What do the different Arab headdresses mean? I have seen white and red and white ones. Are they country specific?
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M$3 Answers
Here is one note I found:
The kaffiyeh is not technically a turban. It is really a rectangular piece of cloth, folded diagonally and then draped over the head ‹ not wound like a turban. Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, has made the kaffiyeh famous in recent times. However, the kaffiyeh is not solely Palestinian. Men in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Arab Persian Gulf states wear kaffiyehs in colors and styles that are particular to their region. Jordanians, for example, wear a red and white kaffiyeh, while Palestinians wear a black and white one. And a man from Saudi Arabia would likely drape his kaffiyeh differently than a man from Jordan. The black cord that holds the kaffiyeh on one's head is called an ekal."
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M$
keffiyeh (Arabic)
shmagh (Turkish)
ghutrah
ḥaṭṭah
or mashadah
I found it first here (online store)
http://www.desertstore.com/arabic-clothes-men-clothing/palestinian-style-kuffiyah-480.html
Once I've got the right name I googled it... and wikipedia says:
* (Ya)sh(e)magh: a piece of cloth, usually made of cotton or flax and decorated with many colors but usually by red and white.
* Ghutrah: a piece of white cloth made of cotton mild, wearing in western Iraq and the gulf states.
* Keffiyeh: a piece of white/black cloth made from wool and cotton worn primarily by the Iraqis in southern Iraq
Its distinctive woven check pattern originated in an ancient Mesopotamian representation of either fishing nets or ears of grain.
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M$
This is accurate. I lived in Saudi Arabia for about 10 years. The names are accurate, and the way different regions wear the ghuttrah (what the kaffiyeh is called there) in different ways is accurate.
Religious people tend to wear the plain white ghuttras with no eka, just draped down their shoulders.
Businessmen wear either white or white and red checkered ghuttrah folded up over the ekal, in a style based on where they come from.