Habit of a Gentleman of Persia in 1568

by Thomas Jefferys

The exceptional engraving colored by hand of Thomas Jefferys offers a glimpse into the magnificence of the elegance of fashion during the mid-16th-century Safavid Empire. The illustration depicts an elegant "Habit of a Gentleman of Persia in 1568" and represents the pinnacle of sophistication in the Orient that astonished travelers and Enlightenment philosophers from Europe.

More precisely, the individual is depicted dressed in an oriental qaba—a long coat decorated with floral motifs and fastened at the waist by a shash (a sash). Furthermore, the gentleman wears the Taj-i-Haydari—a distinctive headdress composed of twelve folds signifying the Twelve Imams. Importantly, Jefferys, known for his accuracy as King George III's geographer, converts the ethnographic image into a piece of art.