In his work in praise of Egypt, Mamluk-era writer Abu Hamid al-Qudsi (d. 1483) rhapsodizes about the uniqueness of Mamluk dress stating, ‘The costume of the Mamluks is more beautiful and sumptuous than any other in any country’. In a similar vein, most chroniclers and foreign visitors of the time devote numerous passages to the description of the impressive apparel of the Mamluks, not only of the royal class but also of the upper and middle classes, too.

Members of the upper class habitually followed fashion innovations adopted by members of the Mamluk court. The extravagant fashion trends of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad’s harem, for example, were immediately copied by the common women of Mamluk society. Men were also eager to follow courtly fashion—typical examples were the popular wide tiraz sleeve bands applied to men’s costume. Known as ṭiraz Yalbughawi, they were named after Amir Yalbugha, one of Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad’s favourites, on whom the ruler used to bestow elaborate offerings, often in the form of costume.

The extravagance of Mamluk fashion was not a sporadic phenomenon. We often read of disproportionately long tunics and flowing sleeves worn by Mamluk women or of abnormally large male turbans that resulted in the issuance of royal decrees to moderate these excesses. Colour restrictions, mostly referring to the headgear worn by Christians or Jews, or to the colour of women’s coverings, are also recorded, but other items of clothing worn by these subjects was equally fancy and pricey as that of other Mamluk citizens.

The women of the era gave their beauty great importance, apparent not only in face, hair and body beautification, but also in their sophisticated apparel and elaborate jewels. In times of economic prosperity, Mamluk women dressed in luxurious silk tunics with sleeves that skimmed the floor when loose. The cost of these tunics could reach one thousand dirhams. The trousseau lists of young Mamluk girls use a wide range of terms to describe various clothing items with sophisticated decoration and vibrant hues that further testify to the richness of the Mamluk wardrobe. In terms of accessories, colourful headgear, finely woven silk mandils, sophisticated pouches, silk drawstrings (called tikka in Arabic), tanned leather shoes, sandals and wooden clogs would add an extra touch of luxury to Mamluk apparel. In times of epidemic, however, Mamluk women were the first to be blamed for frequenting the markets day and night to feed their vanity.

What survives is only a small part of what was originally produced by Mamluk weavers, but thanks to scientific and non-scientific excavations in Egyptian, Syrian, and Lebanese sites, we can shed light on the sartorial customs of the Mamluk era, thus adding to the information found in written sources.

Among the hundreds of fragmentary Mamluk textiles that have survived, there are more than 30 complete garments preserved in excavated sites and museum storerooms, which together with dozens of extant woven accessories, allow us to develop a picture of Mamluk society and everyday life.

The fabrics in this corpus include linens, cotton, wool, and silk, each used differently. As in previous eras, the quality of the fabrics was an indicator of the financial status of the owner. In many instances, two or more materials were combined, either for practical reasons or for decorative effect.

Linens

The majority of surviving garments are made of flax which is in line with the references found in the accounts and travelogues of Mamluk chroniclers, where descriptions of fine linens which look like silk abound. Surviving linen examples include complete or partially preserved tunics for adults, children, and infants, as well as accessories. Adult tunics are all long and wide cut-to-shape garments made of fine woven undyed linen. Their height ranges from 90 to 133 cm and their width, including the sleeves, reaches 126 cm. They have remarkably wide sleeves and vertical slit neck openings and consist of several segments of cloth cut in straight and triangular pieces and joined by seams usually covered with embroidered decoration. Tiny, repeated motifs arranged in bands across the shoulders and along the front and the back of the garment usually decorate the garment. Particularly notable in most of these examples, and in several surviving fragmentary frontals, is the embroidered decoration surrounding the neck opening, which either consists of minute geometric patterns in the style of hanging pendants or brings to mind wide necklaces ending in large diamond-shaped medallions. With the passage of time, and particularly during the Circassian era, the combination of stitches and the variety of colours of the embroidered patterns became significantly richer.

In two rare examples, the tunic decoration does not extend below the upper breast and only accentuates the area around the collar slightly extending to the back of the shoulders. The patterns displayed on these fragments consist of heart-shaped and floral motifs, thus strongly recalling the four-lobed cloud collars often seen on costumes from Mongol territories in China and Central Asia. In other—probably late Mamluk—examples a wide stand-up collar was introduced alongside more sophisticated neck openings often fastened with cord buttons and loops.

