Sources: Women and Clothing
In tenth century Baghdad, the rich and poor no matter their gender wore similar styles of clothing differing mainly in types of embellishment and quality and quantity of cloth. The gender-queer might mix styles subtly, obviously, switch styles completely, or not at all. Social class and position determined how much of a person’s body would be covered in public and the quality and quantity of the fabric.
Elite Muslim women in beautiful printed wraps, some with their faces covered.
In general women wore loose pants (sirwal), a long under-slip, and a long tunic-like shirt (qamis) or gown (qaba) over the pants and slip. Women likely wore a loin cloth while menstruating that held the rags used to absorb the fluid, although documents from a few hundred years later indicate a kind of belt was used.
Many women would also wear a robe-like coat (durra`a) that was either tied with a sash or left open over the qamis or gown and sirwal. Turkmen women might have had a sleeveless tunic over the qamis and sirwal.
Women would cover the robe with a voluminous wrap for going out in public. Others may have not worn a robe at all, but only a wrap over their slip, qamis or gown and sirwal. The wraps varied in style, but most often were like a chador. The wraps might be block printed in beautiful patterns (see the image above) and with lavish embroidery around the edges. Turkmen women who retained their clothing traditions did not wear the wrap, but had robe-like coats.
Women, including enslaved women, in higher social circles, typically covered their faces with thin piece of cloth called a litham (see the image above), but which I call niqab in the books, and covered their bodies completely in public.
Most women wore kerchiefs of various types around their hair covered by the wrap. Turkmen women who retained their clothing traditions wore a heavily embroidered cap with their hair exposed beneath, sometimes with a wrap over it, sometimes not.
The wealthy had varying styles of all the typical clothing in extraordinary fabrics, silks of the highest quality, heavy embroidery, and lengths and lengths of it. Their sleeves would be wide and their robes and wraps flowing, even trailing on the ground behind them.
Poor women, like Zaytuna, could not cover their bodies in a way that would impede their everyday work whether in public or private. They would wear their wrap around their waist like an apron or tucked under their arms like a sarong, but threw it over their heads in the streets. They did not cover their faces when working.
Outside of work, poor women would wear the wrap draped over their head and pulled around their bodies, open or closed according to their inclination. During this period, they did not typically cover their faces, although they might pull the wrap over their face in circumstances requiring it.
Poor women’s clothes were either cast-offs or the cheapest quality, and there would not be much of it. Their sleeves would be narrow rather than wide, for instance, and their wraps less voluminous than wealthy women. They may or may not have had underclothes.
Enslaved women outside of the highest social circles wore even less. Not always, but at times it was considered improper and even impermissible for enslaved women to cover as free women did, even impoverished free women. By some accounts, they would wear the kerchief, loose pants, long top and slip, but according to others they might only have a shorter length wrap to wear as an apron in public.
For a complete discussion of clothing see Stillman, Arab Dress: A Short History, Ahsan, Social Life Under the Abbasids, and this summary of the clothes mentioned in Stillman’s book by a Muslim woman, Sayyida Jahanara, who recreated them for herself. She also includes a useful bibliography.