Past event
Art History Research Lecture: Professor Doris Behrens-Abouseif Men's Fashions in Medieval Cairo
Join us for Professor Doris Behrens-Abouseif Research Lecture on ‘Men's Fashions in Medieval Cairo' and a wine reception afterwards at 79 North Street.
While dress code in medieval societies was largely defined by religious, social and political rules, personal preferences nonetheless played a significant role in shaping dress culture. Focusing on Cairo, the capital of the Mamluk sultanate (1250-1517), this lecture documents the involvement of sultans and emirs in the design of uniforms and ceremonial outfits to convey a political image, while at the same time, in pursue of a refined lifestyle, individuals of the elite created fashions and designs that were labelled with their names. Fashions spread also among commoners as well, however they remained nameless. Combined with social and economic developments over of more than two and a half centuries, such initiatives led to significant transformations in the dress culture of medieval Cairo.
Doris Behrens-Abouseif, Research Professor at SOAS, is an art and cultural historian who has many publications on Islamic culture, architecture, urbanism and the decorative arts of the Mamluk and other periods of Islamic Egypt and Syria and the Arab world in general.