I was showing my favorite book ever in life, the Gustav Tenggren version of The Arabian Nights, to my friend William. He got very excited and said that that was the style he’d always been trying to emulate. (William is known for wearing flowing garments much like in the pictures below.)
He wanted to know what this mode of dress is called – the best I could come up with is “moghul,” or possibly “caliphate.”
What say you?
The “wa” one is definitely Mughal; Indian, rather than Arabic.
Well, the picture he especially liked was from the story of “The Man Who Never Laughed.” It involved a turban wrapped around a small central dome; or else a turban with feathers; a close-fitting tunic with elaborate patterns something like those on a dashiki; leggings, and boots to mid-calf. He has a highly decorative belt with the traditional curved knife.
Forgive my ignorance of Middle Eastern political history; was there a culture in which Indian and Arabian cultures melded? Also, how would one refer to fashion from the time and place of Haroun al-Rashid?
The first picture shows Persian garb. The second one is done in Early Orientalist Kitsch. The third one is as noted above Mughal-era Indian. The fourth is Chinese.
The adjective for the 8th-century Baghdad of Harun al-Rashid is “‘Abbasid.” Which isn’t apparent in any of those pictures, though the Persian style is closest to it.
Indian Muslim culture, and Mughal culture most of all, is heavily, heavily, heavily influenced by Persian culture. Arab, not so much, not directly. Whatever Arab elements reached north India were limited to the religious sphere and filtered through Persian culture. There was a bit of direct Arab influence to the Muslims in Kerala down south, but it was never predominant. Persian was the language of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire. Persian was also the dominant literary language among Hindus and Sikhs in north India as well as Muslims into the 20th century. Persian was even the official language of administration in *British-*ruled India. There was also some influence from Central Asia (which itself was heavily influenced by Persian culture).
