Abstract
Clothing is aimed at concealing and revealing the body, protecting it and manifesting religious, political and social declarations. The material and symbolic meanings of clothing and its raw materials are evaluated through the context of their social, cultural and religious systems. The raw materials for clothing that were frequent and familiar in the 7th century Arab Peninsula were wool, leather, cotton and some kinds of silk. The spread of the Muslim empire and the intersections with other religions and cultures enable the trickling of new raw materials that were unknown to Muslims or unaccepted. The paper will describe and analyze this discussion by contextualizing it in social, religious and cultural reality that creates a structure of socio-religious dependency. The aim is not to identify, catalogue and technically analyze fabrics, but to reveal their role in Muslims’ life as a mean of creating dependency for the community and setting borders inside and outside. The analysis is built upon a scale that starts with the most recommended raw materials, then comes the permitted ones and at the end, the prohibited raw materials. This mapping will provide an insight into the ways textiles, as a cultural medium, help to shape and redefine identities and at the same time enable a sphere for creative expression within socio-cultural and religious limits and context.
Presenters
Hadas HirschDean of Faculty of Social Studies and Humanities, History, Arabic Lanugage, Oranim Academic College, Israel
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Hadith, Textiles, Islam, Culture, Clothing, Identity
