Dress and dress code in medieval Cairo: a Mamluk obsession

Abstract

"In this book, Doris Behrens-Abouseif responds to the Mamluk chroniclers whose loquacity regarding clothing matters demands our attention. Using a multiplicity of sources including chronicles, European and Muslim travel narratives, popular storytelling, legal treatises, literature, and poetry, Behrens-Abouseif delves into the details of Mamluk dress. Whether as a vehicle for the sultanate's self-representation both internationally and domestically or as an expression of religious and social identities, status and wealth, female assertion, urban culture, and artistic creativity, clothing personified the broad Mamluk social spectrum. Replete with colorful anecdotes and copious illustrations, Dress and Dress Code in Medieval Cairo offers a lively and comprehensive study of this fascinating topic."--Back cover.

Contents

Introduction : subject, sources, and terminology -- Religion, traditions, and customs -- The Sultanate and its historians -- The designer sultans (1250-1380s) -- The Circassian revision (1380s-1517) and the Ottoman termination of the Mamluk dress code -- The Khilʻa : institution and ritual -- The Dār al-Ṭirāz and Mamluk art -- Dress and dress code of the Mamluk aristocracy -- The dress code of the civilian elite and the commoners -- Women's clothing -- Mamluk dress between text and image -- Social order and mobility -- Industry, trade, and assets -- Epilogue.