Last updated: April 30th, 2025 at 12:44 pm · Est. Reading Time: 4 minutes
The dress of the Bedouins was different from that of permanent dwellers. The dress of the rich and poor sections of society also had differences. Further, the pre-Islamic Arabs used different types of dress articles on specialized occasions, like war, formal occasions, industrial work, etc. Finally, the dress of pre-Islamic Arabs changed tremendously over time.
Men’s dress
The earliest evidence of Arabian dress comes from the rock art. Figures drawn by prehistoric Arabs (second millennium BCE) depict men in some sort of cashe-sexe, a head dress and sandals.1
Probably scanty dressing remained in fashion. Strabo (d. 24 CE) notes in his Geography that the Nabataean Arabs “go without tunics, with girdles about their loins, and with slippers on the feet.”2
We know from later Arabic texts that the name of this loin girdle was Izār, a basic Arabian garment. It was simply a large sheet like wrap which could be tied around waste like a long loincloth and could also be used as a mantle.
Strabo states that the dress of the commoners and the king was the same. The only difference was that of colour. It is likely that izar continued to be the sole dress of the poorer section of the society, particularly the Bedouins. Yet, it is impossible to imagine that late antique elite Arabs were still in unstitched izar. Arabia was not an isolated country. It had cultural exchanges with its neighbours, particularly Byzantine Rome and Sasanian Iran. There is evidence that the Arabs were copying their neighbours’ dress as early as the 2nd century CE. The statues of Arab rulers of Hatra are wearing Parthian dresses. Foreign influences might have helped Arabs develop their own unique Arab dress.
The figurine of the ‘Christian King’ found at Zafar, and dated from late sixth century is wearing an elegantly embroidered long sleeved tunic which reaches his ankle and has a central slit in front of the legs to facilitate walking. He has an izar or a throw hanging from his left shoulder. The stitched uppers of men of lesser status than a king might not be that ornate but might have the same tailoring style. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry has preserved a number of dress terms. One for the top is qimis (qimīs قَِميِص). Probably the ‘Christian King’ is wearing a qimis.
A baggy trousers was in fashion in late antique Iran. It was later called shilwar (shilwār شِلوار) and early Islamic sources mention it. Sasanian Iran had great political influence over Arabia. It is possible that the Arabs used it in pre-Islamic period. However, evidence is not available. At least the ‘Christian King’ is covering his legs with his tunic.
Pre-Islamic poetry is rich in mentioning accent clothes like ridā’ and Shamla. They appear to be symbolic. Samaw’al bin ‘Adiya.’ states:
If a man’s honor is not sullied by baseness
Then every ridā’ in which he cloaks himself will become him.3
It is highly probable what ‘Christian King’ has cloaked around is a rida’. He has covered his head with crown. Otherwise, commoners might use shamla (turban) on formal occasions.
Women’s dress
Arab women are necked in the depictions of pre-historic rock art. The genitals of these pictograms are exceptionally prominent. The researchers consider these figures to be those of a goddess or a cultural figure related to enhancement of fertility (Āliyah). They are very unlikely to be a representation of a common Arab woman, especially in light of the fact, that the accompanying men in such drawings are dressed.
Basic dress of a woman in late pre-Islamic Arabia does not appear to be drastically different from that of a man.
Pre-Islamic Arab poets mention making of trail on the sand whenever they mention a walking woman. Qamis of a woman must be a long tunic, longer than that of a man, long enough to drag on the sand. Whether pre-Islamic Arab women used Persian baggy trousers called Shilwar is difficult to guess. Persian influence on pre-Islamic Arabia was profound. It is likely that some Arab women used it.
Bedouin men did not cover much of the upper part of their body. In case of women, it is unlikely, as pre-Islamic Arabic poets describe even Bedouin women making trails on the sand due to their long qimis.
It was the headdress which was distinctly different in the two genders. Women did not use shamla. They used veil. All Arab women, weather Bedouin or pedantry, covered their heads with a veil. The urban women pulled the same veil in front of their face to hide it from men.4
Just like shamla of a man, veil was the most symbolic part of a woman’s dress. Earliest Middle Eastern documents equate the use of veil with public expression of chastity of a woman.5
Unveiling a woman’s face forcefully was a gesture of insult towards her. Lamenting death of a polytheist Arbad bin Qays of Banu ‘Amir, pre Islamic Poet Labid says:
And Arbād was a warlike knight
when the howdahs with their coverings were overthrown;
When in the morning the women were carried pillion
with faces unveiled and legs bare;
On that day men fled to him for safety
as a man at large flees to the sanctuary.6
Uncovering the head forcefully was as insulting as removing the veil from the face. When the elite Christian lady of Najran got arrested and brought to Dhu Nawas, her face was not covered by veil. The king could see it and praised her beauty in front of everybody present. When she refused to accept Judaism, the king ordered her head to be uncovered and make her stand in front of the army, where everybody could see her hair flowing in air.7
Further Reading
Yedida Kalfon Stillman, Arab Dress: A short History; from dawn of Islam to Modern Times, ed. Norman A. Stillman (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 7 – 9.
History of Islam, Social Structure of Pre-Islamic Arabs, https://historyofislam.org/social-structure-of-pre-islamic-arabs/
Footnotes
- Emmanuel Anati, Rock-art in Central Arabia, Vol. 1 (Institut Orientaliste: Louvain, 1968) 159, 163. Figs. 4, 8, 9, 10, 18, 21, 25.
- Strabo, The Geography of Strabo Vol. III, ed. and trans. H. C. Hamilton, (London, Henry G. Bohn, 1857), P 215; paragraph 26; chapter IV; Book XVI.
- A. J. Arberry, A Primer for Students (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965), 31.
- Mishnah, trans. Herbert Danby, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933), 105.; Muhammad bin ‘Umar al-Wāqidī. The life of Muḥammad: kitāb al-Maghāzī, ed. Rizwi Faizer, trans. Rizwi Faizer, Amal Ismail and AbdulKader Tayob, (London: Routledge, 2011), 183.; Nābigha al Ḍubyānī, Dīwān ed. Ibrāhīm. poem 9 verses 17 – 18.
- Theophile J. Meek, “The Middle Assyrian Laws,” in ancient Near Eastern Texts: Relating to the Old Testament, ed James B. Pitchard, (Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1969), 183. (code 40).
- Muhammad Ibn Ishaq. The Life of Muhammad, ed. and trans. Alfred Guillaume, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2013), 633.
- Martyrium S. Arethae et sociorum” was published in ‘Anonymous, Acta SS. Arethae et Rumae et Sociorum martyrum Negranae in Arabia Felice, ed. Carpentier (Bruxelles: Typos Heinrici Goemaere, 1861), chapter III, paragraph 11.