The moroccan Jewish costume: the man

This article is also available in: Italiano

Thanks to “History of Jewish costume” by Alfred Rubens, we will discover the clothes of the Moroccan Jews, who settled there long before the arrival of the Arabs

3 travelers

In “A history of Jewish costume” there are 3 texts that refer specifically to how Jewish men dressed in Morocco, whose main feature, as we will see, was above all the great presence of black. The three sources, in particular, are: a text by Lancelot Addison, an English writer and religious who, between 1662 and 1670, will be chaplain in Tangier, Roland Fréjus, a French traveler who arrived in Morocco in 1671 and Georg Høst, a Danish historian who he went there in 1781. Good discovery!

“They wear a black hat without a hem like that of the Moors who rarely move to greet each other. They too, like the Moors, go in slippers, wear linen underwear and a dress on which they put a loose robe called” ganephe “. it differs only in color from the “mandillon” or “albornoz” that the Moors hand over to Christians who redeem themselves from slavery.

Moroccan Jews

This ganephe is a square piece of coarse hairstuff closed at the transverse corners and all around is a large Thrum, which at first glance resembles their religious fringes, which we will have occasion to talk about in due course.

Lancelot Addison

Jew, dressed in black

“The Jews wear: a shirt, underpants, a black coat or a caftan and, over it, a type of cloak which they call” burnus “; which is made with a hood like the cassock of the friars, but with ropes hanging from the end of the hood and at the bottom. They have black hats, shoes and slippers. “

Roland Fréjus
Moroccan Jews
On the left a “layman” and on the right a rabbi

Finally, we conclude with Georg Høst, the most recent of the 3 authors:

“All men wear black hats, burnouts and slippers, only the caftan can be of a different color. The rabbis have no special clothes, but they wear, to distinguish themselves, larger and wider sleeves, a red mark on their burnous and, of usually, a blue handkerchief around their hat.”

Georg Høst

That’s all for today, don’t miss the next episode, it will have as its theme: the dress of Moroccan Jewish women.

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