Clothing and Appearance in the Timurid World

Between 1370 and 1507, Timurid rulers governed lands across Central Asia and Iran, where clothing could mark rank, occasion and personal preference. The best-known accounts describe named members of the court, while paintings and a small number of surviving garments show how clothes were shaped and worn.

Layers, coats and headgear

For men, Timurid paintings show a shirt or tunic under a long outer coat, with trousers, a belt and either boots or shoes. The earlier Mongol-period term qabā refers to a long coat wrapped across the front and fastened with a belt. In fifteenth-century Timurid pictures, men’s qabās appear less heavily patterned than in earlier images; some are buttoned down the front and held with a leather belt fitted with metal pieces. Loose trousers tucked into boots or shoes suited a life that often involved riding.

The headwear also varied by setting. Timurid paintings show a tall cap with a divided crown and slit brim, a flatter decorated hat, and turbans, most often white but sometimes striped. Cloaks thrown over the shoulders could have fur lining and decoration along the front, shoulders or knees. Babur, a Timurid prince and memoirist, offers a personal example from the Fergana Valley, in eastern Central Asia: his father, Umar Shaykh Mirza, ruler there, wore a tightly fastened tunic and tied his turban in a single fold, although Babur says turbans were generally wound in four folds at the time. In hot weather, outside court, Umar Shaykh usually wore a Mongol cap. Babur’s description distinguishes a ruler’s public court appearance from his choice of headwear in heat.

Women appear in Timurid paintings in long coats that open at the front, with short lapels and sleeves of different lengths, over a pīrāhan, the shirt or tunic worn closest to the body. Belts or long sashes held the layers at the waist. Head coverings include scarves that fall behind the wearer or are secured beneath the chin. These images show how an outer coat, underlayer and head covering worked together.

Court dress and ceremonial display

The Castilian envoy Ruy González de Clavijo saw Timur at Samarkand, in present-day Uzbekistan, in 1404. Timur wore a plain silk robe without embroidery, paired with a tall white hat topped by a ruby and surrounded by pearls and other precious stones. The robe was simple in surface, but the jeweled hat made the ruler’s appearance unmistakably courtly.

At a feast that year, Clavijo described Timur’s chief wife in a long red-silk robe trimmed with gold. The sleeveless garment had no waist and only an opening for the head and two armholes. Fifteen women held up its skirts so she could walk. A thin veil covered her face, while a high red headdress embroidered with gold and set with pearls, rubies and emeralds extended down her back. The robe’s long skirts made attendants part of how she moved through the feast.

Clavijo also saw Timur’s grandson Pir Muhammad in a blue silk robe with gold embroidery. A broad cloud collar, a decorative panel covering the chest, back and shoulders, made the robe’s outline visible from several angles. At another reception, Timur gave the Castilian envoys robes, matching shirts and hats of kincob, or gold brocade. Clothing worked here as a court gift: the ruler dressed foreign visitors in valuable textiles and made his favor visible to everyone present.

Surviving garments and what they show

Burial clothes provide details that paintings cannot. Fragments from fifteenth-century Timurid burials preserve a turban of finely woven cloth and a long shirt of mixed silk and cotton associated with Ulugh Beg, a Timurid ruler. The shirt was tucked into trousers at the back and sides but fell to the knees in front. A broad silk band, patterned in white and pale blue checks, held it at the waist.

Manuscript paintings show a wider range of outfits and how court artists arranged coats, sleeves, belts, boots and headgear in court scenes. Dated images can be compared with the cut of surviving burial clothes and with named observations such as Clavijo’s 1404 account and Babur’s family description.

For the wider setting of clothing, worship, feasting and travel, see Daily Life in the Timurid World.