Syrian Clothing, 1870s
The dresses of the Syrians, young and old, vary as much as the garments of other nations. The varieties come, however, from differences in material and value, rather than from…
From: 1876 C.E. To: 1876 C.E.
Location: Syria
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
“The Dress” from Syrian Home Life by Henry Harris Jessup, compiled by Isaac Riley, 1876.
The dresses of the Syrians, young and old, vary as much as the garments of other nations. The varieties come, however, from differences in material and value, rather than from frequent changes in fashion. In Eastern lands, garments are heirlooms handed from one generation to another, and valued and used in a way which would be impossible under the rule of fickle fashion
If popularity be decided by numbers, then the most popular dress is that made in main of rags. And there are degrees of raggedness in Oriental lands that are apparently unapproachable and incomprehensible in the West.
The ordinary dress of the fellaheen, or peasants, is a simple affair. For instance, the little boy Asaad, who brings milk every morning to the missionary families at their summer home in Abeih, on Mount Lebanon, wears a red tarboosh or cap on his head, a loose jacket, and trowsers which are like a blue bag, gathered around the waist, with two small holes for his feet to go through. They are drawn up nearly to his knees, and his legs are bare, as he wears no stockings. He wears red shoes, pointed and,turned up at the toes. When he comes in at the door, he leaves his shoes outside, but keeps his cap on his head.
Until recently the Syrian people, men and women as well as children, rarely wore stockings at all. One Syrian gentleman of the old style, in a discussion on Frank manners and dress, held that stockings were very injurious to health. He said that formerly the people wore only shoes, and their feet were tough and hardy, so that when they left their shoes at the door and walked barefoot into a house on the cold stone or earthen floor, they never took cold. But now the stockings make their feet so tender, that when they leave their shoes outside and walk in and sit down without them, they are almost sure to take cold!
As custom and etiquette inexorably demand that the shoes be put off whenever one enters a sacred place or even a dwelling, it may be that so humble an agency as stockings will succeed in overturning long-established habits. When health and comfort come in conflict with mere fanciful and superstitious regulations, the latter are pretty sure to go by the board.
The daughters of the fellaheen wear plain blue gowns made of coarse cotton cloth, dyed with indigo, and rusty-looking tarbooshes. To these is added a little piece of dirty white muslin, thrown over the head as a veil to cover the face when men come in sight. The Bedawin women, such as one can see any day in the streets of Hums, are wretched-looking creatures, dressed in coarse cotton cloth, and with the wool turned in; these latter are drawn up over the head and made to serve as umbrellas.
Besides the red, black, and yellow shoes or slippers, the people often wear kob-kobs. They are wooden clogs, made of a flat piece about the shape and size of the sole of a shoe, though an inch thick; underneath this sole a piece about six or eight inches long, and three inches wide, is fastened at the heel, and another at the ball of the foot. These upright pieces serve to lift the wearer out of the mud and water.
Sometimes these kob-kobs are very plain, sometimes very elaborately ornamented with paint, or with inlaid metals, shells, or party-colored woods. Each has a little strap over the toe to keep it on the foot. The boys and girls run up and down the steps and over the paved streets on these dangerous little stilts with great recklessness. They often slip or turn, and down the children come on their noses, and the kob-kobs fly off and go rattling over the stones, and Ali or Yusef, or whatever his name may be, begins to shout, Ya imme, ya imme! Oh, my mother! ” and cries as do the children of any land under the like conditions. Shoes and kob-kobs are always left outside the door, and may be seen in a curious mixed-up pile at any school-house. Outside are the shoes, inside the children, boys or girls, as the case may be, sitting cross-legged on the floor, in the way Arabs generally sit, rocking to and fro, chanting at the tops of their voices the lessons from the Koran.
The better-dressed children wear clothes of more costly materials and richer colors. Sometimes they have white turbans, instead of the fez or red felt cap. The indoor dress is often very rich. At a party in such a place as Tripoli or Beirut, the ladies will be dressed in the most elegant style, in silks and satins and velvets, embroidered with gold thread and pearls, and their arms and necks loaded with gold bracelets and necklaces set with precious stones, and on their heads wreaths of gold and silver work, sparkling with diamonds, and fragrant with fresh orange-blossoms and jessamine. The little boys and girls, too, are dressed in the same rich style among the wealthier classes. Pearls are worn in Syria by young and old, and are greatly admired. And the nurses, and the poor mothers even of the Bedawins, sing to the children of them.
