parallel in Persia, though the surviving evidence is scant. Laborers and hunters in Fatimid art are shown wearing either short decorated tunics with sleeve bands and short underskirts or longer robes tucked up for greater freedom of movement (Kühnel, 1971, p. 229 fig. 194; idem, 1929, p. 408 fig. 404), costumes that may be traceable to styles depicted in the early 4th/11th-century Ṣūfī manuscript. A complex series of paintings on the ceiling of the Cappella Palatina at Palermo in Sicily, dated to about 534/1140, also attest the continuity of earlier styles of male dress: rounded turbans and long robes with sleeves and brassards worn with full trousers like those of the Fatimids (Ettinghausen, 1942, figs. 7-8; idem, 1962, p. 45). A three-pointed crown of reversed heart-shaped leaf forms is represented several times; it is reminiscent of ornate crowns depicted in the wall paintings from Panjīkant (Ettinghausen, 1962, p. 45; idem, 1942, fig. 7; Belenitsky, 1968, fig. 142).
Representations of women are also common on luster pottery and wall paintings of Fatimid Egypt. They, too, wear jeweled diadems and headdresses derived from Sasanian royal crowns or the fillets of dancers from silver vessels (Grube, 1968, p. 13 fig. 4; Philon, pl. XXIIA; D. T. Rice,
p. 127 fig. 93). The women wear loose, decorated robes with wide sleeves banded with ṭerāz and polygonal necklines, similar to those worn by men. The robes may be girt with jeweled belts and worn over wide trousers (Grube, 1968, p. 13 fig. 4; Philon, pls. XXIIA, XXV; Robinson, pl. 3/1.7; D. T. Rice,p. 127 fig. 93).The number of surviving illustrations of costume from the late 6th/12th and early 7th/13th centuries, the period of the small dynasties that succeeded the Great Saljuqs in Persia, is much greater, especially for men and women of high rank. Representations on ceramics and metalwork, as well as in wall paintings, manuscript miniatures, and stucco sculptures, permit a fairly comprehensive description of the clothing worn at court, among which new styles probably introduced by the Saljuqs were combined with older fashions.
Most characteristic for high-ranking men was a stiff, decorated caftan closing diagonally from right to left. D. S. Rice identified this garment as a qabāʾ (1953, p. 133; see xxvii, below), and L. A. Mayer suggested that the closing from the right was specifically Turkish, in contrast to the closing from the left, which he believed characterized “Tartar,” or Mongol, robes (p. 21). In fact, the closing from the right was typical of Persian caftans, worn with high boots, from the last decades of the Sasanian dynasty through the early centuries of Islam and also paralleled in Central Asian examples (see above). In the Turkish period the version with narrow sleeves and wide skirt was the single most important male garment. It is depicted in an early 7th/13th-century illustrated manuscript of Varqa wa Golšāh by ‛Ayyūqī and on contemporary pottery without decoration other than gold arm bands, which appear to have been very common (Ateş, pls. 1/2-3, 5/13, 15; Atıl, pp. 82 no. 35, 92 no. 40, 100 no. 44). It sometimes closed vertically in front, with jeweled borders; the brassards were inscribed “the faithful” (al-moʾmenīn) or a similar expression; there might also be shoulder ornaments similar to epaulettes (plate xc), recalling late Sasanian and Central Asian embellishments at Ṭāq-e Bostān and Panjīkant (Fukai and Horiuchi, I, pl. LXVI; T. T. Rice, p. 108 fig. 91).
