An agal (Arabic: عِقَال; also spelled iqal, egal, or igal) is a clothing accessory traditionally worn by tribal Arab men. It is a doubled black cord used to keep a keffiyeh in place on the wearer's head.[1] Agals are traditionally made of goat or camel hair.[2] Modern agals typically use cord manufactured for this purpose (rulers of Bahrain in particular are known for wearing elaborate agal designs), but plain rope is still occasionally utilized.[3]
.jpg) A man wearing a white keffiyeh with an agal on top of it | |
| Type | Arab clothing |
|---|---|
| Material | Goat hair |
| Place of origin | Arabian Peninsula |
It is traditionally worn by Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula (except Yemen and Oman)[4][5], Iraq,[6] Jordan, tribes in Syria, Sinai and Sharqia in Egypt, the south of the Maghreb, parts of Palestine, the Negev in Israel, and Khuzestan in Iran.
The use of the agal and ghutra is depicted in bas-reliefs and statues across the Middle East dating as far back as ancient times.[7] In his book Iran in the Ancient East, the archaeologist and Iranologist Ernst Herzfeld, in referring to the Susa bas-reliefs, points to the ancient agal as unique headwear of Elamites that distinguished them from other nations.
See also
editReferences
edit- ↑ Oxford English Dictionary. Second Edition, 1989.
- ↑ Merriam-Webster definition, online edition
- ↑ Lindisfarne & Ingham 1997, p. 45.
- ↑ Belcher, David (2019-11-08). "In Oman, Tailoring the National Attire". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-04-25.
- ↑ Downey, Tom (2008-01-01). "Yemen's exotic secrets". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-04-25.
- ↑ Salman, Raheem (2008-09-29). "A cultural thread that runs length of a fractured nation". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2025-10-20.
- ↑ Walther Hinz, Lost World of Elam, pp. 20-21: In referring to dark-skinned Susa in a bas-relief wearing agal: "These must be Elamites from the hinterland. Even today dark-skinned men, in no way negroid, are often to be seen in Khuzistan. They consider themselves for the most part as 'Arabs', and speak 'Arabic' among themselves. It seems likely that the population even of Ancient Elam was a mixed one, consisting of dark-skinned aboriginals of uncertain race and of 'Semites', who had infiltrated from Mesopotamia in repeated incursions since the Akkad period".
Sources
edit- Lindisfarne, N.; Ingham, B. (1997). "Head wear". Languages of Dress in the Middle East. Curzon. pp. 45–47. ISBN 978-0-7007-0671-6. Retrieved 2024-08-10.