The Pakol a Distinctive, but Apparently Not So Very Old Headgear from the Indo-Iranian Borderlands
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9532-06_KHILA_2/2006_08 15-10-2007 16:14 Pagina 149 KHIL{A 2 (2006), pp. 149-156. doi: 10.2143/KH.2.0.2021290 The Pakol A distinctive, but apparently not so very old headgear from the Indo-Iranian borderlands Willem VOGELSANG National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden INTRODUCTION Some authors have compared this typical head- gear to caps worn in ancient Sogdia (in the Zerafshan In many parts of northern Pakistan and northeast- valley around Bukhara and Samarkand, in modern ern Afghanistan, the once ubiquitous men’s turban has been replaced by the flat-topped woollen cap, generally called the pakol (pakol) (figs. 1-2).1 This type of headgear is also known as the Chitrali or Nuristani cap, named after the settlement of Chitral (North Pakistan) and the neighbouring region of Nuristan (East Afghanistan) respectively (see map). Its distinctive shape and especially its glamorous image gained during the Afghan civil war of the 1980s, have made it into a garment that is now known all over the world. It is easily available via internet stores, and often simply known as an Afghan hat. Many Afghans and others wearing this type of headgear laud its ‘Islamic’ character, since it Fig. 1. Pakol from Afghanistan, acquired in 2002 is said that the pakol cushions the wearer’s forehead (RMV acc. no. 5975-1. Photograph by courtesy of when he is praying and touching the ground. the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden) Fig. 2. Afghan delegates at the Loya Jirga of 2002 in Kabul. The delegates originate from Jalalabad, east of Kabul. Photograph courtesy US Department of State. Map. Schematic map showing the Afghanistan/Pakistan 1 This short article is an elaboration of some remarks about northern borderlands. the pakol made in an earlier article (Vogelsang 2005). 149 9532-06_KHILA_2/2006_08 15-10-2007 16:14 Pagina 150 Uzbekistan), and to similarly shaped headgear from their Soviet supporters. One of the most famous the classical Mediterranean. There certainly appears people wearing the pakol was no doubt Ahmad to be an uncanny resemblance between the pakol and Shah Massud, the Mujahedin leader of the Panjshir a headgear worn by the ancient Greeks and Macedonians, the so-called kausia (fig. 3).2 It subse- quently proved attractive and rather romantic for some writers to link the pakol to Alexander the Great’s campaigns in the Indo-Afghan borderlands in the late fourth century BC. The pakol was also con- nected to the Bactrian-Greek and Indo-Greek king- doms of the ensuing centuries, and to the many local stories of Greek origin among the population of the borderlands.3 In this brief article I want to discuss the pakol and its history, and try to point out that the pakol has a very recent history in Nuristan, going back no older than the late nineteenth century, but also that the same headgear is relatively young in neighbouring Chitral. MODERN POPULARITY OF THE PAKOL For many years in Afghanistan the pakol has been the typical headgear of the Nuristanis. They live in the rugged terrain east and northeast of the capital Kabul, towards the border with Pakistan. They still practised their pre-Islamic religion until the Afghan Amir Abdul Rahman Khan conquered the area in the 1890s, forced the population to convert to Islam, and renamed the area Nuristan (‘Land of Light’), instead of former Kafiristan (‘Land of the Infidels’). In the past, before the start of the civil war in the late 1970s, the pakol was also very popular among the foreign community living in Kabul, who wanted to show their sympathy with the Afghans, but preferred the cap to the rather cumbersome turban or the ornate and ‘Islamic’ skull cap. In the 1980s, the pakol suddenly became widely popular in large parts of Afghanistan and beyond as the typical easy-to-wear headgear of the Mujahedin. These ‘holy warriors’ had taken up arms against the Marxist government in Kabul and 2 Compare Yatsenko 2003 (Sogdian connection) and Kingsley 1981 for references to the Greek/Macedonian kau- sia cap. Compare, however, Fredriksmeyer 1986 and 1994, who opposed the identification. Fig. 3. Ancient image of a man wearing a kausia. 