Is this a lost somali clothing or is it imported??

[abayoqurux]

I have pictures of my great grandad wearing the same clothes the dude below wearing, and someone said that it is arab clothing but I can't find vintage pictures of any Arab wearing it and atp i only found somali pictures, if anyone could provide me with pics of arabs wearing it pls send, i wanna know if it is somali or not so i can add it to the list of lost parts of our dhaqan so i can cry about it

 

[Journey.]

It probably is Arab clothing because the man sitting to his left (cropped out) is wearing the same fit but with traditional Arabian headpiece (white cloth with black cord/'iqal).

 

[Hamzza]

Imported

 

[Saciid]

It's an arab cloak (bisht), still worn rarely in Oman. Don't remember what it was named. Somalis don't have a native cloak.

 

[Garaad diinle]

I have pictures of my great grandad wearing the same clothes the dude below wearing, and someone said that it is arab clothing but I can't find vintage pictures of any Arab wearing it and atp i only found somali pictures, if anyone could provide me with pics of arabs wearing it pls send, i wanna know if it is somali or not so i can add it to the list of lost parts of our dhaqan so i can cry about it
View attachment 244537

This appears to be a kaftan found primarly among east african muslim often times somalis. It's worn by notable, prominent and rich somalis. It's made by native and might have been traded as far north as egypt. I presume that it must have been inspired by neighbouring countries such as yemen or even the hijaz. I think i've seen buttons similar to these found on somali kaftans in some old egyption clothing.

Possible yemeni inspiration.

Hijazi style.

 

[Dima&Damo]

It's somali worn so it's somali made

 

[Saciid]

This appears to be a kaftan found primarly among east african muslim often times somalis. It's worn by notable, prominent and rich somalis.

Also in South Arabia where u will find a much stronger bisht culture, unlike Somalis who rarely wore cloaks.

It's made by native and might have been traded as far north as egypt.

How do u know it's native and that it was possibly sold as far as Egypt?

 

[Garaad diinle]

It's somali worn so it's somali made

Did you know that lots of arabs didn't even wear thobs in the past instead they had labo go'.
They only normalized it and popularized it as a cultural item in favor of the labo go' in the 20th century.

Here are some omanis.

Here are yemanis.

Here is a saudi.

Random arabs.

In an alternative universe somalis might have done the same and had thob as a cultural item.
Imagine somalis today wearing this style today.

Here is a issa sultan sultan roble in the north.

Mogadishu in the south.

​

Hargeisa.

 

[Maintainnnin]

How do u know it's native and that it was possibly sold as far as Egypt?

The South Arabian attire is not the same one that you see Somalis wearing. Our attire is completely unique to us and other Muslim Horn Africans. We also have first hand accounts of Somalia having a flourishing textile industry going as far back as the 1300's. We exported finished garments all across the region including Egypt.

We even eventually started growing cotton locally instead of imported raw cotton from places like India to make finished garments. Cutting out the cost of importing raw cotton made our domestic textile industry even more competitive, to such an extent we were exporting our cotton to India.

 

[Saciid]

Did you know that lots of arabs didn't even wear thobs in the past instead they had labo go'.
They only normalized it and popularized it as a cultural item in favor of the labo go' in the 20th century.

Here are some omanis.

Here are yemanis.

Here is a saudi.

Random arabs.

Completely disagree, there's ancient records of Arabs of all walks of life wearing thobe and it was used by closely related groups too. Somalis on the other hand rarely wore it and it's unknown amongst closely related groups.

In an alternative universe somalis might have done the same and had thob as a cultural item.
Imagine somalis today wearing this style today.

Maybe, but it would have been an importation of Arab thobe that gradually took over similar to what happened amongst Swahilis.

U can see clearly that this is european from its button and european shirt with macawiis was very popular at that time, u can see photos of Keenadiid and Boqor Cismaan wearing it

Here is a issa sultan sultan roble in the north.

Mogadishu in the south.

​

Hargeisa.

A few photos of Somalis wearing it isn't proof

 

[World]

It's an arab cloak (bisht), still worn rarely in Oman. Don't remember what it was named. Somalis don't have a native cloak.

It was either native Benadir clothing or Indian.

 

[Garaad diinle]

Also in South Arabia where u will find a much stronger bisht culture, unlike Somalis who rarely wore cloaks.

When you say bishit i can only think of this rather than what i posted.

Yemen was a diverse place some of them even use to wear indian like clothing.

Somalis had already the ability to prodoce cloth of their own like alindi kofia the somali go' so on and so forth.

