Dress

Between 1989 and 1991, the exploration of the Magharat ‘Asi Al-Hadath grotto, located at an altitude of 1,300 m in the cliffs  of the high valleys of Qadisha, south-east of Tripoli, lead to the discovery of eight mummified bodies still wearing garments that were in good condition. The study of Muslim and Christian writings – primarily the chronicle of Abd Al-Zahir and the texts of the patriarch Al-Duwayhi – and the archaeological material of the grotto (ceramics, coins, garments, Arabic and Syriac manuscripts), dating back to the XIII^th century, made it possible to put forward the hypothesis that the women and children were buried there in 1283, after the attack of Sultan Baybars' army. Exceptionally allied with the last Frankish princes of the County of Tripoli, the Mamluk besieged the grotto of Hadath where was entrenched, with his followers, a dissident patriarch who opposed the Maronite patriarch elected under Frankih pressure.

Belonging to a young girl, this dress is one of the best conserved of the grotto, as it was worn over two other plain toile dresses that protected it from the organic fluids. Cut out of a cotton fabric, it is embroidered with silk. The embroidery work covers almost the whole of the sleeves and the upper part of the front, forming a large rectangular panel bordered at the bottom with a frieze of lancet-shaped florets. The ornamentation is formed of diagonal rows of cross-shaped motifs, red with white contours and blue lozenges at the centre. The background is marked with four dots forming a lozenge between the cross-shaped motifs. The patterns and colouring used confirm the attribution of the dress to the Mamluk period, because they appear on many embroidered XIII^th and XIV^th century pieces. Furthermore, a striking analogy has been noted between the embroidery and ornamentation of the fabrics of the Turkmen tribes of central Asia. Their influence is no doubt due to the situation of the village of Hadath, a crossing point for the nomad Turkmen tribes travelling back and forth between the plains of ‘Akkar and those of Bika‘ (Beqaa) reported as early as the XIII^th century.

The cut, with back and front bottom slits, is original, but the overall pattern is one found in the Near East, for dresses for adults and children, from the Abbasid period to the present. The confection is surely local. Cotton and silk were produced in the region, and Baalbek was famous for weaving cotton, the ba`alabakî mentioned Arab sources.

The discovery of women's garments in the grotto of Hadath is of extraordinary importance. No garments nor fabrics from the Medieval period had ever been found in their historical context, in the ancient province of Sham (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine). They provide a good sampling of the costume worn by women of the popular classes in the Lebanese mountains at that time. It is surprising to discover, through these pieces, the permanence of a type of dress that is found with its cut and embroidered embellishments in traditional dresses, worn to this day by Syrian and Palestinian women.