3 For the ancient stories of Greek origins, compare Levi 1984 Terracotta figurine of Macedonian man, 3rd century B.C. (1972):166-167. Courtesy Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich. 150 9532-06_KHILA_2/2006_08 15-10-2007 16:14 Pagina 151 valley north of Kabul (fig. 4).4 In those years, people THE PAKOL from all over Afghanistan, but especially from among the Tajik population of Northeast Afghanistan, who The typical pakol, as nowadays worn in (northeast- lived in an area bordering Nuristan, donned the pakol ern) Afghanistan and Pakistan, is made of a long in order to show their opposition to the Kabul tube of (generally) woollen material with an extra regime. round piece to make a flat crown. The tube is rolled In 1992 the Mujahedin occupied Kabul, and up over a bolster (or knee) to make a round brim. since the Tajiks from the northeast of the country There are many variations and various colours, and played a dominant role in the new post-Marxist ways of decorating the garment: sometimes people government, their pakol became the dominant tend to put flowers or feathers into their pakol, espe- headgear of the Afghan capital. However, the civil cially for festive occasions. Most of the pakol are war between the various Mujahedin parties contin- made of sheep’s wool, but felt is also sometimes ued with the appearance of a completely new force used.7 One type of pakol that used to be very pop- in the arena, the Taliban, who occupied Kandahar ular in Afghanistan in the 1980s was even made in 1994 and Kabul in 1996. They were mainly of camouflage material (fig. 6). A beautiful pakol Pashtun from the south of the country and opposed illustrated by Steinmann in his catalogue for a to the pakol wearing Mujahedin from the northeast. recent Afghanistan exhibition in Vienna, is made of The Taliban used to wear turbans (and prefer- white wool, stitched in a delicate pattern along the ably the dark variety from Kandahar), the tradi- rim, with small embroidered motifs on top.8 This tional headgear of the Pashtun in southern example is said to originate from among the Pashai Afghanistan, while their opponents continued to in Kundagal, just south of Nuristan. Another pakol, wear the pakol (fig. 5). When in September 1996 illustrated in the same picture, is said to derive from the Taliban occupied the capital Kabul and Ahmad Kabul. It is made of felt, perfectly circular, with a Shah Massud was forced to withdraw again to the flat brim and decorative stitching on the crown and Panjshir valley, the pakol disappeared from the along the brim. streets, only to return when in November 2001 the The typical Afghan pakol however, is brown in northern forces with the help of the American army colour, made of wool, and has some stitching along managed to dispel the Taliban. At that time the the rim. It is very similar to the Chitrali type from pakol became the symbol of the new leading ele- modern Pakistan. This is generally regarded as the ments of the country, while the Pashtun from the ‘real’ pakol and described as such on various websites. south and southeast of the country, who used to On the “Hijab for men” site, it is said, for example, form the core of the Taliban movement, still pre- that: “A pakol hat should not ‘droop’ on the sides ferred to wear a turban.5 when it is worn, but the edges should stay firm. Also, Contrary to the Afghan Pashtun, their fellow the brim should be in nice, round rolls, not flat folds. Pashtun in neighbouring Pakistan seem overwhelm- Another sign of quality is in the number of thin ingly to have adopted the pakol, especially in the bands on the rolls.”9 Nowadays, the village of Mogh, main cities, as for instance in Peshawar. Only in the tribal areas along the Afghan border is the turban still popular.6 However, pictures from Peshawar 4 Massud is often said to have started to wear the pakol when from not so very long ago, still show a city domi- he was in Nuristan in 1978, before moving his resistance movement to the Panjshir in 1979. He may well have been nated by turban wearing Pashtun instead of men the moving actor behind the sudden popularity of the cap. covering their head with a pakol. 5 I found an Afghan proverb on the internet saying (in Dari, the Afghan dialect of Farsi): ta vakht-e rish, dunya ba tash- wish. ta vakht-e pakul ama ganj o gul, loosely translated as “As long as the beard exists, the world is in fear. As long as the pakol exists, however, all is well”. This is probably a say- ing going back to the time that the pakol-wearing north- erners were fighting the bearded Taliban. 6 Compare Imran Khan 1993:11. 7 In northern Pakistan the cloth is called patti. The whitish Fig. 4. Ahmad Shah Massud, cloth used in the Hunza is called zebaki. wearing the pakol. French postage 8 Steinmann 2003: 96. stamp, 2003. Private collection. 9 http://www.modernmuslima.com/hijabmen.htm 151 9532-06_KHILA_2/2006_08 15-10-2007 16:14 Pagina 152 Fig. 5. Horse rider wearing a pakol. High up in the Andarab valley, northeast Afghanistan. Photograph author, April 2006 some 20 km north of Chitral and famous for its northeast of Kabul.