This old man is wearing a camel-hair coat. Favored for their rainproof and warm quality, camel-hair coats were often worn by people facing extremes between day and night desert temperatures, which can fluctuate by up to 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

The man also wears a traditional turban on his head, a long piece of fabric wrapped around a small cone-shaped hat. The manner in which a turban was worn, its color and size indicated a person’s position in Central Asian societies. Senior clerics wore large snow-white turbans, while peasants and artisans wore smaller turbans. The descendants of the Prophet Muhammad were distinguished by their green turbans. The turban was an urban attribute; nomadic peoples preferred felt and fur hats of various shapes.

 

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