Central and Southwest Asian Dress Studies. a Bibliographical Introduction

KHIL{A 3 (2007-2009), pp. 97-106. doi: 10.2143/KH.3.0.2066224 Central and Southwest Asian Dress Studies. A Bibliographical Introduction Gillian VOGELSANG-EASTWOOD Textile Research Centre, Leiden The study of dress in Central and Southwest Asia will be seen, not every author takes this austere view was for long been very patchy. Some regions and of the subject. groups have been studied in depth by the academic The books and articles included in this section are world, while others are, at best, committed to foot- intended to be an introduction to the subject of Central notes or totally ignored. There is also a significant and Southwest Asian dress studies, rather than a com- difference between the study of archaeological and prehensive list of all the publications in this field. In historical textiles and dress and those items dating addition, in keeping with the policy of the Berg to the late 19th and 20th centuries. An important Encyclopaedia the choice of publications is deliberately factor in this situation was the lack of interest, until biased towards dress studies rather than descriptions comparatively recently, by academia in the study of of textiles, their production or appearance, unless this pre-modern and modern material culture from the information is directly relevant to either garments or region and more particularly in the areas of textiles accessories. For further information about particular and dress. This situation is changing slowly, but it forms of Central Asian and Southwest Asian dress will be some years before Central and Southwest please consult the relevant articles and their biblio- Asian dress has a literature list comparable to that graphies in this particular volume. of European or American dress studies. The publi- In addition, it should be noted that stress has cation of the fifth volume of the Berg Encyclopedia been placed on studies available in Western lan- of World Dress and Fashion (2010), on Southwest guages, notably English, French and German, rather and Central Asia, will be a real boon. than Arab, Persian, Russian and Turkish studies, At the end of the 20th century there was a range of unless they have been translated. The reason for approaches to the study of Central and Southwest this is simply the accessibility of the source material Asian dress; literally from anthropological, archaeo- for a wider audience. logical, art historical, sociological, costume and dress, to economic, trade and religious studies. However, it CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST ASIAN DRESS STUDIES: is noticeable that, in general, books and articles on GENERAL dress can be divided into two main types: (a) those which are concerned with the theory of dress and Comments on the various types of Central and illustrate very few, if any, actual garments, and (b) Southwest Asian dress can be traced back hundreds those that are more object orientated and include a of years. Many of the early descriptions are by Arab variety of depictions of clothing and accessories. and Persian scholars and travellers. Perhaps one of An extreme example of this divide can be seen in the most intriguing is the Tunisian born writer Ibn Nancy Lindisfarne-Tapper and Bruce Ingham arti- Battuta (1304–1369), who travelled throughout the cle, “Approaches to the study of dress in the Middle Maghreb (north Africa), Southwest Asia, India and East,” which advocates the view that only a theo- China during the early to mid-14th century C.E. retical, ethnographic approach to the subject is and left many incidental references to medieval valid: “the most compelling entry point for any dress forms. His book has been translated on vari- critical discussion of the clothing of the Middle ous occasions over the last century, one of the latest East is through particular, fine-grained ethno- being: The Travels of Ibn Battutah (ed. Tim graphic and socio-linguistic studies” (1997, p. 5). Mackintosh-Smith, London, Picador, 2003). Anything else appears to come under the heading of There are also various medieval European books biased, subjective, and emotional. Fortunately, as that refer to dress in Southwest Asia, many of which 97 993399_Khila_3_2007-2009_06.indd3399_Khila_3_2007-2009_06.indd 9977 77/06/11/06/11 116:226:22 were written by pilgrims, both Christian and Jewish, Further information about medieval textiles and travelling to Jerusalem via either what is now Turkey dress, but from an economic and social position or more usually travelling by foot or boat in the can be found in Prof. S.D. Goitein’s five volume Eastern Mediterranean. Two useful sources of infor- study on medieval Jewish life in the eastern Mediter- mation of this genre are von Harff and Schweigger. ranean region: A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Arnold von Harff, The Pilgrimage of Arnold von Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Harff, Knight: from Cologne through Italy, Syria, Documents of