Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Arab shirt

  • Description

    The basic Arab male dress is a long, white shirt thob, sometimes embroidered at the neck. Wealthy men wear a second robe zebun over it. The headcloth is held down with a heavy decorative rope aqal, here made of gold thread wound around a silk core.

    This outfit [EA1965.176, LI077.2., and LI077.3.] belonged to T.E. Lawrence and was probably worn by him while with the Arab army 1916-1918. He worked closely with Emir Faisal (later King Faisal of Iraq) during the Arab Revolt (1916-18), and on his suggestion, adopted Arab dress:

    I was...[fitted out]…in splendid white silk and golden-embroidered wedding garments which had been sent to Faisal lately (was it a hint?) by his great-aunt in Mecca. (T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom Ch.XX)

  • Details

    Associated place
    Asia Arabian Peninsula (north) (place of creation)
    Date
    1916
    Associated people
    T.E. Lawrence (1888 - 1935) (recipient)
    Material and technique
    white silk, embroidered with silk
    Dimensions
    width at sleeve 132 x 150 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Lent by All Souls College, University of Oxford.
    Accession no.
    LI077.2
  • Further reading

    Wilson, J. M., T. E. Lawrence "Lawrence of Arabia": Set of Slides with a Commentary and Biographical Notes by J. M. Wilson (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1976), cat. slide 5 on pp. 17-20, illus. slide 5

Location

    • Lower ground floor | Room 5 | Textiles

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

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