One of their nursery songs is:
“I love you, my boy, my brother.
With flowing robes and with curls;
You’re worthy far more than another
A network of glistening pearls.”
Another is:
"You are big and as bright as a pearl.
My boy with the raven curl;
Come ye and join in my song,
Oh, come ye and join in my prayer.
That Allah his days may prolong,
And that he may be noble and fair,”
Arabs have a great fancy for rings. Many children wear, even around their ankles, little bands like bracelets, filled with tiny bells, so that when they walk they make a great tinkling. Bedawin mothers sing:
“Come, little Bedawy, sit on my lap;
Pretty pearls shine in your little white cap;
Rings are in your ears.
Rings are in your nose,
Rings upon your fingers.
And henna on your toes.”
The henna this song speaks of is used by the natives to dye their hands, feet, and finger nails, when a wedding or festive occasion occurs in the family. The nurses sing:
"Come, come, father, come.
Bring the henna on your thumb;
Come, my uncle, lest I grieve,
Bring the henna in your sleeve;
Come, my cousin, good and bland.
Bring the henna in your hand.”
Here is another nursery rhyme that speaks of it:
“Paint one hand with henna, mother;
Paint one hand, and leave the other;
Bracelets on the right with henna.
With the left give drink to Henna.”
Often the young men have pictures and various devices, like palm-trees, tattooed on their arms. One of the songs refers to the custom, and adds a touch of the vindictiveness that the Arabs delight to put into the songs for the children:
“My brother is tall like a pasha in state.
And on his right arm are blue palm-trees eight.
If any one slander our darling, our pride,
Then kill him, O father, his money divide.”
The Bedawins especially are very fond of ornamenting themselves by tattooing. And they apply it not merely to the arms, but to the face and whole body. After the civil war in 1860, a little bright-eyed girl from Hasbeiya came to the house of the missionaries in Beirut who had charge of the relief fund. Her father and brothers had been killed in the massacre at her native village, and she was carried off by the Arabs of the Huleh as a captive. In order to compel her to remain among them, they tattooed her forehead, nose, lips, and cheeks, with a dark-blue dye, in their peculiar style. After remaining among them for about six months, she escaped across the mountains to Tyre, and thence by boat to Beirut, where she found her mother. It was a happy escape, but the marks on her face would be counted a great disgrace to a Christian girl all her life.
Besides the ornaments made with pearls and precious gems, a very favorite head-dress is made of strings of coins linked together, twined in the hair, and hanging down the neck and by the cheeks. These chains are heirlooms handed down from one generation to another, and are counted very precious. It is very probable that the piece of silver lost by the woman of whom our Lord told in the parable, was sought for, not merely because of its intrinsic value, but because it was an old family treasure.
One of the most noticeable parts of the outfit of an Arab is his armament. In the cities and larger towns, where society is more peace, able, the men go often unarmed. But a sight which is very frequent in the mountains and the country back from the cities, is that of men loaded down as if they were walking arsenals. When a boy is to become a derwish, a kind of Mohammedan monk, he carries about with him a short iron spear as a badge. But the men carry firearms and weapons, in confusing and useless numbers. The visiting costume of Sheikh Ghalib, who dwelt on the plain a few miles from Tripoli, included two silver-headed horse-pistols, a sword, a dagger, a double-barrelled gun, and a short carbine.
This Ghalib is the man who gave Mr. Lyons a sheep, as an expression of his love for the gospel, and afterward wanted Mr. L. to marry him to some relative of his, contrary to the laws of his own sect. His black moustache was long, and curled at the ends, his eyebrows shaggy and dark, and his whole look with his warlike accoutrements was fierce and terrific.
He had six brothers as warlike as himself, and he offered, if the missionaries would marry him to that girl, to make them all Protestants, and then they could build up a sect very fast, as they were all government mounted police! The weapons of an Arab are not only valued as a means of adorning the person and impressing the beholder, but they furnish a protection often very much needed in the lonelier parts of the land and among the wild and lawless people. An affecting incident occurred some years ago in connection with the distribution of Bibles, when a sheikh in the town of Mahardee, north of Hamath—having bought six copies and paid for them with mats—at another time, having nothing else to spare, gave for one his sword, a weapon which in that rude region had often been his only protection.
Jessup, Henry Harris, and Isaac Riley. Syrian Home Life. Dodd & Mead, 1876.
About TOTA
TOTA.world provides cultural information and sharing across the world to help you explore your Family’s Cultural History and create deep connections with the lives and cultures of your ancestors.