The tunics worn by infants and children were identical to those worn by adults, just considerably smaller in size and often made of reused remains of larger fabrics and not necessarily from the same piece of fabric.

In terms of accessories dozens of surviving pieces of headgear, children’s hoods, scarves, mandils, and pouches mostly decorated with colourful embroidered patterns further exemplify the wide use of linens in the Mamluk wardrobe.

Cottons

Cottons form the second largest group of surviving fabrics. Used for adults’, children’s, and infants’ garments alike, the majority of the extant cottons are of good quality spin and weave and are occasionally glazed. The best-preserved examples are attributed to the early Mamluk era (ca. 1283) and come from the excavation of the Asi al-Hadath grotto in Northern Lebanon.

Their shape was that of a wide garment with tapering sleeves and vertical front neck slit. The early examples have relatively narrow sleeves, thus exemplifying the smooth transition from the Ayyubid-style tunics with narrow sleeves to the remarkably wide Mamluk sleeves recorded in various sources and identified in surviving examples. Similar to the linen tunics discussed above, the cotton tunics of the era also had cord buttons and loops to fasten the front openings. The garments worn by infants were similar to those used by adults.

A few cotton garments and overgarments completely dyed in blue have survived. However, most of the extant examples are embellished with silk embroidery in geometric and floral patterns on the upper chest and the sleeves

Cotton was also used for undergarments. We can see this from the male cotton trousers found in two Coptic burials of the late 13th century. They are both loose and baggy and composed of several segments of undyed cotton. They were secured on the body by a drawstring at the waist.

In addition to the clothes, several cotton accessories have also come to light, such as the shash (turban shawl) and various headbands mostly decorated with embroidered patterns of bird-like and geometric motifs.

The cotton used for the manufacture of Mamluk textiles was predominantly of Syrian production. The best quality was from Baalbeck, and it was known to be used in the fine cotton clothes worn by the sultan and his courtiers alike. Local weavers made mainly white fabrics, the reputation of which extended beyond the borders of the Mamluk realm and impressed foreign visitors. Ludovico de Varthema, an Italian traveller who visited Syria in the early 16th century, recounts how local women dressed in silk and used as overdress cottons as delicate as silk. Large quantities of cottons bearing printed decoration were also imported from India. They were used as accessories, and in less prosperous years, as garments, as well.

Woollens

No more than one complete woollen garment has survived from the era, although we know that woollen clothes were popular among the Mamluks. This scarcity could be explained by the fact that animal fibres deteriorate in intensive heat, whereas plant fibres are more likely to survive.

The only extant woollen garment is a coat that once belonged to a Nubian bishop whose burial in Qasr-Ibrim is attributed to the early Mamluk era. It is a sumptuous and ample bell-shaped overgarment with an attached hood and cotton lining. Around the hem and inside the hood there is turquoise silk. The cloak’s decoration consists of a panel of multicoloured silk tapestry bands on the back and the shoulders, and it is further embellished with a narrow band of silk and purple wool and smaller bands filled with stylised floral patterns embroidered in gold silk thread. 

Given the scarcity of surviving woollen garments, no safe conclusions about their shape and decoration can be drawn. However, Mamluk sources reveal that woollens were habitually worn by the ‘ulama (religious scholars) and during the winter by the Mamluk army and the sultan himself, who at the end of autumn, ceremoniously exchanged his light summer garb for heavier, coloured woollen garments to mark the beginning of winter. Sultan Qaitbay even preferred riding in state processions during winter in woollen apparel and offered high quality kamiliyya robes trimmed with sables to the judge of Damascus. In terms of their quality, al-Maqrizi writes that Egyptian woollens were the only ones that gave sufficient warmth, while a European traveller to Mamluk Alexandria noted that the wool is excellent, though coarse. Red wool was used to make the typical red cap worn by the Mamluks, known as zamt, which is described and depicted by the German traveller Arnold von Harff who visited Egypt in the late 15th century.