 

[Saciid]

The South Arabian attire is not the same one that you see Somalis wearing. Our attire is completely unique to us and other Muslim Horn Africans. We also have first hand accounts of Somalia having a flourishing textile industry going as far back as the 1300's. We exported finished garments all across the region including Egypt.
View attachment 244574

This is obvs talking ab exporting fabrics, which is something I'm not disagreeing with.

We even eventually started growing cotton locally instead of imported raw cotton from places like India to make finished garments. Cutting out the cost of importing raw cotton made our domestic textile industry even more competitive, to such an extent we were exporting our cotton to India.

View attachment 244576

Completely irrelevant to what I said or asked

It was either native Benadir clothing or Indian.

View attachment 244578

Khalili isn't a cloak, but a fabric used to wrap around. English writers used to refer to wrapped garment as tobe, not referring to Qamiis.

 

[Saciid]

When you say bishit i can only think of this rather than what i posted.

I meant arabic cloak, which includes bisht. My bad

Somalis already had the ability to prodoce cloth of their own like alindi kofia the somali go' so on and so forth.

This isn't ab the lack of ability, but the lack of incentive. Somalis were content with the wrapped dress and were developing & changing that in line with fashion & tast. Similar to the rest of East Africa bar Swahili towns

 

[Garaad diinle]

Completely disagree, there's ancient records of Arabs of all walks of life wearing thobe and it was used by closely related groups too

Look i didn't say all the arabs or even more than half the arabs i said lots of arabs and you
don't need to believe me simply research it. The far back you go in time the less you'll see
them wearing it. In fact in the sadar al awal min al islam meaning the time of the rasul sallallahu alaihi wasallam it's been said that majority of arabs didn't wear it. According to al-jahiz thob and sirwal is from persian culture. It's not my opinion it's just how it is.

Somalis on the other hand rarely wore it and it's unknown amongst closely related groups.

I'm not arguing that all somalis wore it here nor am i saying that we have a long tradition of wearing it. I'm merely suggesting since it's in somalia and it's somali produced with a somali style it could have been adopted as a cultural sympol since we're also muslims. Arabs also have labo go' and you don't hear anyone screaming it's an import form the arabs.

A few photos of Somalis wearing it isn't proof

This is meant to show how relativly uniform it's which would make it ideal to be a cultural symbol for somalis not that it's been absolutely worn by every somalis.

 

[Maintainnnin]

This is obvs talking ab exporting fabrics, which is something I'm not disagreeing with.
Completely irrelevant to what I said or asked

The whole point I'm making is that we were mass producing and exporting textiles and eventually outcompeting large markets such as India.

Why would we import foreign dress styles when our industry could indigenously produce its own. There's a reason our style is unique to us. All the photos you shared are of differently decorated styles.

 

[Charlatan]

The whole point I'm making is that we were mass producing and exporting textiles and eventually outcompeting large markets such as India.

Why would we import foreign dress styles when our industry could indigenously produce its own. There's a reason our style is unique to us. All the photos you shared are of differently decorated styles.


View attachment 244585View attachment 244586View attachment 244590
View attachment 244587

There's many pics of Somalis wearing these. I think all the Somalis in the Italy/Germany delegation were wearing these. Definitely doesn't look like it was unusual.

Also, to me looks very different to the Omani bisht

 

[Danakiil]

Did you know that lots of arabs didn't even wear thobs in the past instead they had labo go'.
They only normalized it and popularized it as a cultural item in favor of the labo go' in the 20th century.

Here are some omanis.

Here are yemanis.

Here is a saudi.

Random arabs.

In an alternative universe somalis might have done the same and had thob as a cultural item.
Imagine somalis today wearing this style today.

Here is a issa sultan sultan roble in the north.

Mogadishu in the south.

​

Hargeisa.

Imo this old attire looks alot more similar to the Habesha Kaba clothing style than any of the Arab suggestions in the thread. This is probably unique to the horn. Doesn't take rocket science to design some cloak.

 

[Odious Delirium]

Where can we buy these outfits tho is anyone selling it anymore and somalis can definitely bring it back in style. It's better than the current alternative and people will actually wear it. Is it being sold anywhere?
I already wear the imamah the cloak would make it dope

 

[Strawberry]

This appears to be a kaftan found primarly among east african muslim often times somalis. It's worn by notable, prominent and rich somalis. It's made by native and might have been traded as far north as egypt. I presume that it must have been inspired by neighbouring countries such as yemen or even the hijaz. I think i've seen buttons similar to these found on somali kaftans in some old egyption clothing.

Possible yemeni inspiration.

Hijazi style.

Yeh it does not look the same tho the design placement the with it the materials it looks different…I’m not shore