Agal (accessory)

An agal (Arabic: عِقَال; also spelled iqal, egal, or igal) is a clothing accessory traditionally worn by tribal Arab men. It is a doubled black cord used to keep a keffiyeh in place on the wearer's head.^[1] Agals are traditionally made of goat or camel hair.^[2] Modern agals typically use cord manufactured for this purpose (rulers of Bahrain in particular are known for wearing elaborate agal designs), but plain rope is still occasionally utilized.^[3]

Agal
عِقَال

A Bahraini man wearing a keffiyeh with an agal over it
Type	Arab clothing
Material	Goat hair
Place of origin	Arabian Peninsula

It is traditionally worn by Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq^[4], Jordan, parts of Palestine, the Negev in Israel, Deir ez-Zor and Hauran and Rural Areas like Rif Dimashq and Homs and Aleppo countrysides and Hama in Syria, Sinai and Sharqia in Egypt), and by Ahwazi Arabs.

An Iraqi man of the Shammar tribe wearing the agal.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia wearing the agal.

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^[5] 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.

See also

• Shemagh
• Bisht
• Izar
• Litham
• Sirwal
• Taqiyah
• Thawb
• Keffiyeh