the Cairo Geniza (Berkeley, University Egypt, Arabia, Ethiopia, Nubia, Palestine, Turkey, of California Press, 1967-1993). Again it is based on France and Spain, which he accomplished in the years the Geniza Papers, but it provides a tantalising look 1496 to 1499. (London, the Hakluyt Society, 1946). at medieval life in the eastern Mediterranean. Von Harff was a 15th century C.E. pilgrim from Stillman later wrote an article on Arab clothing Germany, who travelled throughout Turkey and the called “Libas” (clothing, dress), which was published Eastern Mediterranean. He includes numerous in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. V (Leiden, Brill, woodcuts with descriptions of dress in this region. also available in digital form). This article formed the The second example is an account of the travels basis for her book, Arab Dress: A Short History from in the Levant in the 1580s by the Jewish pilgrim, the Dawn of Islam to Modern Times (2000, Leiden, again from Germany, Salomon Schweigger, Eine Brill), which came out shortly after her death. This newe Reyssbeschreibung auss Teutschland nach book also includes a chapter with an extensive list of Constantinopel und Jerusalem, (1964, trans. by R. books and articles on Arab dress in general. Other Neck, Graz). Again Schweigger uses various wood- books on Islamic dress and textiles include Patricia cuts to illustrate the garments worn in the various Baker, Islamic Textiles (London, British Museum countries he travelled through. Press, 1995), which is mainly about Islamic textiles, One of the first serious, Western studies of Arabic but there are many references to dress. dress was conducted by the Dutch Orientalist, Twentieth century Southwest Asian dress is the R.P.A. Dozy and published in his book, Dictionnaire subject of (eds) N. Lindisfarne-Tapper and B. Detaillé des Noms des Vêtements chez les Arabes Ingham, Languages of Dress in the Middle East, (Amsterdam, Jean Müller, 1845; reprinted Beirut, (London, SOAS, Curzon Press, 1997), which Libraire du Liban, n.d.). This work remains an includes a curious selection of articles that are not important source of information about the early ref- just on Middle Eastern dress. The articles from erences to clothing, but a knowledge of the Arabic this book that are of direct relevance to Southwest alphabet is needed to use it. Asian dress are listed below under the relevant One of the main 20th century sources about sub-headings. medieval textiles and dress from Central and Jenny Balfour-Paul, Indigo in the Arab World Southwest Asia is R.B. Serjeant, Islamic Textiles: (Richmond, Curzon Press, 1997), is much more Material for a History up to the Mongol Conquest than just a book about indigo. It places the dye in (Beirut, Librairie du Liban, 1972). This book is a its historical and social context, with many refer- based on a series of articles published in Ars Islamica ences to both textiles and items of clothing dyed between 1942-1951, and then put together to create with indigo. It has become a standard book on the one volume. It is an essential source book for rele- subject. vant texts about textiles and dress in medieval Arab General articles on various aspects of Arab and Persian literature. culture, including textiles and clothing, can also be Another name that appears regularly when look- found in Aramco World, which is published on a ing for information about early Arab and Middle regular basis by the Saudi Aramco oil company. Eastern dress (in its widest sense) is Yadida Stillman. Her Ph.D. thesis on Female Attire of Medieval Egypt; CENTRAL AND SOUTHWEST ASIAN DRESS STUDIES: According to the Trousseau Lists and Cognate Material REGIONAL from the Cairo Geniza (Pennsylvania University, 1972) was the first of a series of works based on the The following publications about Central and Geniza Papers; a large quantity of Jewish docu- Southwest Asian dress have been given in a roughly ments found in Cairo that date from the 10th – 13th geographical order, from west to east, rather than centuries C.E. an alphabetical list of lands. This was done so that 98 993399_Khila_3_2007-2009_06.indd3399_Khila_3_2007-2009_06.indd 9988 77/06/11/06/11 116:226:22 so that it would be possible to look at regional Costume of the Near and Middle East (London and styles of dress rather than being bound by modern, Sydney, Unwin Hyman, 1987), discusses the devel- political boundaries. Emphasis has been placed on opment of female dress from antiquity to the early 20th century authors, although exceptions have 20th century. It concentrates on Ottoman dress, been made for particularly interesting or useful both from Istanbul and various areas of the Ottoman earlier works. Empire, the influence of the Ottomans on Arab clothing for women, and Persian and Afghan female Turkish dress dress in general for comparative purposes. Ottoman court dress is described in various arti- For centuries Turkish dress has been the focus of cles and books.

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