Nevertheless, the most distinctive feature of late Saljuq and post-Saljuq male dress was the popularity of patterned textiles for these garments. On pottery simple patterns of dots or groups of three dots (also a conventional textile pattern on Sasanian silver vessels) appear, as well as more complex patterns of tiny scrolls or arabesques of palmettes and half palmettes, some of them even incorporating figures (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 640B, 642, 643A-B, 651, 653, 673B; Atıl, pp. 68 no. 28, 72 no. 30, 78 no. 33, 102 no. 45, 104 no. 46). Various stripes and overall geometric patterns were also common (Lane, pl. 68; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 652, 654, 656A, 657A, 666-68; Atıl, pp. 78 no. 33, 84 no. 36, 96 no. 42). That these patterns do not merely represent ceramic conventions is clear from the rendering of garments in fragmentary wall paintings and in illustrations from the copy of Varqa wa Golšāh already mentioned, as well as in frontispieces to the volumes of Abu’l-Faraj Eṣfahānī’s Ketāb al-aḡānī dated 614-16/1217-19 and to two copies of Ketāb al-deryāq (Book of antidotes) by Pseudo-Galen, dated 596/1199 and ascribed to the second quarter of the 7th/13th century respectively (Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 554A-B; Ateş, pls. 1/3, 6/16, 18; D. S. Rice, 1953, figs. 14-19; Ettinghausen, 1962, pp. 65, 85, 91). The last three manuscripts, all of them attributed to northern Mesopotamia, show that the stiff coat with diagonal closing and arm bands was also worn in that region from the end of the 6th/12th century. The wavy patterning on some garments represents a local convention for rendering folds. The same garment was also depicted on contemporary inlaid metalwork from the same area (Du Ry, pp. 116-17; Guest and Ettinghausen, figs. 11-16). A variant of this coat had wide sleeves, similar to the robes known from Fatimid Egypt and the ceiling of the Cappella Palatina. Versions made from decorated textiles and with ṭerāz bands are depicted on contemporary Persian ceramics and in the illustrated Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript (Lane, pls. 55A, 58B, 68A; Atıl, 102 no. 45; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 641B, 687; Ateş, pls. 6/18, 10/27). They also appear on late 6th/12th-century metalwork (Baer, figs. 3-4), worn open at the neck with two lapels; though made of undecorated textiles, they are adorned with arm bands.
The dress for men of high station included a variety of head coverings, some of them harking back to older styles, others clearly of Saljuq Turkish derivation. The turban, which had been the most characteristic headgear for Muslim men since the Omayyad period, continued to be worn by men of importance, its larger size and typical flat-topped silhouette echoing those of the turbans depicted in the early 5th/11th-century Ṣūfī manuscript (see above). Turbans constructed from either plain or decorated lengths of cloth are illustrated on pottery and metalwork of the late 6th/12th and early 7th/13th centuries (Atil, p. 72 no. 30; Lane, pls. 52C, 55A, 58B, 63A; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 642, 643B, 672, 686, 693; Guest and Ettinghausen, figs. 12-16, 73). In illustrations from the autograph Persian translation of Ṣūfī’s text by Ṭūsī (597-672/1201-74), dated 647/1249-50 (Topkapı Sarayı, Istanbul, Aya Sofya 2595), the turbans are even larger and more elaborate, adorned with ṭerāz bands inscribed in Kufic (plate xci; Wellesz, figs. 46, 48). Although no pictorial depictions of turbans with ṭerāz bands have survived from before this period, it is mentioned in historical sources that the late 4th/10th-century Fatimid caliphs wore them (Serjeant, 1972, p. 158). Smaller, more rounded turbans, sometimes with long ends dangling, are depicted in the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript (Ateş, pls. 1/1-3, 6/17-18, 7/20, 10/27, 11/32, 13/38); this type seems to have been much more common in the Arabic-speaking countries, where it, too, grew larger with the passage of time. In fact, despite the continuing use of the turban in Persia at the end of the 6th/12th and early 7th/13th centuries, it seems not to have been as popular there as in Syria and northern Mesopotamia. In contemporary manuscripts from the latter areas a great variety of styles not known from Persia are illustrated (Ettinghausen, 1962, pp. 75-77, 79, 87, 97, 106-07, 113-14, 116, 118-19).
In Persian art courtiers are also depicted wearing the winged crown. Although ultimately derived from the Sasanian royal ceremonial headdress and subsequently adopted by Omayyad rulers (see, e.g., the stucco figure from Qaṣr al-Ḥayr al-Ḡarbī), by the late 6th/12th century it had lost its royal connotations and become a decorative headdress for the nobility. In both ceramic and stucco representations it is shown as a pair of wings flanking a jewel in the shape of a lotus bud or placed above jeweled fillets (plate xc; Atıl, pp.
