The qamīṣ in Sūrat Yūsuf: A Prolegomenon to the Material Culture of Garments in the Formative Islamic Period
Garments both reveal and cover. The recurring appearance of Yūsuf's qamīṣ, or shirt, in the twelfth sura of the Qur'an clearly functions as a literary device unifying the plot and signifying, in this case, the revelation of truth. However, behind the qamīṣ lies a material object, an actual article of clothing. This paper enquires into the relationship between the qamīṣ as a literary trope in the Qur'an and as a material object in first/seventh-century Arabia. By exploring a variety of comparative etymological, ethnographic, archaeological, iconographic and textual data, an attempt is made to ground the qamīṣ in the cultural and physical environment of the late antique world and as an element in the cultural imaginaire of the original audience of the story of Joseph in the Qur'an. While highly explorative and tentative, this paper strives to contribute to the evocation of the material world of the Qur'an.