Clothes in Tarikh-E Beyhaghi and its Functions

Introduction
Clothes is one of the elements that it’s recognition, conduce to recognizes the culture, civilization and identity of a nation. Getting familiar with the clothing and the history of the clothing of a nation, gives us a lot of information about the people of that territory. How was the coverage of different social classes? How did people come into the community with what shape and appearance? What role did Clothes play in their lives? What is the role of Clothes in religious beliefs? What is the purpose of Beyhaqi to mention all these details of Clothes? There are some cases that can be answered to parts of them in this research. The main question of this research is that what was the Clothess functions and formalities in Ghaznavids dynasty? The research hypothesis is that, with due attention to the widespread and prolonged of Ghaznavian administration, Clothes, like other courts, have special formalities, and Clothes were used symbolically in many cases, one of which is to use the form of khalaat (خلعت) (A special clothes for gift).
2. Methodology
Tarikh E Beyhaghi or A History book That Aboolfazl.e Beyhaghi has written it, is one of the sources that many studies have been done about it, and its historical and literary aspects have been studied more than other aspects. This book is one of the most useful books on the history of Ghaznavids in Iran. It gives us a lot of information about court`s Clothes. This research has been carried out using the documentary methodology and all the examples and first evidence have been extracted from history of Beyhaqi book. Then was discussed with using other Beyhaghi contemporary texts and other historical texts about Clothes of Ghaznavian dynasty. In general, a large part of the data of this work is from the text of history of Beyhaghi and to analyze them, other valued texts has been used. In this article, the text of history of Beyhaghi which is corrected by Mohammad Jafar Yaghaghi and Mehdi Seyedi, was used.
 
3. Discussion

The Clothes in Ghaznavids period were of great importance as in other periods, so that the cost of clothes was not less than gold and money, and in all the khalaats and gifts that they were given to different people; Clothes played a significant role. Beyhaqi's goal to mention the details of clothes, is sometimes mentioning things that are not related to clothes, but he is looking for another point that some examples are came bellow. At a royal mournful ceremony, the white dress was worn, when Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi died; for his father's mourning ceremony, Emir Massoud announced three days of public mourning and he and his followers participated in the ceremony with a white turban and a ghaba (قبا) or Special clothes that People wear it on the rest of the clothes.
  for mourning, in our country, this tradition is still alive in some places. "And the next day the Emir permitted to ingress in a white ghaba and turban, and all the lords and elders and servants of the army came to serve, whites were worn and plaint was a lot. As a tradition, three days passed by royal condolence, so that everyone would like it "(ibid., 12). In addition to wearing white dress, they also took off their turbans. When al-Qadir Billal, (A powerful Abbasi caliph, who was born in 336 AH and came to the caliph in 381 AH.) died, Massoud Ghaznavi took his turban off from his head and wore a white Clothes (Shabankari, 1363: 79).
During illness, a necklace of camphor was thrown on the sick people neck. When the ship of Sultan Mas'ud was broken in the Hirmand River, the Sultan fell into the water and the slaves saved him, He affected by a high fever, as Beyhaghi quoted, in order to relieve the fever and illness of Sultan Mas'ud, he was confined in a dark room with linen curtains and a necklace of camphor hang on his neck. When one of the servants of the sultan, Aghache, called Abolfazl Bayhaqi in the presence of the Sultan, sees Beyhaghi the Sultan like this. I went and saw they made the house dark and hanged linen curtains…, I found Emir there sitting on the throne, worn thin cool Clothes and necklace full of camphor, I saw doctor Bolala sitting under the bed, "(Beyhaghi: 509). If a person betrayed to the sultan, sultan to punish him and others and put scarf on his head. As Sultan Mohammad Kharazmshah defeated and escaped in the battle against the Mughals in Isfahan through the betrayal of his brother, Ghiath al-Din, after the Mughal exit from Isfahan and of Sultan Muhammad return, he ordered to put on scarf on traitors` head. He took someone who were unfaithful and poor-spirited and put scarf on their head" (ibid., 145). One of the customs of Ghaznavids court, was giving khalaat that amply mentioned in history of Beyhaghi. Although the custom of khalaat and giving khalaat is not the case of the argument of this research, but since the khalaat included most types of Clothes and clothing, some cases about custom of wearing khalaat and its variety are listed below (for custom of wearing khalaat in the history of Beyhaghi.see Sabzalipour, 2004).
Clothes had possessed a great importance during Beyhaghi`s epoch. Beyhaghi has expressed this matter in many cases in some way. To the importance of the Clothes is is enough to know that the Clothes was authority of treasurer (ibid., 136). Having a house of Clothes is another proof of the importance of Clothes in that epoch. The house of Clothes which have placed ready-made and unready-made Clothess there. Every time a person was appointed to a position or should be given a gift, he was taken to a house of Clothes and responsible of that job, it means Jamedar (A man who cares about clothes), gave him the proper khalaat. It is evident from all of this evidence that sultan`s Clothes keeping tribunal was an important tribunal. An a Jamedar job, which was usually for the slave, was a heavy duty. The loss of house of Clothes in the battlefield was very serious, along with this job, there were some other important jobs. The slaves which were more under the sultan`s favor, might achieved that, such as Salahdar (One who protects the king with weapons) and Catrdar (who keeps umbrella for Emir) (Besourth, 102: 2536). Those who deal with the job of preparing garment and clothes, usually, threw out the name of the king on the edge of clothes, cordon and ornaments of clothes and decorated; It seems that this task strengthened the rule of the sultan over the people of his land.  As they were counted gold, money, jewels and coins in the court, they also listed the Clothes (Beyhaghi, 2009: 258). When the property was seized, they also seized clothes. Because it has a lot of value and price (Ibnathur, 1351 C 15: 226).
 
4. Conclusion
As Beyhaghi reported the role of Clothes in the Ghaznavids court is very impressive, and has a lot of symbolic role and function. The deformation and color of the Clothes in the view of the caliph was the abandonment of the law and the sinner was punished. The value and respect that they attached to the Jamedar at that time is a testimony to these words. There was a tribunal in the name of the sultan`s tribunal whose head was not given to anyone. According to Tarikh e Behaghi, the Clothes was part of the treasury of the court, and the loss of the house of Clothes in the wars had a devastating impact on the army and country.
From the above mentioned matters, it is deduced that the function of clothing at any time is influenced by the political, religious and cultural transition of that period; what determines the Clothes's function, is not only society's need, but also the cultural or religious conditions and circumstances of each period are.