188[118] no. 52, 120 no. 53; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 687, 707C).Among the new styles of headgear in Persia at this time were a variety of caps and hats of different shapes and sizes, ranging from small decorated creased or dented hats (Atıl, p. 68 no. 28) to flat caps with or without central knobs (Atıl, pp. 78 no. 33, 82 no. 35) to those with fur brims or made completely of fur (Atıl, p. 94 no. 41; Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 653). Flat hunting caps trimmed with fur are depicted on Saljuq wall paintings from Nīšāpūr (Wilkinson, 1986, fig. 28). Other headdresses were taller and slightly conical, with brims, or more similar to the modern fez, with finials (Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 643B, 646A, 688A; Atıl, p. 110 no. 50). Similar small hats with knobs and upturned brims were illustrated in wall paintings (Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 554) and in the illustrated Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript (Ateş, fig. 27), where fur-trimmed conical caps (plate xcii) and a tall forked headdress of curious shape (Ateş, pl. 1/3; İpşiroğlu, fig. 16) also occur. Tall, rounded caps with palmette-shaped cockades on the side or in front are also worn by courtiers in the frontispieces to the Ketāb al-aḡānī manuscript from northern Mesopotamia (e.g., Ettinghausen, 1962, p. 65). That these new types of headgear, rounded or pointed in outline, conical or brimmed, were introduced by the Turks is clear from earlier representations of similar forms at such Central Asian sites as Qïzïl, Dandan Öiliq, Bäzäklik, and Panjīkant (Grünwedel, 1920, pls. XXVII, XLIX; Le Coq, 1926, pl. 20; Whitfield, pl. 69; Belenitsky, 1968, fig. 144; Seyrig, pl. II).
The most distinctive headdress worn by rulers and courtiers was a conical cap with a wide fur band that also bordered a tall, rounded metal plaque in the front (plate xciii). It is illustrated on both glazed and unglazed ceramics from Persia and northern Mesopotamia (Lane, pls. 37B, 63A, 64B, 68A, 78A; Atıl, p. 96 no. 42; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 651, 672, 675, 688, 708). In the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript, on the other hand, the plaque is much taller than in the pottery representations, and the cap itself is often even taller, resembling the qalansowa ṭawīla (Ateş, pls. 13/36, 14/39). In northern Mesopotamia and Syria this cap, as illustrated in the Ketāb al-aḡānī frontispieces and in the two copies of Ketāb al-deryāq already mentioned, as well as in several contemporary manuscripts of the Maqāmāt (Assemblies) by Ḥarīrī, was low and rounded, hidden by the taller plaque (Ettinghausen, 1977, pp. 65, 91; D. S. Rice, 1953, figs. 16-19; Buchthal, fig. 6). D. S. Rice (1953, p. 133) identified it with the šarbūš favored by the Zangids, a Turkish dynasty that ruled parts of northern Mesopotamia and Syria (521-619/1127-1222), and their successors (cf. Mayer, p. 28). It is difficult to trace the earlier history of this cap. Hats with rectangular plaques in both front and back, which may have been trimmed with fur (Le Coq, 1926, pl. 20), were depicted on the 3rd/9th-century wall paintings at Bäzäklik and may have been early versions of the Turkish šarbūš.
Finally, a characteristic fashion for rulers and men of high rank in the late 6th/12th and early 7th/13th centuries was tall boots, a natural choice of footgear for nomadic peoples, with a long tradition in Persia, from the Achaemenid period onward (see v, above). It is difficult to determine the form of the boots from post-Saljuq representations, as the tops are almost always hidden under the hems of the caftans. They were slim, close-fitting, with slightly pointed toes, and seem to have been made of soft leather (plate xciii). On pottery they are shown in a variety of colors: black, brown, red, blue, and green (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 668D, 686, 687, 705; Atıl, p. 100 no. 44), and some seem to have been patterned with scrolls, rosettes, and spirals (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 653, 651). In a few instances it is possible to glimpse the complete form of these boots, which rise to single points at the knees (Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 705), recalling the boots worn by servants in the Sasanian Boar Hunt relief at Ṭāq-e Bostān (Fukai and Horiuchi, I, pls. XXV, XLIII) and those depicted on post-Sasanian silver vessels (Harper, 1981, pls. 19, 27, 36). They were probably derived from Central Asian examples like those represented at Qïzïl, Dandan Öiliq, Fondukistan, Bäzäklik, and Panjīkant (Le Coq, 1928, pp. 116; Bussagli, pp. 57, 59, 80; Ghirshman, 1962, p. 32 fig. 430; Belenitsky, 1968, figs. 143-44) and on a Sogdian silver plate (T. T. Rice, p. 115 fig. 101).
