33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Long awaited but very disappointing in places, February 1, 2001
This review is from: Arab Dress a Short History: From the Dawn of Islam to Modern Times (Themes in Islamic Studies) (Hardcover)
Long awaited and eagerly anticipated by those of us working in this area, 'Arab Dress' raises questions as to the validity and bias of the author's research and text. I can only comment on the problems I found in the small sections that deals with my own areas of knowledge - Palestinian costume - and recommend that Stillman's conclusions regarding other areas of 20th century Arab costume traditions be confirmed by other reference sources.
While Dr Stillman was indeed an acknowledged authority on medieval Arab costume and on Jewish costume in the Middle East, her husband's posthumous accreditation of her in the introduction of this book as "the world's acknowledged expert on the history of the clothing of the Arab world" is perhaps, while understandable, a little excessive. It seems unlikely that "the world's acknowledged expert" would somehow have missed listing 30 years worth of British Museum publications on Arab costume and Islamic textiles in her Bibliography.
Stillman writes that her Bibliography contains a "full conspectus of the secondary literature (together of course with references to the scattered and highly diverse primary sources) on Arab and Islamic attire and costume". On the subject of Palestinian costume alone, only one of Shelagh Weir's seven publications on the subject is listed, as is only one of Jehan Rajab's. Ziva Amir's works are entirely missing. Disturbingly, all the monographs and articles by Palestinians collecting and researching this area - Widad Kawar, Leila el Khalidi, Abu Omar, and Al-Hassan etc - are missing (these authors have at least one monograph each in English). Missing, too, are all the research publications and exhibition catalogues of the Palestinian Heritage Foundation (USA), Palestinian Heritage Center (Bethlehem), Dar el Tifl Museum (Jerusalem), and the Palestine Costume Archive (Canberra) amongst other Palestinian research organizations. As for "scattered and highly diverse primary sources" Stillman lists absolutely none of the sources in Arabic produced over the last 50 years in this field.
In her small section in 'Arab dress' on 20th century ethnographic studies, Stillman sums up a century of research on Palestinian costume in one sentence listing three exhibition catalogues and one monograph, one of which was her own publication on the subject in 1979. The others are Weir (1989) Rajab (1989)(both excellent books, yes)and what she calls an "important anthology" produced by the Institute du Monde Arabe. A quick look inside the cover of this catalogue would reveal it to be the French edition of the exhibition curated by the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne, "Pracht und Gemeimnis: kleidung und schmuck aus Palastina und Jordanien". The Institute du Monde Arabe simply had the exhibition on loan. Credit for the catalogue - and it's reference in her Bibliography (where it only found under the name of the one author who included an article about Ottoman costume - a topic of more interest to Stillman, and one which is well represented in the Bibliography) should have been to the organizing museum. This may appear petty, but it reveals careless research.
I am also concerned about her choice of illustrations and figures. Most deal with early or medieval subjects and are, I'm sure, relevant to her research interests. However, like her text on various 20th century Arab country traditions, contemporary plates are very eclectic. The Palestinian wedding jacket shown (from her 1979 publication) is a bizarre choice as it features foreign motifs and is thus in no way a traditional example. No traditional example is shown to anchor it, nor is any information given about where it is from in Palestine or why or how it was worn. As this is the only illustration of Palestinian costume it would have been nice to have had something more indicative of the culture - even a photograph of a complete outfit showing how various clothing came together would have seemed more relevant. Figure 11, an "example of the Palestinian thawb" also from her 1979 publication, again has no informative text whatsoever, and is thus misleading because thobs only came in that style from one particular area in Palestine. It is misleading to call it representative.
While Stillman makes occasional reference to Palestinian costume in her general text she appears to have undertaken no further research on the subject since her 1979 publication accompanying the exhibition held at the International Museum of Folk Art at Santa Fe. This is of some concern because an awful lot has happened in this field since that time. Apart from issues such as the rise of nationalism and the re-introduction of traditional dress as a form of passive resistance amongst Palestinian women resulting from the original intifada, there has also been huge development in the production of traditional embroidered items by various refugee aid organizations. None of this is mentioned in "Arab Dress", although it has been mentioned in the six or seven English language monographs that have been published since Stillman's 1979 book.
What worries me here is that if I can find this many problems in the one area of this publication with which I am reasonably familiar(after 19 years research)what problems may potentially exist in other areas? I don't doubt Stillman's expertise in early or medieval Islamic attire but her sections on Arab costume by country may not as informed as they first appear. Admittedly this is a posthumous book and may not, despite a labor of love on behalf of her husband, be on the form that she originally visualized publishing. Still, it is a concern when a publication such as this is promoted as an expensive reference tool, and possesses so many omissions. And that is the main problem with "Arab Dress" - omissions in the Bibliography, omissions in the text and omissions in the illustrations.
Buy it for it's historical research on the early and medieval Islamic period by all means, but for the study and illustration of 20th century Arab and Islamic costume and textile traditions, you will need additional reference sources.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
For People who Make Costumes, December 17, 2001
This review is from: Arab Dress a Short History: From the Dawn of Islam to Modern Times (Themes in Islamic Studies) (Hardcover)
I found this book helpful in my ongoing research for making
medieval costumes in a number of ways. It gives correct terms for clothing and how they were worn in an historical context and how they overlap in language and region. Although the plethora of terms are at times hard to keep straight with out keeping notes. The book also helps in describing the costumes in the plates. Examples are; what country or people influenced the style or cut, the differences in the head gear,why people are wearing different head coverings, who wore boots in what time period and why they didn't in others.I wish the book had more plates for all the examples the author mentions but doesn't show.I find the reading interesting and helpful but not as complete as I would like.The bibliographical epilogue in chapter nine I thought was especially helpful for further study, but not all inclusive.For the serious costumer of the Middle East I would highly reccommend it. I find it helpful in my research for historically accurate costuming.
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2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Arabesque Galore!, August 6, 2000
This review is from: Arab Dress a Short History: From the Dawn of Islam to Modern Times (Themes in Islamic Studies) (Hardcover)
This is a wonderful reference book, not just for the clothing and photos, but a great study of the art and life in Arab cultures. The book is well written and very precise in it's descriptions of the clothing and it's meaning and purpose. It's very well worth the money if you are a serious collector of the culture or just a fashion buff!
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