Object History
This piece of garment was a gift to Dr. Reem Tariq El Mutwalli from her mother Buthaina Al Kadi. It was eventually added to The Zay Initiative Collection in 2018 to further enhance it.
Buthaina Al Kadi was born in Baghdad in 1936, where she attained a diploma in Education, following which she accompanied her husband Dr. Tariq El Mutwalli on his diplomatic missions to Türkiye and the United States.
They finally settled in Al Ain, UAE in 1968, where her husband Dr. Tariq El Mutwalli was appointed the economic consultant to the then crown prince the late Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan by his father the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, founding father and first president of the UAE.
Meanwhile, Buthaina was appointed as a head mistress to a number of the newly opening girl’s schools in both Al Ain and Abu Dhabi, after the Union of 1972.
They subsequently moved to Abu Dhabi in 1970 and since then the family has called the UAE their home forging intimate and lifetime relationships with the ruling family.
Object Features
This is an ivory silk brocade traditional Iraqi women’s jacket (sayah) with long sleeves and a short collar. The piece is a front-open garment without any fastening.
The field of the sayah is constructed from a brocade fabric with metal and silk of (satin) weave. It has woven floral designs in metallic threads – possibly silver – running vertically down the field of the garment. Rows of similar motifs are repeated with vertical lines also woven in metal threads separating the rows.
A crocheted lace constructed of twisted silk floss in two different shades of brown and metal threads (kalabbdun), was added by Dr. Reem, as a design element and bonding strip on both sides of the front as well as back.
The front panels on both sides of the plackets are cut in a long godet-like triangular shape that has been attached to the collar with long slits on either side of the jacket which divides the skirt into three segments, thus making it closely resemble an (Üçetek_entari) from Ottoman Turkey. It also features two very deep pockets on either side.
The piece was lined by Dr. Reem, with a fine ivory (muslin) possibly of Indian origin, and is completely machine stitched. Dr. Reem also resized it with a plain ivory satin fabric beneath the arms.
More Info
Iraq, located south of Türkiye, was a significant Arab territory under the rule of the Ottoman Empire for approximately four centuries. In the northern province of Mosul, which was then under Ottoman rule, the prevalent modes of dress were heavily influenced by the fashion trends originating in Istanbul.
By the 1930s, the elites of Baghdad, as well as other urban Christian and Jewish communities, had fully transitioned from Ottoman attire to European-style clothing. However, among the urban Muslim elites and middle classes, the shift towards Westernised clothing occurred more gradually, the vestiges of which are seen through pieces like these which are essentially from a decade or two later.
Links
- Cangökçe, Hadiye, et al. Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun Son Döneminden Kadın Giysileri = Women’s Costume of the Late Ottoman Era from the Sadberk Hanım Museum Collection. Sadberk Hanım Museum, 2010.
- Küçükerman, Önder, and Joyce Matthews. The Industrial Heritage of Costume Design in Turkey. GSD Foreign Trade Co. Inc, 1996.
- AĞAÇ, Saliha, and Serap DENGİN. “The Investigation in Terms of Design Component of Ottoman Women Entari in 19th Century and Early 20th Century.” International Journal of Science Culture and Sport (IntJSCS), vol. 3, no. 1, Mar. 2015, pp. 113–125. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/91778
- Parker, Julianne. “OTTOMAN AND EUROPEAN INFLUENCE IN THE NINTEENTH-CENTURY BRIDAL COLLECTION OF THE AZEM PALACE, DAMASCUS, SYRIA.” Journal of Undergraduate Research: Brigham Young University, 18 Sept. 2013. http://jur.byu.edu/?p=6014
- Koç, Adem. “The Significance and Compatibility of the Traditional Clothing-Finery Culture of Women in Kutahya in Terms of Sustainability.” Milli Folklor , vol. 12, no. 93, Apr. 2012. 184. https://www.millifolklor.com/PdfViewer.aspx?Sayi=93&Sayfa=181
- Micklewright, Nancy. “Late-Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Wedding Costumes as Indicators of Social Change.” Muqarnas, vol. 6, 1989, pp. 161–74. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1602288. Accessed 13 July 2023.
- Micklewright, Nancy. “Looking at the Pst: Nineteenth Century Images of Constantinople and Historic Documents.” Expedition, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 24–32. https://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/pdfs/32-1/micklewright.pdf
- Ozgen, Ozlen, et al. “Henna Ritual Clothing in Anatolia from Past to Present: An Evaluation on Bindalli.” Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings, 2021, https://doi.org/10.32873/unl.dc.tsasp.0122.
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