On two ceramic pieces the pointed boot tops are elongated to form straps, which were apparently attached to inner belts in the manner of the leggings worn by the Parthians and Sasanians (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 672, 686; see v, above). That the boots illustrated in the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript were attached in this way is clear from battle scenes, in which the displacement of the coat reveals a broad thong reaching from the knee to an inner belt (plate xciii; Ateş, pls. 1/2, 2/4, 4/11, 5/13, 9/24; İpşiroğlu, fig. 17; Melikian-Chirvani, opp. p. 99, fig. 38). This method of securing boots was certainly of Central Asian origin and is represented in 6th-7th-century sculptures from Fondukistan, and 8th-9th-century wall paintings from Bäzäklik (Ghirshman, 1962, p. 321 fig. 430; Le Coq, 1913, pl. 22). Although the man’s caftan was almost always worn with trousers tucked into boots, the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript shows wide pantaloons worn outside (Ateş, pl. 11/32).
Male figures of lower social status are not represented wearing caftans and boots. In the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript the butcher and the baker are unshod and bare to the waist, wearing only loose white trousers (Ateş, pl. 1/1). Foot soldiers and attendants are shown in wrapped leggings or loose pantaloons and short jerkins (Ateş, pls. 8/21, 15/42). Varqa himself wears only loose pantaloons after being taken captive, apparently the usual garb for prisoners (Ateş, pl. 4/11; Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 692B; Grube, 1976, pl. 142). In the Ketāb al-deryāq manuscript of 596/1199 laborers and gardeners wear either knee-length trousers with bare torsos or short tunics without trousers (Ettinghausen, 1962, pp. 84, 85); on contemporary metalwork from the same region they wear short trousers with tunics tucked up and caught at the waist (D. S. Rice, 1949, p. 338 fig. D; idem, 1957, fig. 11). Although these workmen are often bareheaded, they also wear a variety of hats: tall conical bonnets with upturned brims (D. S. Rice, 1949, p. 338 fig. D), small pointed caps (D. S. Rice, 1957, fig. 11), and tiered caps (Ettinghausen, 1962, p. 85). One distinctive headdress that seems peculiar to northern Mesopotamia is a tall pointed hat with a broad brim, suitable for shading the face from the sun. It is seen on illustrations of gardeners and laborers on both inlaid metalwork and the later Ketāb al-deryāq manuscript (D. S. Rice, 1949, p. 338 fig. D; Ettinghausen, 1962, p. 91). In the same manuscript it is also worn as a traveling hat by horsemen wearing the decorated caftan associated with high rank (Ettinghausen, 1962, p. 91); on an inlaid ewer from Anatolia it is worn by a hunter (Allen, pl. 7, detail, p. 60).
A few figures are also shown clad in either loose or tight trousers of a richer sort, decorated with patterns and worn with elaborate short tunics. They include fallen enemies and fantastic winged creatures (Atıl, p. 112 no. 50; Lane, pl. 69A), as well as men engaged in enigmatic physical activities, perhaps acrobatics or dance (Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 712).
