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CLOTHING  i. General remarks. ii. In the Median and Achaemenid periods. iii. In the Arsacid period. iv. In the Sasanian period. v. In pre-Islamic eastern Iran. vi. Of the Sogdians. vii. Of the Iranian Tribes on the Pontic Steppes and in the Caucaus. viii. In Persia from the Arab conquest…

CLOTHING i. General remarks Of the twenty-seven subsequent articles in this series eleven are devoted to clothing of the Iranian peoples in successive historical periods and fourteen to modern clothing of various regions and ethnic groups in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Persia. The remaining two are compilations of terminology for various…

CLOTHING ii. In the Median and Achaemenid periods Information on the dress worn by the peoples of the Median and Achaemenid empires is mainly related to male costume. Female dress will be described briefly at the end of this article. The data come from two categories of sources (Schoppa, pp….

CLOTHING iii. In the Arsacid period The Parthian period (ca. 250 b.c.e.-224 c.e.), when the Arsacid dynasty ruled, or claimed to rule, Persia, was the period in which trousers and sleeved coats became common garb throughout the Near East. These garments, the direct ancestors of modern dress, crossed political and…

CLOTHING iv. In the Sasanian period Female dress Investigation of female dress in the Sasanian period (224-651 c.e.) is hampered by the small number of preserved representations of women relative to those of men. Ordinary women’s dress. The dress worn by females who were neither royal nor divine consisted of…

CLOTHING ix. In the Mongol and Timurid periods It is difficult to discuss clothing in Persia in the Il-­khanid and Timurid periods with any certainty because very few garments, in fact, very few textiles, actually survive from these periods. Armor and military trap­pings will not be considered here. Contemporary sources….

CLOTHING v. In pre-Islamic eastern Iran Modern knowledge of the dress of the eastern Iranian peoples is derived from literary and archeological sources, which can be compared, though with caution. Although there were regional differences, as well as a broad change over time, on the whole the costume remained fairly…

CLOTHING vi. Of the Sogdians The very few representations of Sogdian people that survive from before the 5th century c.e. do not allow any conclusion more specific about their clothing than that it was part of the general historical complex of Middle Eastern dress, specifically the category associ­ated with the…

CLOTHING   vii. Of the Iranian Tribes on the Pontic Steppes and in the Caucaus The main attention of those who have studied the Iranians of the eastern European steppes has been focused on the headdress and the caftan of the aristoc­racy. Most of the rich gold ornaments of their…

CLOTHING viii. In Persia from the Arab conquest to the Mongol invasion The Omayyad period (41-132/661-750). Investiga­tion of costume in the Omayyad period is hampered by the scarcity of surviving representations; furthermore, many of those that do survive are purely symbolic and do not reflect what was actually worn. For…

CLOTHING x. In the Safavid and Qajar periods In the late 15th century the poet Neẓām-al-Dīn Maḥmūd Qārī (Neẓām Qārī) of Yazd devoted an entire collection of poems to the subject of dress, the Dīvān-­e albesa (for an index of contemporary clothing ter­minology, see pp. 195-206). The continuing and even…

CLOTHING xi. In the Pahlavi and post-Pahlavi periods Pahlavi period. The clothing of Persians during the early years of the Pahlavi dynasty was generally similar to that of the Qajar period, reflecting differences among tribes, villages, and regions, as well as among classes. In the late 19th century there had…

CLOTHING xiii. Clothing in Afghanistan The medley of tribal and ethnic populations in the diverse landscape of Afghanistan live mainly in rural towns and villages and nomadic camps. Hardly 5 percent lead urban lives. Traditional clothing reflects these geographic and residential variations and also serves to express individual and group…

CLOTHING xiv. Clothing of the Hazāra tribes Hazāra clothing has not been studied systematically; only sporadic evidence can be found in literature, photographs, and major museum collections. Much of the information given here is based on the author’s ethnographic work among the Hazāra in 1953-55 and in the Danish National…

CLOTHING xix. Clothing of the Baluch in Pakistan and Afghanistan  In contrast to the stark landscape of much of Paki­stan and Afghanistan, the clothing of the Baluch is distinguished by colorful embroidery patterns that serve as ethnic markers, helping to differentiate Baluch from Pashtuns (Pathans), Punjabis, Sindhis, and other ethnic…