Forgotten Islamic Wear

Did you know the story of this garment actually starts with sarung? Centuries ago, during the height of the maritime Silk Road, merchants sailed the Indian Ocean carrying spices, porcelain, textiles – and bolts of woven cloth stitched into simple tubes. Those sarungs were practical: easy to pack on ships, cool in brutal coastal heat, and modest enough for prayer and work in busy ports. As those traders moved west, the sarung picked up new names along the way. In bustling ports along the Arabian coast, the same wrap became known as izar or futah, worn by sailors, scholars, and merchants stepping off the boats for trade and prayer. Farther across the water, in the Horn of Africa, Somali communities adopted it, giving it a new identity – the macawiis – with their own colors, patterns, and ways of tying it. On the opposite side of the ocean, in South Asia, that same idea evolved into the lungi, wrapped and worn from village fields to tea shops and city streets. The cut stayed almost the same, but the designs shifted: checks, stripes, and bold colors that matched local taste and weaving traditions. So when you look at macawiis, izar, lungi, and sarung, you’re not seeing four random garments. You’re seeing one traveling cloth with many passports – a piece of clothing that quietly mapped the same routes as spices and silk, connecting Somalia, Yemen, India, and Indonesia long before anyone drew those borders on a map. submitted by /u/Pfyzer_ [link] [comments]

from Islam https://ift.tt/wZ7ulcS