Representations of women in the 6th/12th and early 7th/13th centuries, though far more numerous than in earlier periods, are sometimes difficult to distinguish from beardless youths, as they also wear decorated, stiff caftans with narrow sleeves and diagonal closings from right to left (Atıl,
99[94] no. 41, 96 no. 42, 104 no. 46, 120 no. 53; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 672, 689). These caftans are ornamented in the same way as those of their male counterparts, with arm bands and patterns of dots, scrolls, geometric, and figural designs. Robes with wide sleeves, recalling Fatimid examples (plate xciv), were apparently more popular for women than for men (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 641 B, 653, 693). Indeed, all female figures in the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript wear them, whereas the men almost always have narrow sleeves (plate xcii; Ateş, pls. 1/2-3, 5/15, 6/17-18, 7/19, 9/25-26, 10/28-29). These robes are sometimes worn under open, patterned coats with wide sleeves (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 651, 691 A, 720A). The woman’s caftan is sometimes shown open below the waist, revealing either wide white trousers or striped or plaid pantaloons underneath (plate xcii, plate xciv; Ateş, pls. 1/2-3, 5/15, 7/19, 10/28-29, 11/31, 14/39 and 41, 15/43; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 652, 664, 672), a garment that had first been adopted by women in the early years of the Omayyad period (see above).Women of the court are depicted wearing small, pointed slippers in the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript (plate xcii; Ateş, pls. 1/2-3, 7/19, 10/28-29, 11/31, 15/43). On pottery one slipper may be worn while the other foot is shown bare with a tattooed or hennaed design and an anklet (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 651, 652, 653). Boots were seldom worn by female figures, though they do appear occasionally on ceramics (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 641, 672; Atıl,
10[120] no. 53).Women of the court wore a variety of hair ornaments, crowns, and hats. Perhaps the most characteristic headdress, shown on pottery, on metalwork, and in manuscript illustrations, was a jeweled diadem ornamented in front with a round lotus bud or a trefoil-shaped jewel and sometimes bound with long, decorated ribbons (Atıl, pp. 94 no. 41, 104 no. 46; Lane, pls. 59B, 84A; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 641 B, 646 B, 651, 693; Grube, 1976, p. 183; Du Ry, p. 116). Such hair ornaments are worn by women in the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript (İpşiroğlu, fig. 16; Ateş, pls. 1/3, 13/38), the Ketāb al-aḡānī frontispieces, and the Ketāb at-deryāq of 595/1199 (D. S. Rice, 1953, fig. 17-19; D. T. Rice, 1965, pl. I, opp. frontispiece). They are very similar to those depicted on the female constellations in the early 5th/11th-century Ṣūfī manuscript (see above; Wellesz, pls. 3/6, 5/10, 6/11-12), which were ultimately derived from the diadems of dancers on late Sasanian silver vessels (Grabar, 1967, pls. 19-22).
A small flat cap adorned with a jewel or plaque in front or tied with ribbons was also a popular feminine style (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 653, 672; Lane, pl. 68A; Atıl, p. 96 no. 42). Other headdresses resembled those worn by men: round caps, flat hats with central knobs, and “fezes.” It is this similarity in particular that makes it difficult to distinguish between male and female representations (Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 641 B, 664, 666, 688, 703; Atıl, pp. 120 no. 53, 121); only when the figures are represented wearing the characteristic tiered and looped earrings is it certain that they are female (plate xcii; Survey of Persian Art V, pls. 641, 646, 652, 690, 691). These hats, which originated in Central Asia, are worn by female donor figures in wall paintings at Qïzïl (Grünwedel, 1920, pl. XXVII). The winged crown derived from Sasanian prototypes was also worn by high-ranking women. It is represented on ceramics, in the frontispiece to the 7th/13th-century Ketāb al-deryāq, and in the Persian translation of Ṣūfī’s text (plate xciv; Atıl, p. 120 no. 53; Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 687; D. T. Rice, 1965, pl. I opp. frontispiece; Wellesz, pl. 20/49). In the Ṣūfī manuscript the constellation wearing the winged crown is Andromeda, represented as a dancer or court entertainer. She is dressed in a fitted tunic, closing from right to left and belted with a sash; wide, floating trousers; pointed slippers; and a wealth of jewelery, including a necklace with pendant, earrings, two bracelets on each wrist, and anklets. The richness of her ornaments links this figure to dancers on Sasanian and post-Sasanian silver vessels and in Omayyad and early ‛Abbasid representations, though in the late 6th/12th and early 7th/13th centuries such dancers were more fully clothed.
In illustrations winged figures unfurling canopies above the heads of rulers or shown in conjunction with important personages are also dressed as court dancers. On ceramics they are usually shown wearing the jeweled diadem, slippers, wide trousers, and decorated tunics (Survey of Persian Art V, pl. 686). In the frontispiece to the Ketāb al-deryāq of 596/1199 such figures are dressed in brightly colored tunics tied up with sashes in front to allow greater freedom of movement; these tunics are decorated with arm bands and scrolled patterns and are worn over loose trousers with flaring cuffs in contrasting patterned textiles (D. T. Rice, 1965, pl. I, opp. frontispiece). The figures also wear elaborate jewelry. The central seated figure in the frontispiece is clad in the same way, with the addition of an elaborate loose coat with little underneath. In the Ketāb al-aḡānī frontispieces similar winged figures are shown in rich tunics and pantaloons (D. S. Rice, 1953, figs. 16-19).
