Page 53 - Edessa, 'The Blessed City'-01, by J. B. Segal (Oxford, 1970). Chapters 1-3

40 EDESSA UNDER THE KINGS
of silver plate—and, incidentally, also wearing the necklace of tooth-shaped
beads of the mosaics and statues of third century Edessa.1
Girls wore less elaborate head-gear than their elders. In the Funerary
Couch mosaic a girl wears no hat, but has her robe simply draped around her
head. In the Tripod mosaic another girl has a Phrygian cap like her brother.
In the fashionable Family Portrait mosaic, a grand-daughter, standing in the
background, has three rounded combs in her hair, a style which appears also
in another Edessan mosaic, now destroyed.2
Male society at Edessa was no less fastidious in its dress. From the mosaics
we observe that they wore shirts reaching to the knees, of a simple form in the
case of boys. The belts of the Tripod mosaic are ornate, that of the father in
particular, which has a double clasp. Trousers are of the familiar Iranian
type reaching to the ankle or mid-calf; some are baggy, others less full. In
the Tripod mosaic, the trousers of the deceased man seem to be gathered at
the bottom with a cord held by two tassels. Boots reach to mid-calf, but in the
elegant Family Portrait mosaic the menfolk wear slippers, cut away at the
back (as in the Near East today), and with triangular flaps on top.
Over his shoulder, the central personage in the Tripod mosaic carries
what may be a cloak; and he has a triangular ornament on the front of his
shirt. Young men in the Funerary Couch mosaic have loops on their left
shoulder, presumably to hold a cloak. But the menfolk of the Family Por-
trait mosaic wear over their shirts a narrow-sleeved quftan-like coat. The
sons have elbow-length sleeves, whereas the father's sleeves reach to his
wrists, as in the dress of King Abgar on coins of the reign of Gordian III.
This resembles the garment known in Arabic as the qdbcf, a garment whose
use had become restricted in the ninth century, but was even then still worn
generally by the pagans of Harran.3 All the men of the Family Portrait
mosaic have what appear to be epaulettes on each shoulder, perhaps a sign
of rank but apparently without parallel elsewhere.
The father in this mosaic wears a necklace with a pendant (an unknown
hand has removed the tesserae), while his son Ma'nu, who is probably the
father of the young girl in the background, is adorned by a golden necklace,
although he was evidently the youngest son. But the most distinctive feature
of dress among the men, as among the women, of Edessa was evidently
their head-dress. The central personage to whom a tomb is dedicated is
always distinguished from the rest of the family by his hat. In the Funerary
Couch mosaic he wears an elaborate form of Phrygian cap; the other male
members of his family have their head uncovered. In the Tripod mosaic the
children wear Phrygian caps ;4 the head-dress of the deceased man is missing

1 Most clearly on PI. izb. 'those in charge of the administration'). It was
2 See Pis. 1-3, 166. in use in Egypt at a later period. See the author's
3 According to Ibn al-Nadim the qaba was article, AS iii, 1953, 117.
the dress of the 'companions of the rulers' (or 4 So also in the mosaic from Urfa now at

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