Traditional Arabic Dress For the Arab Man Inside Saudi

BY MD KAVANWAL



The Arabic dress for the typical Saudi Arab man, is a long white, shirt-like garment, called a Thobe. The thobes look like an extended dress shirt, complete with different types of collars and cuffs.

This Arabic dress garment is loose fitting, always long sleeved, and ankle-length. Thobes are usually made out of cotton material, but can be a cotton blend, such as cotton polyester or nylon. Some thobes are made from fine wool blends, and very expensive ones made from silk. The Thobes are never pure silk or wool, they must be a blend.

The Saudi Arabic dress code is white in the summer, and muted colored thobes may be worn in the winter months.

During the season of Ramadan, some Saudi Arab men will wear tans, browns, yellows, grays, navy blues but most men stay with the traditional white thobes. Some may wear black, but it is discouraged because the Prophet Mohammad frowned on black, and reserved that color for women.

The Thobes can have mandarin-type stand up collars, or pointed collars. There are even some with buttoned down collars on designer thobes.

The Thobe is fastened with little buttons down the center front, or in less expensive Thobes, they buttons are replaced with snaps.

The more expensive Thobes have covered buttons, pockets at the hips and sometimes a breast pocket. Some have buttoned sleeves and others have French cuffs. The Arab men often use 18 karat gold cuff links, or cuff links with gem stones to hold the sleeves together.

As long as the adornments applied to the Arabic dress garment are not made of pure gold or silver, then the Arab man is in compliance of Sahria Law.

One of the most important aspects of Arabic dress for the Arab man is what is worn underneath the thobe.

The Prophet Mohammad decreed that a man, like a woman, must be modest. He must protect his "awrah" at all costs.

"Awrah" is the area between a man's navel and his knee. In the Koran, it states: "O Children of Adam, take your adornment (by wearing proper clothing) for every mosque", and religious scholars have further defined the meaning of this statement in terms of male modesty, namely, protecting the "awrah".

Arabic dress code for the Arab man is obligatory according to Islamic law. Wearing shorts that disclose the thighs or show the shape of the buttocks, does not cover the "awrah".

Neither does Arabic dress that is transparent and displays skin complexion, nor a tight clothes that show the size, shape or bends of the "awrah".

All of this is forbidden, especially showing off in front of other people. It doesn't matter if women are embarrassed by seeing something they shouldn't. They won't be punished in this case. This is the one time it is the man's fault for not being modest, as he is called to be.

If an Arab man's pants are wide enough and not tight, then he may tuck his shirt in his pants, as long as he does not display his "awrah".

Covering the "awrah" is most important and obligatory during the prayer time. What many people do is cover their "awrah" while going to prayer but are negligent of it outside the prayer. This is a clear mistake and a wrongful act.

The Matawa will reprimand an Arab man for improper Arabic dress, but not as severely as he would for a woman.

The differing countries in the Middle Eastern region will have their own variations of the thobe style as well as the way the head gear may be worn, but the principals are universal in Islam.

Arabic under garments are also prescribed for the Arab man. Older men wear boxer-like shorts that go from the navel to the knee, then wear loose fitting long white pants over them. These long white pants extend to the mid-thigh.

These boxers and longer white pants do not have a slit in the front of them like North American underwear.

Many Muslims believe that urinals are offensive, and some refuse to use them at all.

When nature calls, the proper and correct code of behavior, is to squat or sit. To stand to urinate is not in accord with the purest translation of Sharia Law.

Younger, less traditional men don't wear the boxer-type shorts--they just wear the loose-loose fitting white pants, that extend from the navel to the mid-calf.

Sometimes a young Arab man will simply wear the boxer-type shorts that extend to the knee instead of mid-calf. According to the Islamic traditionalists, this is improper Arabic dress, but rarely is a young man punished for this.

Arabic dress dictates a man wear a tee shirt under his thobe, because sometimes the thobe is sheer, and another person should not look at the nakedness of another.

The tee shirt can be either short or long sleeved, and is made out of cotton or a cotton blend.

The parts of the headdress are:

Tagiyah: A white knitted skull cap worn under the Ghutra. It can be made from a find wool or cotton cord, crocheted, knitted, or solid white cloth. Some have pleats, a little button on the crown. The variations, like the thobe, are depending on the Arab man's personal style and taste, or are sometimes a distinguishing feature of his tribal tradition.

Ghutra: A square scarf, made of cotton or silk blend, folded in a triangle and worn over the Tagiyah. In Saudi Arabia, it is either all white or red and white checked. There is no significance placed on what color the man wears, but most Arab men wear the red and white checked in winter months, and the pure white on in the summer.

Igal: A thick, double, black cord that is worn on the top of the Ghutra to hold it in place. It can be made for camel's or cow leather, or it can be a cord fashioned from wool or cotton. It is NEVER made from pig skin.

The Arabic dress style varies for a mutawa, or religious policeman. He has to prescribe to the same requirements for the undergarments, but his thobe is much shorter than the average man.

The matawa's thobe is just past mid thigh--just long enough to cover the longer pants of his undergarment.

He also differs in appearance. Matawa grow their beards to their mid chest, and most are scraggly and unkempt.

The matawa's appearance and dress make him standout in the crowds, and the average person knows to behave or escape the scrutiny of the feared religious police.

The faces of the ordinary Saudi Arab man are clean shaven.

A Muslim man is permitted to wear whatever is the customary dress when visiting another country, or within his own country, as long as he avoids any expressly unlawful behavior with respect to traditional Arabic dress.