In this period women were sometimes represented wearing scarves wound round their heads and draped over their shoulders, as in an illustration of Cassiopeia in the Ṣūfī manuscript dated 647/1249-50 (Wellesz, pl. 20 fig. 51) and in the Varqa wa Golšāh manuscript, where it seems to characterize Golšāh’s mother and older women in general (Ateş, pls. 9/26, 10/29). In images on ceramics this scarf may be shown pulled up to veil the lower half of the face, especially during travel (Lane, pl. 62B); in one miniature from the 7th/13th-century Ketāb al-deryāq women traveling by camel are shown with their veils secured by headbands (Ettinghausen, [1962], p. 91).
It is clear from these examples that Persian clothing during the first six centuries of Islamic rule was strikingly conservative. Although new styles were introduced, especially after the advent of the Turks, innovative fashions in headgear and elaborate jewelry under the Saljuqs altered the basic form of Persian costume very little. There was also a definite trend toward a more androgynous mode of dress; in the 6/12th and 7th/13th centuries the caftan was worn as often by females as males, and women adopted such previously male accessories as boots and certain headdresses. Nevertheless, despite this shift, the traditional nature of Persian clothing remained fundamentally unchanged. The stiff, decorated caftan worn with boots and pantaloons, retained from late Sasanian and Central Asian fashions, continued to be worn by high-ranking men and women in Persia until the advent of the Mongols and even afterward (see vii, below).
Bibliography:
J. W. Allen, Islamic Metalwork. The Nuhad es-Said Collection, London, 1982.
M. Almagro et al.,Qosayr[Qusayr] ‛Amra. Residencia y baños [omeyas] en el desierto de Jordania, Madrid, 1975.
The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, 1982.
A. Ateş, “Un vieux poème romanesque persan. Récit de Warqah et Gulshāh,” Ars Orientalis 4, 1961, pp. 143-52. PDF from Notes du Mont Royal
E. Atıl, Ceramics from the World of Islam, Washington, D.C., 1973.
E. Baer, “An Islamic Inkwell in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” in R. Ettinghausen, ed., Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1972.
M. Belenitsky, Central Asia, Cleveland, 1968.
Idem, Monumental’noe iskusstvo Pyandzihikenta, Moscow, 1973.
H. Buchthal, “Hellenistic" Miniatures in Early Islamic Manuscripts,” Ars Islamica 7, 1940, pp. 125-33.
M. Bussagli, Painting of Central Asia, Geneva, 1963.
J. Du Ry, Art of Islam, New York, 1970.
R. Ettinghausen, “Painting in the Fatimid Period. A Reconstruction,” Ars Islamica 9, 1942, pp. 112-24.
Idem, Arab Painting, Geneva, 1962.
Idem, From Byzantium to Sasanian Iran and the Islamic World, Leiden, 1972.
S. Fukai and K. Horiuchi, Taq-i-Bustan, 2 vols., Tokyo, 1969-72.
R. Ghirshman, “Notes iraniennes V. Scènes de banquet sur l’argenterie sassanide,” Artibus Asiae 16, 1953, pp. 51-76.
Idem, Persian Art. The Parthian and Sassanian Dynasties, New York, 1962.
Idem, “Notes iraniennes XIII. Trois épées sassanides,” Artibus Asiae 26, 1963, pp. 293-311.
O. Grabar, Sasanian Silver. Late Antique and Early Mediaeval Arts of Luxury from Iran, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1967.
B. Gray, “A Seljuk Hoard from Persia,” The British Museum Quarterly 13, 1939, pp. 73-79.
E. J. Grube, The Classical Style in Islamic Painting, New York, 1968.
Idem, Islamic Pottery of the 8th to the 15th century in the Keir Collection, London, 1976.
A. Grünwedel, Altbuddhistiche Kultstätten in Chinesisch-Turkistan, Berlin, 1912.
Idem, Alt-Kutscha, Berlin, 1920.
G. D. Guest and R. Ettinghausen, “The Iconography of a Kāshān Luster Plate,” Ars Orientalis 4, 1961, pp. 25-64.
R. W. Hamilton, Khirbet al Mafjar. An Arabian Mansion in the Jordan Valley, Oxford, 1959.
P. O. Harper, The Royal Hunter. Art of the Sasanian Empire, New York, 1978.
Idem, Silver Vessels of the Sasanian Period I. Royal Imagery, New York, 1981.
