Women's Veils and
Headdress in
(1300-1600 CE)
By al Jazi ‘bint Samiha al-Harb
Very few of the fabrics that made up
women's veils during the SCA period have physically survived. In general,
textiles are quite perishable, only a fraction of them lasting to the present
day, usually with much help from conservationists. Plus, since headgear in the
Nearly all of this information refers to
the wealthy and the royal, for several reasons. First, miniatures primarily
depict royalty and important people, as so many of them are illustrations of
classic stories.
Second, even when less exalted people are
pictured, miniatures typically show Bedouin and peasants wearing much more
decorative and expensive clothing than they most likely would have worn, such
as a 14th century slave girl of an itinerant preacher (from Islamic
Art in Context, p. 247, pl. 209) wearing pearls, gold bracelets, and gorgeous
brocaded sleeves that hang to the floor.
Third, contemporary European
visitors commenting on Persian costume often preferred to describe the more
"interesting" clothes of the 
wealthy,
and were less likely to meet peasant or nomad women. And fourth, even many
modern examples of traditional costume in the
One last thing to keep in mind is that
Persian women of the upper class were not often seen on the street. The height
of Persian civilization involved seclusion of women at home, so that miniatures
show women within palaces and gardens, where they would not be seen by strange
men, and could therefore wear fairly light headcoverings.
The most basic veils, which were worn
throughout period, were simply rectangular scarves of cotton, linen, or silk.
Servants, slaves, or peasants engaged in heavy manual labor might just tie it
in a knot at the nape of the neck (Fig.
A) as Mohammed's mother in a 14th century miniature is pictured
wearing while giving birth to the Prophet. The ladies attending her, however,
are shown wearing larger rectangular veils wrapped several times around their
heads (Fig. B). I have often seen
veils such as these using completely sheer fabric,
through which you can see the ladies' braids and earrings.
A rectangular veil, ranging from the size
of a large shawl to the size of a modern twin-size bedsheet is one of the most
common garments, let alone headgear, of all.
Women from ancient Roman times, in Byzantine mosaic portraits of the
Virgin Mary and Empress Theodora's handmaidens (such as those in Byzantine
Art, pgs. 110 and 63), and in Persian miniatures up through the 16th
century (as in Art and Architecture of Islam, p. 211, pl. 267) can be
seen wearing such veils. Persian women often used the larger size as an outdoor
cloak to protect them from the gaze of strangers. While these veils often
appear to be worn without anything to secure them, they are also frequently
shown fastened by another scarf or ribbon tied around the crown of the head.
Underneath the veil, well-to-do women
often wore skullcaps like the ones men still wear under turbans and kaffiyeh
(headcloths) today. While many miniatures from the 14th century show women
wearing sheer veils with no skullcaps beneath, one from 1335, (A Jeweler's
Eye, p. 91, pl. 14) shows a king's daughter, standing just outside her
house, wearing only a plain white skullcap with a narrow decorative border on
her head. Miniatures from the mid-16th century on feature highly-decorated
skullcaps peeking out from under elaborate headdresses, and younger girls
wearing the skullcaps alone, or with a simple veil draped over it (Fig. C).
As the 16th century drew to a close, the
veils of wealthy Persian women grew progressively smaller, until, in many
portraits, they appear to be little more than handkerchiefs, either pinned to
the skullcap with flowers or jeweled pins, or held on with chin 
chains (described below).
Another fashion that began to be popular
in the mid-16th century was the long, long braid, probably supplemented with
silk strands or horsehair, bound in rich fabric, and terminating in a tassel.
The braid would hang down the back, and could be tucked into a belt-sash, or
pinned up to the rest of the headdress (Fig.
D). Precursors to this style can be seen in Islamic Art, p. 143, pl.
96, where several of the attendants in a 1396 miniature are wearing a long,
narrow scarf that hangs at the back of the head, and drapes nearly to the floor
(Fig. E), and in Persian Painting,
in which a lady from a painting dated 1480 wears what appears to be a scarf
padded at the crown of the head, but floating down to her knee is the fringed
end of it.
One of the particularly attractive
headdress details was the chin-chain. In a miniature pictured in A Jeweler's
Eye (p. 80, pl. 9), an ornate headdress is displayed on a white cloth (Fig. F). It is a crown of a type princesses
are shown wearing, of metal plates 
worn on the forehead like a tiara (see Fig. D), with a chain of decorative
metal pendants. More frequently, a chin-chain was a string of pearls or gems.
It would be attached to the headdress near the temples to hang just at chin
level as Sir John Chardin describes later in the 1670's that the ladies were
still wearing: "... a row of pearl, which is fasten'd to the Top of the
Ears, and goes under the Chin." (p. 217) Also attached to veils or hats,
particularly in the later period, could be aigrettes - feathers topping a
jeweled pin - or flowers, or gold and silver ornaments.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century,
many ladies were wearing a variant of the small scarf tied around the top of
the head, tying it to create a triangular point in the front. This style could
be worn with the increasingly small white veils, or with a hat like a portrait
of the legendary Queen of Sheba (Fig. G).
She wears a tall round black hat, a striped braid looped over it, then into her
belt, and a pearl chin chain.
Persian headdress is highly
distinctive, and makes the difference in creating the entire Persian outfit. By
studying the miniatures, we can play with the different elements to come up
with an attractive style for anyone.
List of Illustrations
Fig. A, Fig. B: After Rashid al-Din Jāmi
al-tawārīkh, “Birth of Mohammed”,
Art and Architecture of Islam (1250 -
1800), p. 20, pl. 33
Fig. C:
After Mir Sayyid-‘Ali, “Nomadic Encampment”, ca. 1540; Wonders of the
Age(1501-
1576), p. 156
Fig. D:
After Mahmūd, “Young Women”,
Fig. E:
After Junayd, “The Wedding Night of Humay and Humayun”,
Fig. F:
After “Sindukht Becomes Aware of Rudaba’s Actions”, Iran, ca. 1335-40; A
Jeweler’s Eye, p. 81, pl. 9
Fig G:
After Bihzad, “Bilqis Receives a Love-letter”,
Bibliography:
Art & Architecture of Islam - 1250 -
1800; Sheila Blair &
Jonathan Bloom; Yale University Press, New Haven, CT 1995
Byzantine Painting; André Grabar (trans. Stuart Gilbert);
Editions Albert Skira,
Islamic Art; Barbara Brend;
Islamic Art in Context; Robert Irwin; Calmann & King Ltd,
A Jeweler's Eye; Glenn D. Lowry with Susan Nemazee;
Arthur M. Seckler Gallery in assoc. w/
Palestinian Costume and Jewelry; Yedida Kalfon Stillman;
Persian Painting; B.W. Robinson;
Persian Miniature Painting; Noah M. Titley;
Travels in
Women's Costume of Near & Middle East; Jennifer Scarce; Unwin Hyman Ltd.,