![]() Nothing at all seems to be known about children’s clothing in the pre-Islamic periods (see ii-vii, below).įor the first millennium following the Islamic conquest textual and pictorial sources are generally more plentiful, but the problems of coverage and interpretation are equally severe. As for male costume, the monuments provide information on princely dress and the garments of warriors and priests but almost nothing on what peasants and other classes of society wore. ![]() Because most of the texts surviving from before the Islamic period are concerned with political and dynastic events in which the protagonists were almost exclusively male and because most representations are to be found on official, courtly, and religious monuments-relief and other sculptures, wall paintings, coins and seals, and metalwork-knowledge of the clothing of women in those early centuries is particularly scanty and for the most part limited to that of aristocrats and entertainers. Then, too, the documentation is usually uneven. Conclusions must be reached independently in each specific instance. On the other hand, a marked change in particular types of representation may reflect either an observed change in the clothing worn or the impact of new artistic models. Very often particular styles of mantle or robe, particularly in courtly settings, may simply follow established “types” widely recognized as identifying “king,” “courtier,” “warrior,” “servant,” and the like. Before the Safavid period it is often risky to conclude that clothing illustrated in manuscript paintings or relief sculptures faithfully depicts clothing actually worn in contemporary life. Interpretation of representations is further complicated by the difficulty of distinguishing the formal conventions and traditions of a particular medium from realistically observed details of the subject matter. Not only does the richness of this documentation vary with the group or period being studied, but also it is often difficult to integrate the two kinds of evidence in a coherent picture. For periods spanning more than 2,000 years, then, it is necessary to rely primarily on textual descriptions and pictorial representations. The Safavid period (907-1145/1501-1732) is the earliest from which any meaningful quantity of actual garments survive before that time only rare and usually fragmentary pieces have been recovered from sites widely separated in time and place. Foremost among the issues confronting those who study clothing, as is repeatedly indicated by the contributors to this series, is the problem of sources. As for clothing in Persia in particular, scholars are only beginning to come to grips with fundamental issues, and the study of costume is still in the initial, descriptive phase. ![]() The remaining two are compilations of terminology for various types of garment in these settings.Īlthough details of dress have frequently provided clues for scholars seeking to date or localize various monuments in the history of art, the systematic study of dress, especially dress of the Middle East, is still largely in its infancy. 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 articles in this series are devoted to clothing of the Iranian peoples in successive historical periods and of various regions and ethnic groups in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Iran.Ī version of this article is available in print Concordance of clothing terms among ethnic groups in modern Persia Clothing of the Baḵtīārīs and other Lori speaking tribes ![]() Turkic and Kurdish clothing of Azerbaijan Clothing of the Baluch in Pakistan and Afghanistan In Persia from the Arab conquest to the Mongol invasion ![]() Of the Iranian Tribes on the Pontic Steppes and in the Caucaus ![]()
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