![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/Agal_%2528accessory%2529.jpg/640px-Agal_%2528accessory%2529.jpg&w=640&q=50)
Agal (accessory)
Band or string worn by men to secure a keffiyeh or headcloth / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An agal (Arabic: عِقَال; also spelled iqal, egal, or igal) is an Arab men's clothing accessory. It is a black cord, worn doubled, used to keep a ghutrah (or keffiyeh) in place on the wearer's head.[1] It is traditionally made of goat hair.[2]
![]() A Bahraini man wearing a ghutra with an agal over it | |
Type | Arab clothing |
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Material | Goat hair |
Place of origin | Arabian Peninsula |
It is traditionally worn by Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Jordan, and parts of Palestine, and Syria (such as the Negev in Israel, Deir ez-Zor and Hauran in Syria, and Sinai and Sharqia in Egypt), and Ahwazi Arabs.
The use of the agal and ghutra is dated through antiquities including bas-reliefs and statues going back to ancient times. The agal is traced in Semitic[3] and Middle Eastern civilizations and even in ancient Arabian kingdoms. In his book Iran in the Ancient East, the archaeologist and Iranologist Ernst Herzfeld, in referring to the Susa bas-reliefs, points to the ancient agal as unique headwear of Elamites that distinguished them from other nations.