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Print of 1748 Arab Costumes; ArabiaBiblio.com

Eighteenth Century European Views of Arab Dress: "Arabes" after Allain Manesson Mallet 1748

1748réf. 143711748. Mallet Allain Manesson. "Arabes" 1748 presents two male figures identified as Arabs through the conventions of European geographical and costume illustration derived from Mallet's Description de l'Univers. Mallet's original work first published in Paris in 1683 combined maps city views portraits and images of dress with accounts of the customs religions and governments attributed to different nations; its second volume treated Asia. The engraving records the visual vocabulary through which Arab clothing and appearance were presented to European readers within this encyclopedic geographical tradition. Mallet Allain Manesson. "Arabes." 1748. Engraving. Overall page 10" x 7.25"; image 5.5" x 7.5". Beneath a decorative banner lettered "Arabes" two standing men wear contrasting garments against a mountainous landscape. One wears a buttoned tunic overcoat pointed shoes and a large turban; he holds a decorative cane while resting his other hand at his belt. The second wears a decorated collared tunic beneath an overcoat pointed shoes and a tall head covering from which a long length of fabric descends. The paired figures allow differences in headwear garment ornament and accessories to be compared within a single composition. The plate derives from an illustrated geographical work conceived by Mallet a French military engineer and mathematics teacher whose Description de l'Univers organized contemporary geographical knowledge alongside images of the "divers habillemens" of different peoples. The "Arabes" composition therefore records an eighteenth-century European printed conception of Arab dress rather than serving as direct ethnographic documentation of a specific Arab population or locality. Overall very good condition. The combination of costume detail and explicit ethnic captioning documents how Arab peoples were visually categorized for European audiences in early modern geographical publishing. unknown