However, following the early 15th-century plague, al-Maqrizi recounted that the shortage of artisans and the economic recession caused even men of the highest social strata to replace their silk apparel with coarse imported woollens worn up to then only by the poor and by mules.

Silks

The Mamluks had a well-recorded obsession with silk. In chronicles of the time, we often come across references to long silk tunics lined and trimmed with sable and decorated with gold embroidery, pearls, and precious stones. These were often offered as robes of honour by the sultan. The trousseau lists of the wealthy young Mamluk girls often included silk garments and mandils, while Cairene ladies are often recorded frequenting hammams and markets dressed in lavish silk apparel. The few complete Mamluk silk garments, undergarments, and accessories that have survived provide insight on the renowned silks of the era, although they certainly do not exemplify the most lavish garments. 

From these examples, however, we can still deduce a few interesting points pertaining to the style of the Mamluk silk garments worn by adults. Daily costumes were long light damasks or heavy silk garments, mostly lined with linen or cotton and decorated with repeated animal or floral patterns within roundels or pointed, cone-shaped ogives. They usually had straight sleeves and round neck openings. Their front was open all the way down, fastened only over the chest by means of braided loops and silk buttons, which indicate that they served as overgarments. The style and cut of a surviving silk robe that once belonged to a Mamluk child testify that the silk apparel of children was identical to that of their parents.

Silk was also used for the manufacture of elaborate lamellae-lined Mamluk cuirasses and brigandines, most likely used in parades. The cuirasses were worn either sleeveless or with separate sleeves added, and they were composed of several layers of fabric, the outer layer consisting of striped silk. The complete brigandine of Sultan Jaqmaq (r. 1438–1453), preserved in the Bargello Museum, Florence, shows how Mamluk brigandines were also elaborate, multi-layered garments, the top layer of which was made of silk decorated with brass studs that formed tiraz bands displaying the name and title of the sultan as well as Quranic sura segments. Mamluk brigandines were close to the modern jacket in form, with long sleeves and a stand-up collar. They closed at the front using sophisticated buttons and loops.

A few pairs of extant silk undergarments worn by adults exemplify an additional use of fine Mamluk silks. The trousers of the era, known as sirwal in the sources, had wide waists and legs which narrowed uniformly downwards from the gusset. They were composed of several carefully tailored pieces usually made of striped fabric and were secured on the body using a tikka (drawstring).

A few surviving undergarments worn by infants also include similarly tailored, multicoloured striped silk sirwals with matching silk vests of analogous decoration. These sleeveless vests were customarily lined with undyed plain woven cotton cloth and had their neckline and front openings faced with monochrome, often blue, silk. Cord buttons and loops that  fastened the front opening and small decorative pockets exemplify the sophisticated craftsmanship of the era.

Given the obsession of the Mamluks with silk, one should not be surprised by the fact that several accessories, such as headgear, pouches and sandals, were also made of or decorated with silk. In terms of headgear, a few fine silk shash shawls bearing decoration of interwoven bands filled with running or fighting animals and Arabic inscriptions wishing ‘glory’ have survived. The dozens of extant silk skullcaps of the era—made for adults and children alike— exemplify a wide variety in terms of manufacture and decoration. The most elaborate examples are made of rich lampas fabrics bearing inscribed decoration with the title of the sultan and friezes of running quadrupeds and crescents. They are customarily lined with linen and have a cord button at the top. A few more examples, mostly from Coptic tombs, are made of blue monochrome silk decorated with geometric patterns made with quilting. Similar to the elaborate lampas examples described above, these scullcaps also consist of a headband and a crown formed with repeated triangles. Several caps and hoods made for children and infants are made of various pieces of patterned silks, not necessarily of the same fabric. They are also lined with linen and decorated with silk patchwork, buttonhole-stitch eyelets in contrasting colours, and silk tassels. Multicoloured pouches lined with linen and decorated using similar methods have also come to light alongside small bags used to carry and protect small glass flasks.

Last but not least a surviving sandal of a young Mamluk girl reveals just how diverse the use of silk was under the Mamluks. It is small in size, probably worn by a Mamluk toddler, and consists of a leather sole and a wide silk strap fastened to the foot. The strap is made of dark blue silk bearing fleur-de-lys and crescents inscribed with the title  of the sultan.