E. Herzfeld, Die Ausgrabungen von Samarra III. Die Malereien von Samarra, Berlin, 1927.
Idem, Iran in the Ancient East, New York, 1941.
M. S. İpşiroğlu, Das Bild im Islam, Vienna and Munich, 1971.
M. Jenkins, “An 11th-Century Woodcarving from a Cairo Nunnery,” in R. Ettinghausen, ed., Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1972.
A. Jeroussalimskaja, “Le cafetan aux simourghs du tombeau de Mochtchevaja Balka (Caucase septentrional),” Studia Iranica 7, 1978, pp. 183-211.
T. S. Kawami, Monumental Art of the Parthian Period, Leiden, 1987.
E. R. Knauer, “Toward a History of the Sleeved Coat. A Study of the Impact of an Ancient Near Eastern Garment on the West,” Expedition 21, 1978, pp. 18-36.
E. Kühnel, Die islamische Kunst, Leipzig, 1929.
Idem, The Minor Arts of Islam, New York, 1971.
A. Lane, Early Islamic Pottery, New York, 1948.
A. von Le Coq, Chotscho, Berlin, 1913.
Idem, Die buddhistische Spätantike in Mittelasien IV. Die Wandmalereien, Berlin, 1924.
Idem, Buried Treasures of Chinese Turkestan, London, 1926.
L. A. Mayer, Mamluk Costume, Geneva, 1952.
A. Melikian-Chirvani, “Le Roman de Varqe et Golšâh,” Arts Asiatiques 22, 1970, pp. 1-262.
E. H. Peck, “The Representations of Costumes in the Reliefs of Taq-i Bustan,” Artibus Asiae 31, 1969, pp. 101-46.
H. Philon, Benaki Museum Athens. Early Islamic Ceramics, 9th to Late 11th Centuries I, Westerham, Eng., 1980.
D. S. Rice, “The Oldest Dated "Mosul" Candlestick A.D. 1225,” The Burlington Magazine 91, 1949, pp. 334-40.
Idem, “The Aghani Miniatures and Religious Painting in Islam,” The Burlington Magazine 95, 1953, pp. 128-34.
Idem, “Inlaid Brasses from the Workshop of Aḥmad al-Dhakī al-Mawṣilī,” Ars Orientalis 2, 1957, pp. 283-326.
D. T. Rice, Islamic Art, New York, 1965.
T. T. Rice, Ancient Arts of Central Asia, New York, 1965.
B. W. Robinson et al., The Keir Collection. Islamic Painting and the Arts of the Book, London, 1976.
J. M. Rosenfield, The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans, Los Angeles, 1969.
B. Rowland, The Art and Architecture of India, Baltimore, 1954.
D. Schlumberger, “Les Fouilles de Qasr el-Heir el-Gharbi (1936-38),” Syria 20, 1939, pp. 324-73.
Idem, “Deux fresques omeyyades,” Syria 25, 1946-48, pp. 86-102.
Idem, “Le palais ghaznévide de Lashkari Bazar,” Syria 29, 1952, pp. 251-70.
R. B. Serjeant, Islamic Textiles. Material for a History up to the Mongol Conquest, Beirut, 1972. [1942]
H. Seyrig, “Armes et costumes iraniens de Palmyre,” Syria 18, 1937, pp. 1-53. (pdf)
J. Sourdel-Thomine and B. Spuler, Die Kunst des Islam, Propyläen Kunstgeschichte, N.S. 4, Berlin, 1973.
D. Thompson, Stucco from Chal Tarkhan-Eshqabad near Rayy, Warminster, Eng., 1976.
H. Weiss, ed., Ebla to Damascus. Art and Archaeology of Ancient Syria, Washington, D.C., 1985.
E. Wellesz, “An Early Al-Ṣūfī Manuscript in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. A Study in Islamic Constellation Images,” Ars Orientalis 3, 1959, pp. 1-26.
R. Whitfield, The Art of Central Asia. The Stein Collection in the British Museum, London, 1985.
C. K. Wilkinson, Nishapur. Pottery of the Early Islamic Period, New York, 1973.
Idem, Nishapur. Some Early Islamic Buildings and Their Decoration, New York, 1986.
(Elsie H. Peck)
