The History of Clothing

19th Century · Middle East & North Africa · 1800 - 1900

19th Century Middle Eastern Clothing

Ottoman Tanzimat reforms and growing European influence reshaped dress across the Middle East, turning clothing into a battleground between modernization and tradition.

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The Tanzimat Reforms and the Fez

Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt, white-bearded and wearing a red fez and dark robes, seated in a European-style chair David Wilkie, His Highness Muhemed Ali, Pacha of Egypt, 1841. Tate, London. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

The most visible sartorial change in the 19th-century Middle East was driven by state decree. Sultan Mahmud II's clothing reforms — first for his new army in the late 1820s, then for officials of every rank in 1829 — replaced the traditional turban with the fez — a brimless crimson felt cap. This was a forerunner of the broader Tanzimat modernization program, launched in 1839, that sought to remake the Ottoman Empire along European lines. The fez, ironically itself widely thought to be of North African origin, became the empire's defining headgear for nearly a century until Ataturk banned it in turn in 1925.

Military dress was transformed most completely. The old system of regionally varied kaftan-based garments gave way to standardized Western-style uniforms modeled on European designs. Ottoman officers wore fitted tunics, epaulettes, and trousers, a dramatic departure from the flowing robes of earlier centuries. For civilian officials, the stambouline — a black frock coat worn with the fez — became the standard formal outfit, blending European tailoring with Ottoman identity.

Everyday Dress and Regional Traditions

Color photochrom portrait of a bearded Bedouin sheikh in a striped yellow headcloth held by a thick dark headband, and a striped cloak Bedouin sheikh of Palmyra, photochrom after a photograph by Félix Bonfils, 1890s. Library of Congress. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Beyond the official reforms, everyday clothing across the Middle East retained much of its traditional character. Men commonly wore the thobe or dishdasha — a long loose garment suited to the hot climate — in the Arabian Peninsula, while in the Levant and Egypt, layered ensembles of sirwal trousers, shirts, vests, and outer robes remained standard. The keffiyeh and agal headcovering continued its essential role in Arabian dress, while Persian men wore the kolah cap and distinctive pleated coats.

Women's clothing in the region remained largely shielded from Western reform efforts. The abaya and various forms of face veiling continued in the Arabian Peninsula, while urban women in Istanbul and Cairo navigated between traditional and European-influenced styles. Elite Ottoman women increasingly adopted elements of Parisian fashion — corsets, European fabrics, and tailored bodices — while retaining the ferace outdoor cloak and yashmak face veil in public. In Persia, women wore the chador over richly decorated tunics and wide trousers or, from the middle of the century, short layered skirts, with regional embroidery and textile traditions adding distinctive local character.

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